RSS FeedCanada Goes for Another Hockey Gold
Hot on the heels of the victorious Canadian women’s hockey team is the men’s team, which is aiming for its own hockey gold. The game against the rival United States promises to be an Olympic classic!
Beginning at 12:15 p.m. PST (3:15 p.m. EST), you can watch USA v. Canada online at CTV’s Olympics website. The site offers full HD streaming video, which is perfect for me, since I don’t have a TV. The link to the video is here.
And since this is a law blog, I’ll see if I can do a haphazard legal tie-in to end this post.
If you ever had any doubt that hockey was one of Canada’s true national sports — not just lacrosse — check out the National Sports of Canada Act, S.C. 1994, c. 16. The Act provides:
2. The game commonly known as ice hockey is hereby recognized and declared to be the national winter sport of Canada and the game commonly known as lacrosse is hereby recognized and declared to be the national summer sport of Canada.
Another sign that Canadians are obsessed with hockey: have a look at how many times “hockey” comes up on a CanLII case law search. I come up with over 7000 results, beginning with a case called Hockey v. Hockey from the BC Court of Appeal. You can’t get much more Canadian than that!!
Go Team Canada!
Georgian Luger Dies as Olympics Commence…
I am going to start this off by saying it is with a sense of sadness that I write this piece.
Twenty-one year old Georgian luger, Nodar Kumaritashvili, died in a training run today at the Whistler Sliding Centre in Whister, B.C. It has been reported that he was travelling in excess of 140 km/h before the incident occurred.
A report by the Toronto Star said “he didn’t have a chance.”
I have seen the video (after doing some hunting around), and the impact was horrifying to put it mildly.
However, since this is a law site. Perhaps this may be too soon, but this incident is definitely going to need some analyzation. The Toronto Star also reports that this specific luge course has a particularly “nasty reputation.”
CTV luge analyst Chris Wightman said experienced lugers aren’t having problems on the course but that less experienced riders are finding it hugely challenging.
Had Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) and the International Luge Federation ensured that this was a safe course? Was the fact that he had previously crashed on Wednesday play a factor into whether an action is brought against the committee?
Questions like these will reveal themselves in the coming days, but for the time being, our thoughts here (and I’m sure I speak for everyone) are with the family, friends, and luging community.
RIP Nodar.
Female Ski Jumpers Refused Leave to Appeal
In what must feel like a complete let down only two months before the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, the Supreme Court of Canada has refused a leave of appeal by a group of female ski jumpers who are demanding for equality with hopes that they too will be allowed to compete alongside their male counterparts in February. The SCC did not release any reasons for their decision.
The women’s lawyer, called the decision a case of “textbook discrimination.”
The trials and tribulations began when the women launched a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission. When that failed, they pursued a court action.
The IOC voted not to include women’s ski jumping at the 2010 Winter Olympics because the sport didn’t meet the necessary criteria for inclusion. The IOC requires that a sport must have contested at least two world championships before it can become an Olympic event. There are also rules dictating how far in advance a sport can be added to the Olympic program.
Anti-Anti-Olympic Bylaw in BC Unconstitutional?
The CBC reports: Anti-Olympic signs could mean jail: rights group (Oct 9):
A proposed B.C. law would allow municipal officials to enter homes to seize unauthorized and possibly anti-Olympic signs on short notice, civil libertarians say.
Violators could be fined up to $10,000 a day and jailed up to six months, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association said Friday.
The BC Civil Liberties Association has launched a court challenge:
Earlier this week, the association helped two anti-Olympics activists launch a legal challenge of Vancouver’s 2010 Olympics bylaw in B.C. Supreme Court, claiming it was an unconstitutional restriction on free speech.
[...]
The association is suspicious of the timing of the provincial bill’s introduction so close to the Olympic games, which have been planned for years.
“We’ve seen them timing things so that they don’t put in place laws that are special to the Olympics until the last minute,” Holmes said. “And part of that leads to the suspicion that they’ve done it in a calculated and deliberate way, to remove the ability of the courts, and people who might want to take it to court, to have their rights protected.”
The BCCLA has their statement of claim up on their website:
“Going to Court on a clear-cut free expression issue is a waste of time and money,” said Westergard-Thorpe. “We’ve all got better things to do, but if the City insists on passing bad bylaws, people who value free speech have no choice but to stand up and challenge them.”
