March 12, 2010 - 7:35 am |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
It seems that yesterdays’ post on Paralympic snubs, which was sent out to a whole slew of local and national media outlets, has had an impact.
Notice the following pieces here, here and here, which seemed to have used CivicScene’s analysis of CTV’s alternative scheduling as the basis for their story.
Now comes word from a friend who caught CTV’s News at 11:30pm last night that there will now indeed by live coverage from the Paralympic Opening Ceremony, although a call to CTV National News in Toronto at 5:30am PST was met with a producer that said he had no idea nor any knowledge regarding sports coverage (odd in consideration of their official Olympic broadcaster status), nor have I been able to track down anything online to confirm this claim.
If anyone has any information, please shoot it over to civicscene at gmail dot com.
On a side note, Allen Garr from the Vancouver Courier also seems to agree with CivicScene’s take on the culpability of Sam Sullivan in the Olympic Village “scandal” over the inaccessibility of the balconies:
“Federal Paralympics ambassador and former mayor Sam Sullivan told the Courier it is a “scandal” that balconies in the Athletes Village are not wheelchair accessible. The real scandal is that Sullivan can get away with this. The decisions leading to the current balcony design, including a discussion over accessibility and a unanimously supported motion on the issue brought forward by council’s Disability Committee liaison Heather Deal all took place under Sullivan’s watch as mayor.”
March 11, 2010 - 1:50 pm |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
The Paralympic Games have thus far been treated with disrespect by everyone except the Vancouver public, who have embraced them with open arms.
We are on the verge of hosting the second largest multi-sport festival on earth and about to bare witness to strength, determination and courage the likes of which our region has rarely experienced. Yet it is a number of high-profile snubs rather than the celebrations that have left an indelible mark on me as an observer.
Read the rest of this entry »
March 10, 2010 - 5:49 pm |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
My appearance has been postponed for the time being because as I have been told by the field producer that called me, they want to do a little more checking on where responsibility for the mishap lies.
Fair enough…by all means do your due dilligence. But unlike Mike Howell from the Vancouver Courier, who tiptoed around the issue of blame attribution in his story, I will not.
Readers can once again carefully review my post detailing the chronology of initiatives, guidelines, motions and reports having to do with accessibility and inclusion, and all of which can be directly connected to former Mayor Sam Sullivan’s leadership, or lack thereof.
I certainly hope that CBC isn’t backing away from the story because of another reporter.
As I have been told, there is going to be some kind of follow-up once more comments and information become available. Let’s see.
Tomorrow, I will cover another national disgrace when it comes to the Paralympic Games and our official Games broadcaster CTV.
March 10, 2010 - 5:11 pm |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
CivicScene will be on CBC Radio this afternoon.
I will be appearing on CBC Radio’s “On The Coast” program at 5:20pm PST today to discuss the Olympic Village inaccessibility controversy. CBC is 690 on the AM dial and 88.1 on FM.
On a more sombre note, I want to wish my long-time friend Councillor Geoff Meggs a speedy recovery after a brutal accident yesterday morning. My family is thinking of you and hope you will be back to your usual frantic pace in short order.
