Sarah Boesveld and Paul Waldie (Globe and Mail) - Eleven members of Vancouver’s Integrated Security Unit have been sent packing after engaging in behaviour officials say was not up to code.
Seven police officers and four members of the Canadian Forces have been relieved of their Olympic duties on the V2010 force that was specially created to ensure security and law enforcement at the Games, said Sergeant Leo Monbourquette, a spokesman for the security unit.
Reports say the dismissals are linked to fights and the use of prostitutes on the unit’s cruise ship accommodations, but V2010 officials would not confirm that or elaborate on what led to their dismissals.
“This is not a disciplinary measure,” Sgt. Monbourquette said. “What we’re saying is we have a zero tolerance standard for any behaviour that can be considered in conflict with our core values and code of conduct.”
He stressed that the dismissal of a few should not affect the reputation of the security unit and there are more than enough members to ensure security is top notch.
The approximately 15,000 people working on the V2010 force are staying on “accommodation vessels” or cruise ships docked at Ballantyne Pier behind barriers.
Meanwhile, Olympic organizers and the RCMP are stepping up security and tightening procedures in the wake of two security breaches in the first three days of the Winter Olympics.
The RCMP’s Integrated Security Unit, a special division set up for the Games, said police officers are taking on a more robust role in overseeing security at the Games. VANOC, which checks security passes at Games’ venues, said it has also made changes.
Both breaches took place at BC Place stadium – the site of the opening and closing ceremonies as well as nightly medal presentations.
The most recent incident happened Monday evening during the first medal ceremony of the Olympics, which featured a packed gold medal presentation to Canadian skier Alex Bilodeau.
The RCMP said Thursday that a person carrying a suspicious object got through one of the stadium’s baggage screening systems, which is operated by Contemporary Security Canada Inc. When officials from Contemporary could not identify the object they asked for help from members of the Integrated Security Unit, a special RCMP division set up for the Games. By the time police reviewed a screen image of the item, the person had gone into the building. Police did a security sweep of the stadium and found nothing suspicious.
“The ISU recognizes that it is not acceptable for an unidentified suspicious object to go through screening and not be stopped,” said RCMP Sergeant Michael Harvey. “We are actively working with Contemporary Security Canada to ensure that security processes and staff are being changed and updated in response to any issues that may arise.”
Sgt. Harvey said he could not provide further details but added “police officers have gone from a supervisory role to more actively mentoring Contemporary Security Canada staff to support them in taking the appropriate measures to deal with any suspicious objects or circumstances.”
The first breach occurred during Friday’s opening ceremonies when a 48-year old man managed to get by two security checks with a fake pass before he was stopped by a pair of plainclothes RCMP officers not far from U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden. The man was turned over to Vancouver police and released later that night without being charged.
Todd Severson, project director with Contemporary, declined comment yesterday and referred questions to the ISU.
Contemporary Canada is a consortium consisting of three companies – Toronto-based Aeroguard Security Ltd., Edmonton-based United Protection Security Group Inc. and the Canadian division of Contemporary International which is based in Salt Lake City.
The federal government awarded the group a contract last April to provide security services at the Games. The consortium hired more than 5,000 staff for the Olympics and it conducts baggage screening at all venues. Most of the employees were hired and trained last Fall. In a press release prior to the Olympics, the company said employees went through an extensive RCMP-approved training program.
Officials from Vanoc acknowledged Thursday that their officials were to blame for the first breach. Vanoc spokeswoman Renee Smith-Valade said Vanoc volunteers and staff are supposed to do the initial checking of all security passes before spectators and others go through the screening, which is similar to the metal detectors and baggage scans at airports. She added that passes are not generally checked by Contemporary staff.
Ms. Smith-Valade said the man with the fake pass, who has not been identified, entered the stadium through a non-spectator area. After getting passed the initial VANOC check, the man cleared the screening and made it inside the stadium.
She declined to specify the entrance involved, but she said Vanoc officials did not check his pass which appeared to be downloaded from a website and laminated.
“I can tell that it was an unsophisticated accreditation, fairly crudely put together,” she said.
Ms. Smith-Valade said changes have since been made to the security system. “We know which entrances we needed to increase the vigilance at, we know which processes we needed to adapt and to tighten up,” she said.
She added that the overall security process worked because the man was stopped.
“We’re happy with the way the system worked. It’s designed such that if one system is perhaps bypassed, that’s not our goal clearly, but should one system be bypassed there are others that kick in and that’s what happened,” she said.
Dave Cobb, Vanoc’s deputy chief executive officer, said the breach was “a reminder that we need to be diligent.”
He added that after a review of the fake pass incident, VANOC officials concluded the system worked.
“This Games theatre was not set up as a fortress,” he said referring to BC Place. “It was set up to have a series of security processes to eliminate the danger of something happening before it does. In that respect this process did work. Nobody was ever in any danger.”
The vice-president was never in danger nor was there any sense of threat even though a man was able to get within a few rows of Mr. Biden, the U.S. Ambassador to Canada said.
David Jacobson told The Globe he was sitting within five feet of the Vice-President at BC Place during the ceremonies. “I never felt in danger,” he said yesterday from Whistler, where he is watching alpine and nordic skiing events. “My sense was he was never in danger.”
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