A tail dragging romp through the swamps of the world
"Whistler RCMP is investigating a possible threat to athletes at Whistler, the police announced Saturday.
A map of the Whistler athletes' village was discovered with notations on the map that gave police cause for concern, said Staff Sergeant Steve LeClair, of the Whistler Pemberton RCMP.
Police searched several areas of the village extensively using specially trained dog-sniffers, he added."
"City officials have said the law is intended to clamp down on so-called ambush marketing, and it includes an exception for celebratory signs, which are defined as those that celebrate the 2010 Winter Games and create or add to the festive atmosphere."
"We have a collective dream: a free, prosperous and secure hemisphere,” he said.
“By working together, we can transform that dream into reality and embrace the great promise and potential of the Americas."
"Now more than ever, we are all connected and need to cooperate to achieve the security, democratic development, and prosperity we all desire."
"The lack of operating procedures causes redundancies that could be avoided with greater coordination in the region to streamline efforts. If the Americas can achieve a successful system for disaster response, Cope argued, this will build confidence in regional cooperation and increase countries’ willingness to collaborate in other areas."Naomi Klein would probably call that "pre-disaster capitalism".
"Sub-themes for this year's gathering include generating military assistance for regionally or nationally hosted events like the 2010 Winter Olympics in Canada and peacekeeping support in places like Haiti. CDMA's final communiqué may address the need to create a multi-nation disaster task force."
"MacKay says the size of the [hemisphere] makes it challenging to co-ordinate efforts. He says the ministers will discuss how to co-operate on providing armed security during natural disasters such as hurricanes or major national events like the 2010 Olympic games in Vancouver."
"[Conference delegate] Carlo Dade, executive director of the Canadian Foundation for the Americas in Ottawa, told America.gov that hemispheric military police relations are a subject of special interest to Canada."
Well at least now we know what was meant by that 2010 Federal Secretariat memo revealed last week : the one in which the Harper government provided $20-million for the opening ceremony of the Winter Games and $25-million grant for the torch relay to "ensure that the event adequately reflects the priorities of the Government and helps to achieve its domestic and international branding goals.""Ottawa is urging the Vancouver Winter Olympics organizing committee to put the Afghanistan war at the heart of the symbolically laden torch relay, saying that the first torch carriers could be veterans of the seven-year-old conflict."
"More than $40-million in savings the federal government will reap from controversial cuts to arts and culture funding will be redirected to the Vancouver Olympic torch relay and two other programs, exacerbating fears that replacement initiatives are not in the cards."
"The Harper government says the 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremony must reflect its agenda as the price of its $20-million commitment to the event, an internal government briefing memo [dated Feb 5 ] says.
"The Minister [Emerson] has recently confirmed with VANOC in writing that the Department of Canadian Heritage intends to invest $20-million toward the opening ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games in order to ensure that the event adequately reflects the priorities of the Government and helps to achieve its domestic and international branding goals," the memo says.
"This is an area that was not touched by the improvements that we're making."
"The area where the slide occurred is not part of the $600-million Sea to Sky Highway Improvement Project, so it has not been worked on recently by construction crews."
"There's no need to worry about a similar incident during the 2010 Winter Olympics. I'm very confident we'll have a situation in place to deal with these things," he said. "We will have contingency plans."
"It's one of the reasons there are two separate athletes' villages -- one in Whistler and one in Vancouver."
"A slide during the Olympics would not ruin the games."
"To mitigate any short-term transportation challenges between Vancouver and Whistler, athletes, officials, and the majority of personnel required to stage an Olympic or Paralympic event in Whistler will be housed in the Whistler area, so events will proceed on schedule."
"The Sea to Sky Highway route in the Porteau Cove area is one of the worst possible places to build a road. In fact, Tuesday's slide near Porteau Cove may have weakened surrounding rock structures to the point of making a future slide in the same area more likely."
"There's going to be a lot of rock-bolting ... and we will have all the contingencies and eventualities in place."Colin Smith :
"I don't think rock-bolting really would have done a whole lot," he said. "Over time there's not a whole lot you can do, especially when you exploit the weakness by undercutting the structure with the road."
"The slide was "nowhere near" roadwork on the highway."
NattyPost : "Canadian security agencies are planning to use planes, tanks, ships and thousands of military and police personnel to secure the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games and will consider their job a success if the public hardly notices their presence.
