(ATR) Civil disobedience is being threatened for the May 16 meeting of the Vancouver 2010 board of directors – if the meeting takes place behind closed doors.

Vancouver 2010 chair Jack Poole has asked for a report on how the board can become more transparent. (ATR)

(ATR) Civil disobedience is being threatened for the May 16 meeting of the Vancouver 2010 board of directors – if the meeting takes place behind closed doors.

David Cunningham of the Anti-Poverty Committee says his group would protest May 16 outside the VANOC headquarters in east Vancouver and would attempt to disrupt the meeting.

“We’re pretty clever, we’ve gotten in to more secure buildings than that,” he said. “We don’t want it to get to that point, we just want them to open their meetings.”

VANOC declined comment on the APC threat.

As is the custom for most organizing committees, the board for Vancouver 2010 excludes the public and the press from its meetings. Chairman Jack Poole, who denied media requests to attend the March 13 board meeting, said management was instructed to study ways that the board could be “more transparent.”

No

David Cunningham tries to disrupt the Feb 12 countdown clock event in Vancouver.

t even minutes of the board meeting are published.

Noticeable exceptions to the closed-door meeting policy came during the Atlanta and Salt Lake City Olympics. However, board meetings often went into executive sessions to discuss and decide sensitive issues away from public scrutiny.
Supporters of opening the VANOC board meetings say the public interest is at stake. The British Columbia auditor-general estimated last year that the 2010 Games and related projects are costing taxpayers $Can 2.5 billion.

Cunningham is one of the city’s most-visible Games opponents. He was arrested for stepping onstage and chanting “homes not Games!” during the countdown clock ceremony last month.

Reported from Vancouver by Bob Mackin.

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