July 18, the Globe and Mail headlined, “The Olympics are a great party. But they’re not worth billions in public money.” The editorial added, “Hosting a huge party takes a lot of work and money, but i’s definitely fun. Those hours with friends and family are great. But the joy
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Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Jillian Horton discusses the lack of any meaningful effort to make education safe at the point when provincial governments should be planning for the start of the school year., while Lynn Giesbrecht reports that the Moe government in particular is taking zero responsibility
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Kicking Women Out – The New Inclusion in the Olympics – Kuinini Manumua
“Inclusion” is the new best and brightest way to hide your fundamental hatred of women. Gender ideology is a toxic mess of male supremacy and misogyny wrapped up in friendly pink and blue colours. The erasure of females from society has always been the endgame and the Olympic Weightlifting debacle
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Robert Reich offers some lessons we need to draw from the coronavirus pandemic – including the recognition that while billionaires won’t save us from collective action problems, effective government can. – Renju Jose reports on Melbourne’s instant reaction to community spread of
Continue readingWe Pivot: White- and Male-Dominated History Perpetuates White, Male Supremacy
If, like me, you don’t recognize these women as household names, you are likely a victim of history education that focuses on males and white people. And while you are likely not a racist misogynist, we all have to do … [Read more]
Continue readingAkaash Maharaj - Practical Idealism: Montreal Gazette: WADA and the IOC Will be One Another’s Salvation or Undoing
In my article in the Gazette, I caution the International Olympic Committee against undermining the World Anti-Doping Agency. Not everyone who stands up to you is your enemy, just as not everyone who flatters you is your friend.
Continue readingAkaash Maharaj - Practical Idealism: Montreal Gazette: WADA and the IOC Will be One Another’s Salvation or Undoing
In my article in the Gazette, I caution the International Olympic Committee against undermining the World Anti-Doping Agency. Not everyone who stands up to you is your enemy, just as not everyone who flatters you is your friend.
Continue readingAkaash Maharaj - Practical Idealism: WADA and the IOC Will be One Another’s Salvation or Undoing
Too many of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s ostensible sport partners appear to feel that the agency has betrayed them, by unmasking the ugly truths that lie behind the Olympic’s impeccable fictions.
Continue readingAkaash Maharaj - Practical Idealism: The World Anti-Doping Agency Think Tank
I joined the WADA Think Tank in Lausanne, as the agency grapples with state-sponsored doping. We are all careering towards a confrontation between the high ideals of sport and the low ruthlessness of some of the most powerful figures in global affairs. Which will prevail remains an open question.
Continue readingA Different Point of View....: Olympic groups wasting $-millions while athletes struggled to get to Rio
Dozens of athletes from Canada and thousands from developing countries have had a difficult time raising the money needed to train and take part in the Olympics Games in Brazil. In Canada, more than two dozen world-class athletes were so hard up for support that they resorted to launching crowdfunding
Continue readingA Different Point of View....: Olympic groups wasting $-millions while athletes struggled to get to Rio
Dozens of athletes from Canada and thousands from developing countries have had a difficult time raising the money needed to train and take part in the Olympics Games in Brazil.In Canada, more than two dozen world-class athletes were so hard up for sup…
Continue readingA Different Point of View....: Olympic groups wasting $-millions while athletes struggled to get to Rio
Dozens of athletes from Canada and thousands from developing countries have had a difficult time raising the money needed to train and take part in the Olympics Games in Brazil.
In Canada, more than two dozen world-class athletes were so hard up for support that they resorted to launching crowdfunding campaigns to supplement the money they receive from government and perhaps corporate sponsors.
On the tiny Pacific Island country of Nauru, judo participant Judoka Uera had to hold barbecues and knock on doors to get the funds he needed Getting to Rio fulfilled Uera’s lifelong dream.
However, hundreds of other athletes who had the same dream and could have qualified for Rio were unable to attend because of a lack of support.
Given the financial difficulties faced by athletes, you would think the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) would provide every dime possible to sports bodies to provide funding.
Not so.
In fact, both the COC and the IOC are guilty of greedily spending millions of dollars on themselves while struggling athletes scrambled for a few bucks to get to Rio.
COC spends $10-million-plus on office
The Canadian Olympics Committee’s main task is supposed to be fostering Canadian participation in the Olympics. So it’s a bit of a shock that it is spending $10-million on a new office – Olympic House – in Montreal. Included in the grandiose facility is a $2.9-million board room, called the “Lausanne Room” – a tribute to the international masters which have their headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.
An artist’s rendering of the stylized LED-light Olympic flame that will ‘burn’ outside the Canadian Olympic Committee offices at Olympic House in Montreal. |
In addition, hundreds-of-thousands of dollars are being spent on a spectacular outside lighting system for the office. To top it off, the Committee spent more than $1-million on a launch party for its new headquarters.
According to an audit, the project is facing a cost overrun, likely more than $1-million. The COC has not so far been able to collect $1.5-million it has counted on to help pay for Olympic House.
In fairness, the $10-million to be raised was specifically for the one-time project. But a more modest but adequate facility could have been built for much less.
The COC could have focused more on getting funds to athletes.
In the COC’s most recent but sketchy financial report filed with the Canada Revenue Agency for 2014, figures show that it passed on $5.218-million to the various sports bodies – less than one-half the amount spent on the office.
Incidentally, the COC refused to say how many of its 19 Board members and staff are attending the Games in Rio.
The COC is also having difficulty recovering from a horrendous sexual harassment situation.
Recently resigned President Marcel Aubut made unwanted sexual advances toward many staff members over a period of five years. Senior staff members who knew about the situation were fired.
