OTTAWA — The head of the Canadian Olympic Committee says he has received assurances from the chairman of the London Games that the safety of athletes and officials will not be compromised despite fresh security concerns and the need to deploy 3,500 additional troops.
And as the Canadian team prepares to head to London, the federal government says it hasn’t purchased any Games tickets for politicians and that MPs and senators must pay their own way to get to the sporting spectacle.
“Every minister, every MP is responsible for their own tickets. There’s no tickets bought for anybody.”
Canadian Olympic Committee president Marcel Aubut said Thursday in Ottawa — following the naming of Simon Whitfield as Canada’s flag bearer at the opening ceremonies — that he has personally spoken with London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe and is confident all athletes and officials will be well protected when the Games begin in two weeks.
The British government faced new questions Thursday about Olympic Games security after it announced it is deploying an extra 3,500 troops because G4S, a private security firm contracted to provide more than 10,000 security staff, can’t deliver all the necessary guards.
The Olympic Village officially opens Monday and thousands of athletes and officials are expected to begin arriving in London this weekend.
Aubut said he sought and received assurances that the 277 Canadian Olympians and hundreds of coaches and officials are in good hands, despite the last-minute need to call in thousands of extra troops.
“I have checked that. It’s my job to check that and all the preparations for the games. I talked to Sebastian Coe . . . and I’m telling you, from what I heard and what they did, they are doing everything to make us feeling well and comfortable about it,” Aubut told Postmedia News on Parliament Hill.
The COC president said calling in additional troops demonstrates London 2012 officials will do “whatever necessary” to protect athletes.
“I trust them. And I feel well about it for the protection of our athletes. I am totally, totally comfortable,” he said.
The COC has an emergency response plan and has contracted a security operations manager who works closely with RCMP liaison officers assigned to the Canadian Olympic team, according to COC officials. Also, the RCMP will provide the COC with daily “threat assessments.”
The security of athletes, officials and dignitaries from around the globe is certainly in the spotlight as the eyes of the world focus on the London 2012 Games, which begin July 27.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is not planning to attend the Games, and is instead sending Gov. Gen. David Johnston (pictured below) and Bal Gosal, federal minister of state for sport, to represent Canada.
Gosal, who recently spoke with Britain’s sports minister, said the federal government doesn’t have any concerns about the safety of Canadian athletes and officials.
He also noted that federal politicians going to the Games must do so on their own dime.
Sport Canada has not purchased any tickets for the Games, he said, so any ministers, MPs and senators heading to the Olympics must do so on their own time and pay out of their own pocket.
“Every minister, every MP is responsible for their own tickets. There’s no tickets bought for anybody,” he added.
Federal, provincial and municipal governments came under fire in 2010 for using their access to tickets to the Winter Olympics in Vancouver to give priority to politicians and bureaucrats.
The federal government was initially allocated around 2,500 tickets to the Vancouver Games, but eventually returned more than 1,000 of them, which were then sold to the public.
Members of Parliament and senators who obtained some of the 1,500 federal government tickets in Vancouver were forced to pay out of their own pocket.
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