The last local legal leap for the Flying 14 began Thursday morning, precisely three months before the 2010 Winter Olympics’ first sporting event -- a men’s only ski jumping preliminary.
Eight of the 14 past, present and future athletes seeking a single women’s ski jumping event in the Callaghan Valley jammed the single row of seats in courtroom 61 at Vancouver’s Law Courts while lawyer Ross Clark began the two-day B.C. Court of Appeal hearing.
Clark is appealing B.C. Supreme Court Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon’s July 10 judgment that upheld the 2006 International Olympic Committee decision against adding women’s ski jumping to Vancouver 2010. Fenlon decided the Charter applied to VANOC, but not the IOC because it is based in Switzerland. Clark wants Justices Anne Rowles, David Frankel and Harvey Groberman to declare that the Games are a government-ascribed activity governed by the Charter.
“The IOC cannot force VANOC or anyone else here to violate the laws of Canada, certainly not the constitution,” Clark said.
Though it’s the IOC that decides the sports, Clark said “what VANOC is doing is implementing a discriminatory decision.”
He said a declaration would put the onus on VANOC to advise the IOC that it has three options: add a women’s event, cancel the men’s jumps or hold the men’s events in another jurisdiction.
Frankel suggested a fourth option would be for VANOC to not be involved with the staging of the men’s event and allow the IOC to produce the event on its own.
The women are seeking a single medal event at the $122.4 million, taxpayer-funded Callaghan Valley venue where there are three for men.
“Nothing VANOC did triggered this lawsuit to begin,” said defence lawyer George Macintosh in his rebuttal.
The hearing continues Friday. The tribunal will be pressed to deliver a timely verdict because the Games begin on Feb. 12.
