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On Scene |
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Written by Paul Dixon
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Monday, Feb. 15
Got Canada? Check out downtown Vancouver on Sunday. After Saturday’s rain
was succeeded by an overnight monsoon and windstorm, the sun made a glorious
appearance on Sunday, drawing a crowd that would have made the Pied Piper
envious. We started the day in Chinatown with the annual Chinese New Year’s parade. There was some
doubt that the parade would have to be cancelled due to the Olympics, given
that a number of the Olympic-related sites and GM Place are only a block or two
away. Fortunately there was no hockey scheduled, the parade started two hours
earlier than in other years and all was right. Firecrackers, dragon dancers and
more than 50,000 people packed into a few short blocks. Red is the dominant
colour of any Chinese celebration, signifying good luck, but this year saw even
more red than usual with a proliferation of Canada clothing and chants of “Go Canada
Go”.
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On Scene |
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Written by Paul Dixon
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Sunday, Feb. 14
Got out early yesterday morning, long before
sunrise, to check out the traffic on the Sea To Sky with the first day of
competition in Whistler. It was still raining, all the way up to Whistler, and
coupled with fog and low cloud in Whistler the downhill skiing scheduled for
Saturday and Sunday was cancelled. Yesterday, it meant 150 or so fewer buses on
the highway but it also means a scheduling crunch for event organizers later in
the week, not to mention a headache for the transportation wranglers.
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On Scene |
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Written by Paul Dixon
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Saturday,
Feb. 13
Vancouver came alive on Friday as the
Olympic Torch Relay wound its way through the streets of the city for most of
the day. In a “Canadian, eh” finish to the day, Wayne Gretzky ferried the final
torch in the back of a pickup truck at the conclusion of the opening ceremonies
at BC Place Stadium to the outdoor caldron at the Vancouver Convention Centre. Heavy rain failed to deter fans who ran
through the streets with the cavalcade.
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On Scene |
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Written by Paul Dixon
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Feb. 12, 2010
Police in North
Vancouver had an early start to their Olympics when a “suspicious
package” was discovered at Lonsdale Quay, a major regional transportation hub. You
can read more here.
The
resulting shift in transportation resources meant a heavier traffic backlog
in downtown Vancouver, where several key roads are
closed for the duration of the Olympics, and a traffic jam on both
bridges from Vancouver to the North Shore.
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On Scene |
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Written by Paul Dixon
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Feb. 11, 2010
Are
safety and security the same thing? The security budget for the 2010 Olympics
is rapidly approaching $1 billion. Am I safer for $1 billion than I would have
been for $500 million? Where does the money come from and where does it go? How
much of it is real money and how much of it is simply an accounting exercise?
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On Scene |
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Written by Paul Dixon
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Feb. 10, 2010
What a difference a year makes. Two days away from the opening ceremonies of the
Winter Olympics in Vancouver and it’s
already spring time on the Wet Coast. A year ago
at this time we were digging out from one of the most protracted winters on
record Where I had two feet of snow in my front yard at this time last year I
now have tulips and daffodils sprouting.
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On Scene |
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Written by Paul Dixon
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Feb. 9, 2010
Fire Fighting in Canada's western correspondent Paul Dixon begins his Olympics blog tomorrow - Wednesday, Feb. 10 - in advance of the 2010 Olympics, opening Friday in Vancouver.
Dixon will be our eyes and ears on the ground in and around Vancouver, reporting details of emergency responses and tracking the goings on of the region's first responders.
With hundreds of highway coaches set to rumble up and down the winding Sea to Sky Highway for the duration of the Games and fire departments and BC Ambulance Service personnel on alert, Vancouver is well prepared for its time in the spotlight.
We'll keep you posted on the day-to-day goings on that affect our readers - firefighters, EMS workers and other emergency personnel.
Dixon will file nightly reports from downtown Vancouver, or wherever the action takes him.
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Flashpoint blog |
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Written by Peter Sells
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Jan. 14, 2010
OK, let’s start with a trivia question. Where and
when did the only successful slave rebellion in history take place? No peeking;
the answer will be just a few sentences below. A hint for you: this former
colony of a European former superpower experienced a 13-year revolution
culminating in full independence in 1804. All the while, nation building in the
colonizing country following its own revolution led to neglect of its colonies.
Having lost this island colony as a base of operations in the new world, and
needing cash to fund his war machine, Napoleon (oops, giving it away now)
subsequently sold about one-quarter of the present United States of America to
his buddy Thomas Jefferson. Suddenly the new, small country of former slaves
was alone, with no allies or trading partners and few resources for building a nation.
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