Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games
February 8, 2010
Governor General to Open the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games
OTTAWA—Their Excellencies the Right Honourable MichaĆ«lle Jean, Governor General of Canada, and Mr. Jean-Daniel Lafond will be in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia, from February 9 to 15, 2010, to attend the XXI Olympic Winter Games.
The Governor General will open the Games before thousands of athletes and dignitaries from the four corners of the globe at the opening ceremony, on Friday, February 12.
“The time has come to welcome the world to the cities of Vancouver and Whistler, which will become venues of the highest calibre for athletic competition,” said the Governor General. “This wonderful, global meeting-place of the Olympic Games will break down barriers of indifference and create a forum of solidarity to celebrate athletic excellence.”
Their Excellencies will be honorary guests at the 122nd session of the International Olympic Committee, which is meeting in Vancouver for the occasion.
As honorary patron of the Olympic Truce, the Governor General will host a Youth Dialogue during the Vancouver 2010 Indigenous Youth Gathering. Over 500 young leaders from Canada will meet to discuss the Olympic Truce and its underlying values of peace, mutual understanding, inclusion and co-operation.
Their Excellencies will meet with Canadian and foreign athletes, in a spirit of fraternity and solidarity, to celebrate their perseverance, courage and Olympic spirit. Their Excellencies will also have the opportunity to visit with some of the 4500 Canadian troops assisting the Royal Canadian Mounted Police with security measures at the Games.
During the Games, Their Excellencies will attend sporting competitions as well as artistic performances presented as part of the Cultural Olympiad.
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Ban, General Assembly calls for Olympic Truce ahead of Vancouver Games8 February 2010 – The United Nations is calling for the traditional age-old truce during the XXI Winter Olympics which open in Vancouver, Canada, this Friday, urging warring parties to lay down their arms as the Games’ ancient Greek founders did some 2,700 years ago.
“The Olympic Truce brings hope of at least a temporary respite from violence and armed conflict,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a message on the ancient Greek tradition of born in the eighth century BC.
“It also draws attention to a terrible paradox. At the Olympics and throughout the year, we rightly honour the outstanding achievements of the human body and the positive social values of competitive sport, including team spirit and fairness. Yet all too often, through the carnage of war, we do damage to that same human body, and to our shared values.”
The General Assembly took note of a similar message from Assembly President Ali Treki, who recalled that, who recalled the 192-member body’s call in a 1993 resolution for all Member States to observe the Olympic Truce from the seventh day before the opening to the seventh day following the closing of each Olympic Games.
“I solemnly appeal to all Member States to demonstrate their commitment to the Olympic Truce for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, and to undertake concrete actions at the local, national, regional and world levels to promote and strengthen a culture of peace and harmony based on the spirit of the Truce,” he said.
