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Wednesday, February 10, 2010 9:03 AM EST
Used as props on occasion, athletes redefine Canada
Jane Taber
1. Political gain from sporting pain. Olympic gold medalist David Pelletier says politicians use athletes as “props.” The government doesn’t fund athletes properly, he says, using them for photo ops and then forgetting them once the event is over.
And he remembers how he felt as he stood on the floor of the House of Commons in 2002 as MPs applauded, cheered and honoured him and his partner, Jamie Salé (now his wife), and other Olympians for their efforts in Salt Lake. He felt proud about winning the gold medal in pairs figure skating, he recalled last night, but not about those who were cheering him on.
At a reception for the press at the chic Opus Hotel Vancouver in the city’s funky Yaletown, Mr. Pelletier said he went to the House of Commons because “it was the right thing to do.” But it angers him that politicians do not take athletes seriously in terms of funding and support.
Mr. Pelletier is in Vancouver for the next few weeks providing figure skating commentary for CTV.
No one can forget the controversy over the gold medal he won with Ms. Sale. The couple was initially awarded the silver but after it was revealed that a judge had cheated on their scores, they were given the gold, which they shared with the Russian couple.
Yesterday, Sports Minister Gary Lunn announced the government would continue funding athletes participating in winter sports to the tune of $11-million a year. This is half of what they had been receiving for the past five years under the Own the Podium program as the Vancouver Olympic committee had contributed a matching $11-million.
Once the Games end, however, so will VANOC’s contribution.
While Mr. Pelletier is supportive of secure funding, he is suspicious as to how long it really will continue when the Olympics are over.
The program, he believes, was only begun because Canada was awarded the 2010 Games. He said that had the Olympics gone to another country, such as Korea, the funding program would never have been established.
Games aside, Mr. Pelletier is a strong advocate of sports funding as he believes sports and sports promotion go hand-in-hand with a healthy, fit population.
2. From wimps to winners. To hear Olympic organizers tell it, Canada was a nation of wimps, preferring to have snow rubbed in our faces rather than gold medals placed around our necks.
That's no more, according to John Furlong, CEO of the Vancouver Olympic Committee. There's been an attitudinal shift because we've put some money behind our athletes and coaches as Canada plays host to the world with these Games.
At least that's his read on it and that's one of the things he told reporters yesterday during a press conference leading up to Friday's opening ceremonies.
“We have never been comfortable at getting up on the podium and calling ourselves better than anyone else,” Mr. Furlong said. “I think we would like to be but we don't really like saying it.
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Tuesday, February 9, 2010 7:07 PM EST
Tories target Liberal 'disdain for the Canadian Forces'
Jane Taber
The accusations were flying out of the Prime Minister’s Office today, again charging that the Liberals believe Canadian troops are guilty of committing war crimes.
The Tories used this tactic during questioning in the House of Commons over the Afghan detainee issue. They have also employed the tactic of guilt-by-association, doing so again today by focusing on remarks made by two men who know Michael Ignatieff.
According to the PMO Alerte-Info-Alert, an email sent to Tory MPs and supporters, the Liberal candidate in the Ontario riding of Dufferin–Caledon, Bill Prout, said: “Canadians have been involved with torture to get information from prisoners. (Caldeon Enterprise, February 9, 2010.)”
“This is another outrageous comment from the Liberal Party about our men and women serving in Afghanistan,” the PMO missive says. “Why is it that Liberals keep questioning the actions of the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan? Is it because they are so desperate to score cheap political points they’ll make any sort of accusation? After all, they did attempt to raise money for their party on the issue of Taliban prisoners.”
Earlier in the day, the PMO took issue with the appearance of former Harvard professor Amir Attaran on a Liberal panel on Canadians abroad.
“Sadly, Ignatieff and the Liberals have once again demonstrated their disdain for the Canadian Forces by including in their meeting a witness who has accused Canadian troops of war crimes,” that PMO statement says.
