It was stalemate on Chess Street Thursday morning when angry off-duty paramedics caused postponement of an Olympic security training session.
The two-dozen members of CUPE 873 marched to the Exercise Gold site at the Vancouver Fire and Rescue training academy and Via Rail yard. Ambulance Paramedics of B.C. picket captain Mike Binns said firefighters agreed not to cross onto Via property. The pickets dispersed after Binns said Via applied for a court injunction.
The event was supposed to simulate a radiological isotopes scare on a train. Public Safety Canada officials canceled media observation and firefighters scrambled to place a tarp on a fence to block cameras. Inside the fence, firefighters and police were seen standing around drinking coffee and later eating lunch.
“VANOC has to pay attention to what’s going on here,” Binns said. “They’re the ones now running the government.”
VANOC medical director Dr. Mike Wilkinson’s Sept. 14 memo to BCAS chief Lee Doney said “the Games may not proceed” without full emergency services. The Liberal government is ordering paramedics to return to full service with a one-year deal and 3% pay hike retroactive to April 1.
“I cannot tell you how disappointed I am and how disappointed the BCAS is today,” said BCAS’ 2010 Games coordinator Bob Alexander.
In a late Thursday afternoon email, RCMP Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit exercise coordinator Const. Dale Bendfeld said that the test eventually took place in the back of the railyard. He said it was delayed to "prevent any perception of support or opposition to this ongoing labour dispute." Bendfeld said there would not be another opportunity for the media to view Exercise Gold on Friday, the final day of the five-day 2010 Winter Olympics dress rehearsal.
Asked whether BCAS has an operational plan for the Games, Alexander said “I’m here to talk about the current strike situation, not the ongoing planning process.”
