Victoria: Protesters forced
the 2010 Vancouver Games torch relay to be diverted from its
planned route, hours after organisers kicked off what is
supposed to be the longest domestic torch relay in Olympic
history.
Several hundred protesters, angry that billions are being
spent on the Olympics instead of housing and health care,
blocked Victoria city streets for hours yesterday, preventing
the torch from passing by Government House and forcing
organisers to reroute.
Relay organisers attempted to drive the torchbearers
around the demonstration. Instead, they were taken several
miles away to Victoria's waterfront.
Then, more than a half-dozen participants lined up
side-by-side along the road, where they passed the flame from
torch to torch without running their segments.
The run resumed with a short relay to the day's final
stop, the provincial legislature.
Relay organisers said in a statement the rerouting was
implemented "to ensure the safety of all participants".
Earlier yesterday, Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson
carried the flame, burning in a miner's lantern, out of the
aircraft that arrived from Greece, where the flame was lit by
the rays of the sun on the site of the ancient games.
Aboriginal native Canadians took the flame from Robertson
and brought it across Victoria's inner harbor in their
traditional canoes. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and
British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell made short speeches.
"All of this country is set to bask in the Olympic glow
as the flame visits communities from coast to coast to coast,"
Harper said. "The run we are kicking off today going to be the
longest torch relay within a single country in Olympic
history."
Triathlon gold medalist Simon Whitfield and speedskating
champion Catriona Le May Doan joined to light the torch and
kick off the relay that will cover nearly 28,000 miles.
Whitfield won gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and silver
at the 2008 Beijing Games. Le May Doan is the only Canadian to
successfully defend an individual Olympic title, having won
gold at Nagano and Salt Lake City.
Over 106 days, the torch will stop in every Canadian
province and territory leading to the lighting of the cauldron
at BC Place. The games will be held from Feb 12-28 in
Vancouver and Whistler.
The torch relay will reach the most extreme corners of
the country, to Alert in Canada's arctic and L'Anse Aux
Meadows, Newfoundland, on Canada's Atlantic coast. It will
pass through more than 1,000 communities and be carried by
12,000 torchbearers on a journey by plane, boat, bike,
dogsled, skateboard and other modes of transportation.
Bureau Report