“Amir Attaran, a former Harvard professor and close personal associate of Michael Ignatieff when they were at Harvard has said: ‘Canadians are complicit in torture, and therefore, it is beyond any doubt that Canadians have committed war crimes. The only question is who, and when, and what the details are.’(Global National, November 23, 2009)”
The Tories say Mr. Ignatieff is showing his “true feelings about the men and women of the Canadian Forces by giving a platform to someone who has made outrageous accusations against them.”
Tuesday, February 9, 2010 5:58 PM EST
As Olympic clock ticks down, opposition feud heats up
Jane Taber
The games have begun even before the Games have begun.
Indeed, the debate over whether MPs are going to the Games is raging. Just look at what the Liberals and NDP are up to today.
The NDP issued a release yesterday saying that Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff should win gold for flip-flopping on his pledge to keep working in Ottawa although Stephen Harper shut down Parliament. “Tough-talking Liberals fleeing Hill for Olympic junkets,” is the headline on the NDP statement.
It alleges that Mr. Ignatieff and his MPs, who have made so much of the fact that they are on the Hill, are now moving en masse to Vancouver to swan around the Olympic Games. “Wasn’t it only four weeks ago, as the public outcry against Harper’s prorogation was picking up that Michael Ignatieff sternly boasted to the press that every Liberal MP would be channeling Canadians’ outrage into hard work – right through the Olympics?”
Well, the NDP release is not all that it seems. The Liberals countered today, accusing the NDP of not faithfully transcribing Mr. Ignatieff’s statements, conveniently leaving out one word that dramatically changes the leader’s meaning.
“Reality Check-Check: NDP Olympic fabrications,” reads the Liberal release. It noted the New Democrats purposely omitted the word “until.” Mr. Ignatieff had said Liberals would be “working right through until the Olympics.”
Tuesday, February 9, 2010 3:45 PM EST
Why is Schwarzenegger a torchbearer?
Jane Taber
VANCOUVER – There are some raised eyebrows about Arnold Schwarzenegger running with the Olympic torch.
Vancouver organizing committee officials were asked today at their news conference, why Arnie? Why in these Canadian games is the California Governor carrying the torch through Vancouver’s Stanley Park on Friday? It’s a premium spot on the relay and a premiere run for the former Hollywood actor and bodybuilder.
John Furlong, VANOC’s chief executive officer, says there is nothing unusual about the Governor’s run.
Rather, he said “we are speaking to the world” and the Governor has a “great connection” with British Columbia. “I think he will help us to focus attention on some of the things we are doing,” Mr. Furlong said.
It’s normal to have international stars, he added. For example, former British and Olympic champion runner Sebastian Coe is also participating in the relay, as have German figure skater Katarina Witt and Bollywood star Akshay Kumar.
But does it send a good message about doping and drug use in sport having the former body builder carrying the torch?
Mr. Furlong said the Governor’s run is to honour his commitment to the environment. He is also a friend of B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell.
“Part of why we wanted him here is that he has made an extraordinary stand for the environment,” Mr. Furlong said. “He’s quite a powerful spokesperson on this. He is well-know here. ... He’s a great athlete. And I think it’s more for that [he was invited].”
(File photo: Associated Press)
Tuesday, February 9, 2010 12:30 PM EST
Harper and Ignatieff take gold in Olympic flip-flop
Jane Taber
VANCOUVER – Stephen Harper told his caucus last spring that the House of Commons would sit through the Olympic Winter Games and that no caucus member was to take a free ticket or free hotel room.
He was discouraging them, in fact, from going. It wouldn’t look good, he argued at the time, for Tory MPs to be watching ski events or curling and not working in Ottawa.
Well, he stuck with part of his message. But he ended up shutting down Parliament, offering up a number of excuses and taking a hit in the polls as a result.
