Protesters forced the 2010 Vancouver Games torch relay to be diverted from its planned route on Friday, hours after organizers kicked off what is to be the longest domestic torch relay in Olympic history.
Several hundred protesters, angry that billions are being spent on the Olympics instead of housing and health care, blocked Victoria city streets for hours, preventing the torch from passing by Government House and forcing organizers to reroute.
Relay organizers attempted to drive the torchbearers around the demonstration. Instead, they were taken several kilometers away to Victoria’s waterfront.
PHOTO: AFP
Then, more than a half-dozen participants lined up side-by-side along the road, where they passed the flame from torch to torch without running their segments.
The run resumed with a short relay to the day’s final stop, the provincial legislature.
Relay organizers said in a statement the rerouting was implemented “to ensure the safety of all participants.”
Earlier on Friday, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson carried the flame, burning in a miner’s lantern, out of the aircraft that arrived from Greece, where the flame was lit by the rays of the sun on the site of the ancient games.
Aboriginal native Canadians took the flame from Robertson and brought it across Victoria’s inner harbor in their traditional canoes. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell made short speeches.
“All of this country is set to bask in the Olympic glow as the flame visits communities from coast to coast to coast,” Harper said. “The run we are kicking off today is going to be the longest torch relay within a single country in Olympic history.”
Triathlon gold medalist Simon Whitfield and speedskating champion Catriona Le May Doan joined to light the torch and kick off the relay that will cover about 45,000 kilometers.
Whitfield won gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and silver at last year’s Beijing Games. Le May Doan is the only Canadian to successfully defend an individual Olympic title, winning gold at Nagano and Salt Lake City.
Over 106 days, the torch will stop in every Canadian province and territory leading to the lighting of the cauldron at BC Place. The games will be held from Feb. 12 to Feb. 28 in Vancouver and Whistler.
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