Pan-American Games lack community leadership and representation

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This has been an ordeal that started over 3 years ago when the [highlight]2015 Pan / Para – American Games[/highlight] were awarded to the City of Toronto by the International Olympic Committee. An elite group of executives were selected to guide the organization of what could have been the best and most diverse games in history.

One could only imagine that the selection of Toronto was an obvious one due to its multi-cultural make up and that it embodies communities from all the participating countries of the games. The Pan-American communities were waiting to be approached to become part of the leadership team to guide this great undertaking that was to become a legacy of the history of the city, province and country. Instead the communities have been ignored, insulted and taken advantage of by the organizing committee of the games.

The key positions in the organization were filled by the elite of Toronto’s bureaucracy and powerful movers and shakers without even considering the regulations established by the International body which granted the games. Let’s evaluate the composition of the original and current team members:

Original – Current – Position

Roger Garland – Hon. David Peterson – Chair

Ian Troop – Saad Rofi – CEO

Barbara Anderson – Chief Financial Officer

Katherine Henderson – Senior V.P., Marketing & Revenue

Allen Vansen – Senior V.P., Operations

Bob O’Doherty – Senior V.P., Sport and Venues

Elaine Roper – Senior V.P., Human Resources

Murray Noble – Senior V.P., Infrastructure

Peter Donolo – Amir Remtulla – Senior V.P., Public Affairs

Louise Lutgens – Senior V.P., Community and Cultural Affairs

Karen Hacker – Senior V.P., General Counsel

Zenia Wadhwani – Director Community Outreach

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Where in this list can we find the diversity composition of any of the participating countries of the games? Let’s not discuss the Board of Directors because then it really gets serious.

In November of 2011 finally the first taste of outreach is shown and various events are scheduled to attract the communities to the games. At these wonderful events the communities are told that 20,000 volunteers would be required for the running of the games. Many of the participants question about paid positions but no response is given.

As time goes by the recruitment process starts and several postings start appearing. To the surprise of the applicants from the different communities the response is rejection. In the case of the Hispanics, the community leaders start questioning the many complaints and decide to verify the facts. After conversations with various officials from the organizing committee, they are told that only the best people are selected to gain employment at the games. Some of the top positions being filled not by Canadians but foreign workers who might be or not as they say the best candidates.

PanAmGames_photo_DM

The organizing committee now seeing the seriousness of the situation start employing tactics by which to divide the communities by creating outreach subcommittees which have no voice or vote on what the games are actually doing but are being used as escape routes to show diversity within the organization and positioning this volunteers as community leaders to make it seem as if the community was consulted and these were the individuals appointed by the different communities to represent them.

Some of these people have come to realization that they have been utilized and have done the right thing by leaving while others still remain in view of opportunities that will never materialize.

The second point that communities enquired about was the selection of the location of the games such as Soccer in Hamilton, Baseball in Ajax and so forth. The communities pointed out that the selection process was erroneous due to the distances involved from the populations that would attend and also pointed to the lack of accommodation space for incoming tourism.

Since then many conversations have been had with not only the organizing committee but local, provincial and federal authorities to try to help undo the mistakes being committed. The Minister responsible for the games who has met with leaders of the communities only had one simple answer to all the dilemmas being formulated, let’s not focus on the problems and let’s do events and festivals to get the communities involved.

The issues continue to persist and now with almost a year from the start of the games which at best will break even, we must start to think if these is what our taxpaying dollars are being spent on and why is it that no one listen to people who really want to help.

If we are to look at possible solutions to this dilemma, the only true solution would be for the Premier and other government officials to take a close look at the people that can be replaced in order to make this proposition successful. Let’s start by hiring people that can actually understand outreach and that speak in the languages and can relates to the idiosyncrasies of the participating nations of the games.

Not to take anything away from the selected venues for the games but we must change the main sports back to the host city of the games as the population base is located here. Let’s think of the bottle necks that we already have in some of our roads without thinking of the hundreds of thousands of tourist that will be coming to witness the games.

Look at the possible numbers if you consider that there are 50 million Hispanics just an hour away south of the border and let’s not talk about the large and sizable Caribbean communities. Think of a baseball final game between the Dominican Republic and Mexico or Venezuela, a soccer final of Argentina and Brazil, or a basketball final of USA – Canada; Do you really think that cities like Hamilton, Ajax or Markham will be able to handle the volumes of people?

The games budget which is an estimated 1.4 billion dollars won’t be sufficient. The Pan-American Village was not part of the monies allocated neither the security. How much more do we need to spend in order to get this event right? The communities are ready to help but our leaders need to make a gesture to the people that have been ignored and left out.

Proposals have been presented over the last years and ignored because the elites of the organizing committee can’t see beyond and accept that there are people with great skills in the ethnic communities that make up this great city, province and country.

How can you keep the nations of the games out of the process? Is it not part of the mission statement of the Games inclusion and diversity where no one is left out? If you quickly analyze the composition of the participating nations you will find the following:

Spanish Speaking: 19

English: 16

French: 3

Portuguese: 1

Dutch: 2

This organizing body has forgotten one important factor when looking into the future. It is important to portray the true value of your city, province / state and country which are the people, when you create an event of this magnitude which can bring us to the ultimate goal which is the hosting the grandest of all events as it is the Olympics. Do you truly think now Toronto will be viewed as a true Olympic city when you forget this great asset as it is our diversity?

The citizens of Canada are expecting the best possible use of their hard earned monies to bring forth the true essence of what Canada represents and it is not the Canada of the past but that of the present and the future. Focus on the task forgetting your preconceptions and biases and bring forth the true spirit of the movement that we are representing.

It is up to you to the elected officials of the government and you the elected officials of the regulatory body of sport who with great integrity and faith gave the opportunity to Toronto to show our diversity and our willingness to cooperate and participate in this great tradition of sport and cultural exchange to reach out to this organizing body and make it clear that they must change their way and reach to the participating communities of the games to embody the essence of the spirit of what the games represent. (by Eduardo Harari)