As it turns out the House will not come back until just after the Olympics. And the Prime Minister is attending Friday’s opening ceremonies and other events – we suspect he’ll take in a hockey game.
But his warning in early June, 2009, seems to have sent a chill through other parties. A Liberal MP says leader Michael Ignatieff discouraged his MPs from attending the Games, mentioning it at a caucus meeting last December even though MPs would be paying their own way.
Although his rationale was not crystal clear, it seems he was worried about the perception that MPs would be getting easier access to tickets as the federal government had put some aside.
“I think we missed an opportunity to support our athletes with our own money like every other Canadian,” a Liberal MP says. “A quarter of a million are coming to Vancouver and we will at best have fewer than 10 Liberal MPs there.”
Says another Liberal MP: “This political correctness thing is really getting out of hand. Since when should an MP not show Canadian pride?”
Indeed. It turns out, however, that Mr. Ignatieff is attending the Games. He is going to the opening ceremony on Friday and to several events – reversal that has drawn the ire of New Democrats.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010 8:34 AM EST
Canada hopes to own the podium in perpetuity
Jane Taber
With this post, Jane Taber takes the Ottawa Notebook to Vancouver for the duration of the Winter Games.
1. Extending our medal run. Bold predictions have Canada winning a record number of medals, including gold, at the Vancouver Olympics in part because of a five-year-old program called Own the Podium. This morning, Sports Minister Gary Lunn is to announce the Harper government will continue funding the program – $11-million annually – for extra coaching, equipment development and other special training for elite athletes.
Mr. Lunn has scheduled a press conference in Vancouver; he will be joined by Chris Rudge, the chief executive of the Canadian Olympic Committee, Vancouver Games organizing committee executive vice-president Cathy Preistner Allinger and Roger Jackson, the CEO of the high-performance sport program, Own The Podium.
The program was to end in March as VANOC, which will cease to exist once the Olympics are over. It had also contributed $11-million, making the contribution to high performance athletes $22-million a year. In the last year, however, Mr. Lunn told The Globe and Mail the federal government contributed the VANOC portion as it was feeling financial pressure.
So over five years, the federal government has given $66-million.
Mr. Lunn told The Globe he doesn’t think he can realistically squeeze any more from Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has made it clear the emphasis after economic stimulus spending winds down after the March budget is to reduce the deficit. But the Sports Minister said he has found secure funding of at least $11-million a year toward the program.
Mr. Lunn, a Victoria Tory MP, began his cabinet career as Mr. Harper’s Natural Resources Minister but the Chalk River medical isotopes crisis led in part to what was considered a demotion at the time to a junior minister.
But he has thrived in his new position, talking up the Olympics, supporting Canadian athletes and sports.
He misses the policy work at Natural Resources, he said the athletes he has met in his new role inspire him. And while he has his favourite sports and athletes, he won’t make a prediction as to how many medals Canada will win (some experts say between 28 and 34 medals could be ours). He will, however, climb out on this limb: “I can promise you gold at home for the first time ever.”
Monday, February 8, 2010 2:53 PM EST
Murder charges put DND in 'state of shock'
Steven Chase
News that a senior Canadian military official is facing two charges of first degree murder has badly shaken staff at Department of National Defence headquarters in Ottawa.
“They’re in a state of shock – they’re stunned,” a Defence official told The Globe Monday.
“In the building, if you were to walk around – that’s all anybody is talking about. They’re all shaking their heads going ‘Huh?’”
Colonel Russell Williams, the base commander at CFB Trenton, is viewed as a “straight up, hard working air force guy,” the DND official said.
In addition to the murder charges in two Ontario slayings, the base commander also faces two counts of forcible confinement and two counts of break and enter and sexual assault.
Few in Canada’s military knew of the investigation into Col. Williams and so the charges landed with a shock.
“There’s no hint, there’s no indication – it was out of the blue,” the official said.
“Some people knew who were directly linked to the investigation but the rest of the world didn’t.”