Problems linger and it’s too soon to tell whether the COC will be able to adequately do its job of supporting athletes and the Olympics.
IOC looks after its own
Meanwhile, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) clearly spends much more money on itself than is reasonable. Its priority is supposed to be distributing as much of its estimated $1.375-billion US to sports groups around the world.
The IOC is a volunteer organization but, as The Washington Post reported in July, it has created ways of greasing the palms of its executives and members.
IOC President Thomas Bach, a former German fencer, is called a “volunteer.” However, he receives an annual “allowance” of US$251,000 plus other perks. The IOC pays for his suite at a luxurious hotel in Lausanne that is listed at more than US$1,000 per night.
When on IOC business, members are allowed to fly first class, stay in luxury hotels, and get large per diems: US$450 per day for regular IOC members, and US$900 per day for IOC executive members.
Former Canadian Olympic Committee President Marcel Aubut, who as forced to resign because of sexual harassment complaints, is about to embrace Canadian Paralympic Committee CEO Karen O’Neill. |
Representing Canada on the IOC, and therefore entitled to the expenses, are Richard Pound, former president of the World Anti-Doping Agency; former hockey player Hayley Wickenheiser; and new COC President Tricia Smith.
Hundreds of so-called IOC volunteers at the Olympics are handsomely rewarded.
Bob Balk, a former U.S. Paralympic canoe athlete volunteered at the 2012 Games in London. Every morning a crowd of IOC members and volunteers gathered in a hotel room to get their daily stipend, he told The Washington Post.
“They had a US$100-bill-counting machine, and people were standing in line to get their stacks of hundred-dollar-bills,” Balk said. “It was crazy.”
IOC answers to no one
The IOC is able to get away with such extravagances because it answers to no one except itself.
Every year the IOC claims that 90 per cent of its income is sent to sports organizations around the world. But because it is a non-profit based in tax-haven Switzerland, it is not required to disclose how it spends its money.
A lot of money goes to non-profit sports organizations in many countries where they too are not required to account for their spending.
Just like the IOC, international sports bodies concerning track and field, swimming and gymnastics are located in Switzerland or Monaco, another tax haven.
Obviously, a culture of absurd entitlement exists throughout much of the Olympic movement, and the question arises: How many millions of dollars are not being used in the right way to support the Olympics?
Because so much financial information is hidden, it is difficult to tell how much money might be poorly allocated in Canada, and whether there is corruption and theft on an international level.
Clearly, as both organizations need to maintain the confidence of donors and the public, they should voluntarily undergo independent audits.
When such scandals erupt, the athletes know that, even though they are the stars adored by millions, they are at the bottom of the heap when it comes to money.
At the top are the big international advertisers who fund the Olympics because they want access to those millions of eyeballs. Next come the wheeling and dealing middle men Olympic officials who get their piece of the pie. Last are the athletes.
The athletes would be wise to organize and demand full disclosure from all Olympic bodies.
Dead Wild Roses: Today in Patriarchy – Women, Unpeople Owned by Men
Patriarchy is alive and well in 2016. Let’s head over to the Olympics – Exhibit 1: Ooookay. Maybe this is just a fluke this isn’t a implicit patriarchal norm – we just need to find all the stories that mention a man’s status as “husband” first then his achievement… (good luck with that). Surely […]
Continue readingRegan Wolfrom: Life as a Smug Canadian: Winter Olympics Edition
So it’s really hard to resist feeling good about being Canadian. Especially when as of this post, Canadians are second in gold medals at Sochi. But you know what makes me even happier? Knowing that these great results are due to the success of Canadian women, who happen to also
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Another Olympics, Another Scandal
So Canada is the alleged victim in another Olympic figure skating scandal, this time in ice dance. There are the usual calls for ending all judged sports at the Olympics, as if questions about fairness arise only in judged sports. (I guess these people haven’t heard about questionable calls by
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Olympic Update
CBC coverage of the Olympics has been fantastic. I don’t have TV reception in my home so have been watching events via olympics.cbc.ca. CBC shows live events, webcasts of the entire event (including qualifying), highlights of individual performances, and editorials. Commentators are former competitors and do an excellent job. I
Continue readingLeft Over: Canadian Athletes: Smart Like Tractor, eh, Putin?
Vladimir Putin and the Horror at Canada House http://montrealsimon.blogspot.ca/ Why are you even surprised, Simon? The fact that they are involved in the ‘owe-limp-icks’ tells you everything you need to know..they probably shop at MalWarts, and accept endorsement money from any PR hack from any company (can you say ‘Nike?)
Continue reading350 or bust: Saturday At The Movies
Here’s a tribute to the Sochi Olympics from The Canadian Institute of Diversity and Inclusion: * Not to be outdone, the Norwegians have come out with a response to the anti-gay laws passed in Russia prior to the Olympics: I may be biased, but I prefer the Canadian one.
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Canada’s Job Market: Slower, Lower, Weaker
The following commentary on yesterday’s job numbers is quoted in today’s National Post (page FP4): The Olympic motto may be “Faster, Higher, Stronger,” but Canada’s employment growth is slower, lower and weaker going into the winter games. Of the 29,000 Canadians who supposedly gained employment in January, 28,000 reported being
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Alberta cities, province fly the Rainbow Flag for Sochi Olympics
TweetDefying the stereotypes of Alberta as a conservative backwater, Rainbow Pride Flag are flying outside of city halls in Edmonton, Calgary and St. Albert and the Alberta Legislature today in solidarity with the LGBTQ community in Russia. The a small but powerful gesture is a sign of support for a community
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