A person who smuggled liquor into the Stanley Cup fan zone before Game 7 described how easy it was in an email to the provincial government's review of the June 15 riot.
"Just like the previous two games I stopped at the liquor store and got a 26 oz. bottle of booze. Me and a friend then went to 7-Eleven and got two big cups filling those with pop and emptying the bottle of liquor into the two cups," said the July 14 email to reviewers John Furlong and Doug Keefe, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. "That is how easy it was for us to bring in booze to the fan zone. Game 3 we hid the bottle in a backpack wrapped in pants because we figured security would be smart enough to smell a one-litre cup."
The email was among 85 submissions received July 14 to Aug. 12, but not published in the $323,096, Sept. 1 report. Six organizations, including the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association, Vancouver Association for Restorative Justice and Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, were mentioned. The latter was not included in the 235 pages of documents delivered Tuesday by the Solicitor General's ministry, which censored the names of most commenters.
An unnamed retailer said in a July 17 email that an unidentified store closed because of drunk people urinating and vomiting on floors.
"I had 90 associates in my store and needed to connect with the police to ask for direction on how to get them out safely and we could not get through to the police," said the email. "The 911 line was busy all night. We felt completely alone and not able to connect with anyone. We felt that there was no help available and we had to fend off the rioters ourself."
DVBIA reported Aug. 12 that it was invited to a May 31 Emergency Operations Centre meeting, but not included in planning for Games 3-7.
"Of note was the Vancouver Police Department indicating that, while it was good to consider the possibility of an Olympic-type atmosphere, they would still be planning in the event of mass public disorder," said the DVBIA report.
A July 16 email accused Furlong of conflict of interest for also being on the board of NPA chairman Peter Armstrong's Rocky Mountaineer tourist railway.
"[Premier] Christy Clark has made another error in judgment," said the email.
A July 30 email proposed the provincial government make "sincere apologies on behalf of British Columbians" to Boston and any Bruins fans who were beaten up inside or outside Rogers Arena.
One person blamed the Vancouver Canucks' failure to moderate Facebook comments for contributing to the negative undercurrent in the city.
"They took a laissez faire attitude in the extreme and it did not serve them well in protecting their brand or as it turns out in protecting the City of Vancouver," said the Aug. 10 email. "They allowed sexist, racist and inciting of violence postings to stand and they did not hit the delete button."
The Canucks did, however, delete messages critical of Clark's lighting of the Olympic cauldron from a Canucks.com forum, according to PublicEyeOnline.com.
Two emails promoting so-called "laughter yoga" said humour should be employed to prevent chaos next time.
"Let's get creative with laughter!" said a July 21 email. "Put laughter messages using comedians (who can laugh for no reason or close to no reason) on the large screens before a feed is to be shown to remind people to look after each other."