As the commander of CFB Trenton, a hub for Forces air transport operations, Col. Williams was intensely involved in the Haiti earthquake response.
The Chief of the Air Staff, Lieutenant-General Andre Deschamps, announced this afternoon that Col. Williams was being at least temporarily relieved of his duties as 8 Wing Commander at CFB Trenton.
Monday, February 8, 2010 12:44 PM EST
Bev Oda wants one last 'big push' for Haiti
John Ibbitson
Belay all previous whinging. Canadians are a magnificently generous people.
International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda announced this morning that Canadians have donated $113-million for the relief of Haiti’s earthquake victims. The federal government will match that sum, and anything else that is raised between now and Friday.
Ms. Oda urged Canadians to "make that one final effort, one big push” this week before federal matching funds are discontinued.
The response of the Canadian people, and the Canadian government, to the disaster is unprecedented. While individual Canadians dug deep, Ottawa sent nearly 2,000 troops into the country to provide medical and logistical support, and security to aid agencies delivering relief.
And the government has already committed more than $135-million for everything from tents to hygiene kits to mosquito nets to buckets.
Even this generosity may not be enough. Downtown Port-au-Prince was obliterated by the quake, killing 200,000 people. (Some estimates put the number as high as 300.000.) Hundreds of thousands of survivors are living out of doors, their homes obliterated or unsafe.
Much of what was already one of the world’s poorest and worst-run cities will have to rebuilt from scratch. Other communities that were leveled or damaged by the quake. Canadians have made the city of Jacmel a special area for concentrating aid.
The greatest danger facing the Haitian people now is the Olympics, which will shift international focus from the country’s misery to winter sports. Human nature being what it is, people would rather cheer than mourn.
But whatever comes, Canadians should take pride in knowing that, person for person, we are among the most generous people on Earth. And that’s just a fact.
(Editorial cartoon by Anthony Jenkins/The Globe and Mail)
Monday, February 8, 2010 9:59 AM EST
Obama sends B-team to Vancouver Games
John Ibbitson
The Los Angeles Times reports that President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle will not be attending the Vancouver Olympics — out of spite, the newspaper claims.
The President travelled to Copenhagen last autumn to pitch Mr. Obama’s adopted home town of Chicago as the site for the 2016 Summer Olympics. But the Windy City lost on the first round, a snub to both Chicago and the President.
In response, the Times says, Mr. Obama appears to have no plans to visit Vancouver to watch the Winter Games. Instead, Vice-President Joe Biden will show up for the opening ceremonies on Friday, while Homeland Security Janet Napolitano will be there for the closing celebrations, perhaps as an excuse for taking a first-hand look at the Washington-B.C. crossing.
“The Obamas will miss out on seeing arguably North America's most beautiful city,” the Times laments. “And their absence will be taken quietly as another snub by the United States' closest, friendliest, most important neighbor — or neighbour, if you're reading this north of the border. “
How will new-minted ambassador David Jacobson explain this latest humiliation away?
Monday, February 8, 2010 9:55 AM EST
What will launch Canada's tea-party movement?
John Ibbitson
Will we say it all began with Danny Millions? No we won’t. Because we don’t do tea parties.
The new week arrived bearing the legacy of several seemingly unrelated events. First, Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams is reportedly recovering from whatever cardiac surgery was performed on him in the United States. Second, the populist tea-party movement ended a successful convention, Sunday, highlighted by former Alaska governor and vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s rousing speech in which she derided President Barack Obama’s own grassroots appeal.
“A year later, how is all that hopey-changey stuff working out for you?” she asked the crowd in Nashville, Tennessee, rhetorically. For those gathered, as for millions of Americans, the answer is clearly: Not so much.
Canada and the United States are remarkably similar countries — so similar, that no one else on earth can tell the two of us apart, unless this Austrian or that Sri Lankan has an ear so well attuned to English that she can distinguish Newfoundland from Missouri accents.
