Vancouver organizers want Afghan vets in Olympics torch relay

VANCOUVER, British Col. -- The Canadian government 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.

The federal government is also pushing to have Canada's French and English "linguistic duality" highlighted by the relay, going so far as to propose a list of 83 communities that could be part of the run -- and provide a chunk of the roster of torch bearers, expected to number 12,000.

Both those proposals are put forward in an undated memo from the "official languages" group of the Olympics planning secretariat obtained by Ottawa researcher Ken Rubin under an access-to-information request.

The proposals on the torch relay follow revelations last week in The Globe and Mail that the Canadian government provided $20-million for the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Games to ensure the event "adequately reflects" its priorities and "to achieve its domestic and international branding goals."

The Harper government and the Vancouver organizing committee have each insisted that Ottawa will be only a source of ideas for the opening ceremony, not a decision maker, despite its funding (including a separate $25-million grant for the relay).

"All of the ideas are being gathered right now," said Renie Smith-Valade, vice-president of communications for the Vancouver Olympics group.

The memo also urges the Vancouver Olympics organizers to have two torch bearers -- one French, one English -- for the final leg of the relay, underscoring Canada's "diversity and linguistic duality" and replicating the approach of the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.

In other respects, however, the vision of the torch relay outlined in the memo is in sharp contrast to the approach of the previous two Olympics on Canadian soil: the Summer Games in Montreal and the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary.

In both, the choice of the first torch carrier, considered a particularly symbolic part of the relay, was decidedly non-controversial.

As it did in the Montreal Olympics, the 2010 relay could start in St. John's, but the symbolism of a veteran from the Afghan war would be a more politically tinged symbol, with a substantial part of Canadian public opinion opposing participation in the conflict

Smith-Valade, while saying no decisions have been made, said the Vancouver organizing committee does not see the relay as a platform for political messages. "We have an opportunity to bring the country together."

Frank King, chairman and chief executive officer of the 1988 Games, said the Calgary committee's decisions on who became a torch bearer was based on highlighting Olympic athletes for the start and end; in between, a lottery generally determined who took part. He rejected the premise that Calgary should have based its decision on demographics.

"You're going off in a direction the Olympics don't go," he said. Stressing that he was commenting on only Calgary's experience, Mr. King said his organizing committee simply focused on highlighting Olympic excellence for the opening and closing legs of the relay. "We chose athletes; it didn't matter what language they spoke, what religion they were, what color they were."

By contrast, the Vancouver organizers are designing its relay as a "powerful and inclusive celebration" for the country; there will not be a random lottery. Instead, the group will select each torch bearer based on their articulation of Olympic ideals, and with the goal of representing the 21st-century nation through those thousands of faces.

"Canada has come a long way since 1976," said Smith-Valade. "It's come a long way since 1988."

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)