Here - Raj

Breaking News
» B.C. Place renos
under secrecy
Premier Gordon Campbell
heralded the one-year countdown
to Major League Soccer
in Vancouver Thursday. But he
wouldn't offer any hint about
when taxpayers would learn
how the $458 million
retractable roof at B.C. Place
would be financed. 24 hours
sought the revised business
case. A Feb. 11 Freedom of
Information response from
the Tourism, Culture and Arts
ministry denied access to all
records because of cabinet
secrecy. Told that 24 hours
was denied the information,
Campbell said: “Cabinet
documents are not public
documents. That's a tradition.”
- BOB MACKIN
24H VANCOUVER >FRIDAY MAR 26 - SUNDAY MAR 28 2010
VANCOUVER.24HRS.CA
Sochi 2014 boss may hire VANOC staff
BOB MACKIN - Top VANOC
executives will visit Sochi,
Russia, in June to impart
their wisdom to organizers of
the 2014 Winter Olympics
and Paralympics.
Sochi 2014’s chief executive
said some Vancouver
2010 personnel may be hired.
“We’re carefully reviewing
the list of specialists to work
with the contract, consultancy
basis or as staff members,”
Dmitry Chernyshenko
told 24 hours.
Chernyshenko led a delegation
of 300 people who
spent 50 days in Vancouver
and Whistler observing
Games operations and working
with VANOC.
The group included 20
volunteers handpicked from
around Russia, where
volunteerism is uncommon.
Canadian companies
SNC-Lavalin and Bombardier
are building road and rail infrastructure
in the resort that
stretches 147 kilometres along
the Black Sea. The seaside
cluster of ice sports venues
will include a central live site
and sponsor village.
“The spectators will be
able to visit an incredible
number of sport events in one
day,” Chernyshenko said.
“We’re using it to our greatest
advantage. We’re building
everything from scratch.”
Despite critics, Cherny-
shenko said venues will be
ready in 2012 for pre-Games
test events because Sochi’s
climate favours year-round
construction.
Like Vancouver, indigenous
activists are planning to
use the Sochi Games as a platform
to seek justice.
Circassians protested outside
Sochi World during the
2010 Winter Olympics,
claiming some 2014 venues
are being built on the site of a
19th century massacre.
“We, as the organizers,
have nothing to do with political
issues,” Chernyshenko
said. “Sochi has more than
120 different nationalities living
in peace.”
» Olympic pin
show in Burnaby
One of Frank Zavarella’s
favourite Olympic memories
was the hard-bargaining,
seven-year-old girl who
shared the pin-collecting bug.
Dmitry Chernyshenko, CEO of the Sochi 2014 organizing committee,
says development of their Olympic site will be ready by 2012.
“I had to give up three pins to
get one pin,” said Zavarella,
co-president of the Pacific Pin
Club. “She knew exactly what
she wanted off my board.
Every pin tells a story.”
Pacific Pin Club formed in
1987. Zavarella said the 2010
6
CARMINE MARINELLI
Olympics caused membership
to mushroom from 40
people to 140. Pacific hosts a
free admission pin-trading
show Saturday 10 a.m. to 5
p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to 4
p.m. at the Capitol Hill Community
Hall in Burnaby