Just Pawns in the Game, Letter to Editor

Just pawns in the Games [letter]

Vancouver SunFebruary 11, 2010
A14

With some misgivings, I supported Vancouver's Olympic bid in 2003,
partly because my son plays basketball for Team Canada and has his
own Olympic aspirations but mostly because the socially conscious
politicians Mike Harcourt and Jim Green were enthusiastic. My
misgivings have haunted me ever since. Early on, the security budget
ballooned 500 per cent. Then we missed an opportunity to bring
modern rail access to Whistler, opting instead to spend $600 million
on highway access. Recently we learned that the provincial
government has spent a million of our dollars on tickets for its
select friends. Meanwhile, the homeless are in shelters until after
the visitors depart.

On the eve of the big event, the ever-arrogant IOC orders the
Australian delegation to remove its boxing-kangaroo flag because
it's commercial. This same IOC has plastered the city with
billboards advertising Coca-Cola and McDonald's, world leaders in
obesity and diabetes, because they're sponsors.

Our skies hum with helicopters, our waters are strung with anti-sub
nets, streets have closed-circuit TV, transit prices are up and bike
routes are closed. We have our very own billion-dollar war on
terror.

The Olympics are about power, money, politics and their bedfellows,
greed and hypocrisy. I will be cheering for our athletes and wish
them every success. Sadly, they are just pawns in these Games.

Simon Kendall

Vancouver