Posts from — February 2010

Three hundred members of UNITE-HERE Local 40 have reached agreement with YVR contractor HMS Host, ending a strike/lockout that began last week.

The agreement means they will be on the job when almost 40,000 visitors try to leave town after the Closing Ceremonies. Both sides expressed satisfaction with the settlement, which reduces the threat that union members won’t be able to access new jobs at YVR concessions when some existing restaurants close.

From the Rev. Gary Paterson, the minister at St. Andrew’s Wesley United Church, this remarkable sermon on transfiguration, sports replacing religion and the mystery of Olympic spirit: “something bigger than the hustle and bustle and protecting the borders, a dream . . . ”

From an initial scepticism and ambivalence, Paterson found himself changing his perspective at the torch relay and then at the opening ceremonies: “You could feel the hunger in those 60,000 people, to go higher, to be more, to be better than we normally than we are. It was a mountain top peak moment, when people said it isn’t impossible.”

Paterson, partner of councillor Tim Stevenson, would definitely own the pulpit in a preaching Olympics.

First the BCCLA hailing the respect for civil rights during the Games, now this Angus Reid poll showing 70 percent of Metro and Sea to Sky residents now believe the event will have a positive impact on Canada, British Columbia and Vancouver. That’s up 10 points in a month.

Perhaps even more significant: 56 percent said the Games were exciting and not inconveniencing them, up six percent in a month. Thirty-nine percent of transit users say it’s taking them longer to get to work, but only 18 percent of drivers have the same complaint.

Motion to make it unanimous?

Just past the Game’s midway point, this assessment from the BC Civil Liberties Association on the much-anticipated police crackdown: it didn’t materialize. In fact, everything went quite well.