Yet politically, we are solitudes. Americans are perpetually in full-throated reaction to the status quo. Their grassroots abhorrence of the war in Iraq, the mismanagement of Katrina and the other follies of the Bush administration helped get Barack Obama elected President of the United States.
Now it would seem that an equally large, though very different, assembly of Americans is rallying in reaction to Mr. Obama’s statist interventions in the economy, his hopes to reform health care, his government’s projected deficits.
This is no confection whipped up by Fox News. Massachusetts elected a Republican senator last month in reaction to the excesses of Obamanation.
Yet here at home, all is quiet.
Only the talking heads seem exercised by Danny Williams’s decision to seek treatment for a heart condition in the United States. This seems strange. The Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador has enough money to bypass the queues that are endemic to Canadian health care, not to mention the forced intermingling of non-private hospital rooms. So he does, while the rest of us with bad hearts wait our turn.
Ottawa Notebook Contributors
Jane Taber
Jane Taber has been on Parliament Hill since the Mulroney days, first writing for the Ottawa Citizen in 1986. Since then, she's reported for a small television network, WTN, and for the National Post before joining The Globe’s parliamentary bureau in 2002. She is the senior political writer and also co-host of Question Period, which airs Sundays on CTV.
John Ibbitson
John Ibbitson started at The Globe in 1999 and has been Queen's Park columnist and Ottawa political affairs correspondent. Most recently, he was a correspondent and columnist in Washington, where he wrote Open and Shut: Why America has Barack Obama and Canada has Stephen Harper. He returned to Ottawa as bureau chief in 2009. Before joining The Globe, he worked as a reporter, columnist and Queen’s Park correspondent for Southam papers.
Steven Chase
Steven Chase has covered federal politics in Ottawa for The Globe since mid-2001. He's previously worked in the paper's Vancouver and Calgary bureaus. Prior to that, he reported on Alberta politics for the Calgary Herald and the Calgary Sun, and on national issues for Alberta Report. He's had ink-stained hands for far longer though, having worked as a paperboy for the (now defunct) Montreal Star, the Winnipeg Free Press, the Vancouver Sun and the North Shore News.
Campbell Clark
Campbell Clark has been a political writer in The Globe and Mail’s Ottawa bureau since 2000. Before that he worked for The Montreal Gazette and the National Post. He writes about Canadian politics and foreign policy. He stopped being fascinated by ShamWow commercials after that guy’s nasty incident in Florida, but still wonders if one can really pull a truck with that Mighty Putty stuff.
Bill Curry
A member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery since 1999, Bill Curry worked for The Hill Times and the National Post prior to joining The Globe in Feb. 2005. Originally from North Bay, Ont., Bill reports on a wide range of topics on Parliament Hill. He is very protective of the office’s brand new copy of O’Brien & Bosc, the latest Parliamentary rule book.
Gloria Galloway
Gloria Galloway has been a journalist for almost 30 years. She worked at the Windsor Star, the Hamilton Spectator, the National Post, the Canadian Press and a number of small newspapers before being hired by The Globe and Mail as deputy national editor in 2001. Gloria returned to reporting two years later and joined the Ottawa bureau in 2004. She has covered every federal election since 1997 and has done several stints in Afghanistan.
Daniel Leblanc
Daniel Leblanc studied political science at the University of Ottawa and journalism at Carleton University. He became a full-time reporter in 1998, first at the Ottawa Citizen and then in the Ottawa bureau of The Globe and Mail. While he likes the occasional brown envelope, he is also open to anonymous emails.
Stephen Wicary
Stephen Wicary has been with The Globe since 2001, working on the news desk as a copy editor, page designer, production editor and front page editor. During the U.S invasion of Iraq, he pulled a three-month stint as overnight editor of the website. He moved to the parliamentary bureau at the end of 2008 to bolster online political coverage.