[mobglob-discuss] No side tries to torpedo 2010 bid in 11th hour

[Bella]

http://www.canada.com/search/story.aspx?id=b9c6fa4b-5b79-4b5b-bea7-f1c21890313c

No side tries to torpedo 2010 bid in 11th hour
  
Damian Inwood   
The Province  

Wednesday, June 25, 2003

  
Vancouver's anti-Games group has delivered a blindside bodycheck to the
city's Olympic dream.

John Furlong, president of the Vancouver 2010 Bid Corp., yesterday called
a letter sent by Chris Shaw of the No Games 2010 Coalition to the
International Olympic Committee "highly inappropriate" and "in very poor
taste."

The letter claims that, "outside of Vancouver the vast majority of British
Columbians reject the 2010 Games if the public is forced to pay for them."

Furlong said the letter, just seven days before the IOC vote in Prague, is
an 11th-hour attempt to sabotage the bid.

Shaw wrote: "The Games will come at the expense of health care and
education and will damage the increasingly fragile social safety net that
British Columbians and Canadians cherish. In our view, a view increasingly
shared by many of our fellow British Columbians, the transfer of vast sums
of public money for private gain, as in almost every Olympic Games, is a
financial scam of incredible proportions."

Shaw defended the letter, which he said went to all 126 voting members of
the IOC: "We are down to the last week and we will put out every effort,
as will the bid corp."

Shaw says the IOC is averse to scandal in the wake of the 2002 Salt Lake
City bribery case.

His letter threatened to expose "each and every conflict of interest
involving members of the Vancouver/Whistler bid corp. as they emerge in
the coming years." 

'SURPRISE' FOR IOC

Vancouver's 45-minute presentation to the IOC in Prague next Wednesday
will include "the gift of surprise," says Vancouver bid boss John Furlong.


"There are going to be a few things that are going to put a smile on your
face," Furlong said yesterday at his final media briefing before leaving
for Prague tomorrow.

dinwood at png.canwest.com

© Copyright 2003 The Province

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"Here's a message for the masses, never ass kiss" Ozo Matli

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