[URBAN NOTE] "Olympic expert questions extraordinary secrecy around bid"

[rfmcdonald]

The Toronto Star's Jessica Smith Cross writes about the unsettling oddities of the Toronto Olympics bid.

The “extraordinarily secretive” people behind Toronto’s potential bid for the 2024 Olympic need to stand up and identify themselves, one expert says.

It’s highly unusual that Toronto would be considering an Olympic bid so close to the application deadline without making the most basic information public, said Janice Forsyth, director of the International Centre for Olympic Studies at Western University.

That includes who’s responsible for it.

“Normally we’d know the players at this point in time, because it’s one of the biggest decisions, economically, Toronto and Ontario will have to make, whether or not they commit themselves to this bid,” she said. “They should be very concerned about their lack of transparency at this point in time, and if they want to gain back the public’s trust they should put out clear press saying exactly what is going to happen.

“This is highly unusual for a democracy.”