‘A little slice of Canada’ on Olympic turf
Where you swipe a Canadian passport to get a Molson from the beer fridge
SOCHI, RUSSIA — On a small stage in southern Russia, a Canadian singer was telling an old hockey joke between songs. At the bar, a geologist from Calgary had a small flag poking out from the back of the hockey helmet he was wearing, as he mingled with patrons who had relatives playing in the National Hockey League.
Outside, passersby lounged in 20 wooden Muskoka chairs spread across the lawn looking onto Olympic Park. Russians and tourists from other countries were allowed on the grass, but were turned away at the door — on Friday, a Canadian passport was the cost of entry.
“We stopped counting at 1,000,” one woman said, asked how many she had turned away.
Canada Olympic House rises from the edge of the park in Sochi, 1,018 square metres of Canadian cliché in the middle of the Winter Games. The Canadian Olympic Committee opened the doors to all Canadian citizens on Friday, but it is usually reserved for athletes and their friends, family and various supporters.
This is not its first year in existence, but it could be the most integral in memory, giving athletes peace of mind while loved ones navigate unfamiliar ground on the other side of the world. Plus, unlike the venues along the Black Sea coast, it serves beer.
“It gives people a base,” Canadian figure skater Eric Radford said. “When you get here and you’re in a country that’s as foreign as Russia is, to come up to a place that kind of feels like home, it can make such a huge difference.”
Meagan Duhamel, his skating partner, said the house — it is essentially a giant tent, with two floors and wood lattice as a façade — is a place for weary visitors to have a coffee, to mingle with other Canadian families and to watch events on the feed from the CBC, which is carried on flat-screen televisions throughout.
“We’re not in Moscow, we’re not in St. Petersburg; we’re in this really small unknown place called Sochi that nobody even knew about before the Olympics came,” she said. “It turns out that the city was amazing … but to have Canada House here, it’s a home.”
Two years ago, when London hosted the Summer Olympics, Canada House was staged in a Canadian government building at Trafalgar Square, in the heart of the city’s core. There was reason to visit, but families had an entire city at their disposal.
In Russia, the options are limited. The Games are not being held in Sochi, the vibrant city 45 minutes away by train. They are being staged in Adler, which is quieter. And choice is even more limited in the immediate area around Olympic Park.
Some creature comforts are also lacking. Russian law prohibits the sale of alcohol inside indoor venues, meaning the hockey arena, curling arena and other arenas are permitted to sell only nonalcoholic brands.
Derek Kent, chief marketing officer with the COC, is in charge of the house. He would not say how much the house cost, or how much beer it had in reserve. He would only say beer is shipped in from a nearby depot after closing time at night.
The beer fridge has become one of the most famous attractions in Olympic Park, the one that dispenses a Molson beer with the swipe of a Canadian passport. Kent accurately said it was “the most famous beer fridge in Sochi.”
“It’s a little slice of Canada right here in Olympic Park,” he said. “And that was the goal, that everyone could feel comfortable … in the Canadian way.”
On Friday, during the open house, Quebec musician Roch Voisine performed on stage as Canadians milled around. His hockey joke: “You know what they say about goalies, right? That’s the guy who hangs out with the hockey players.”
Anecdotal evidence suggests relatively few Canadians made the trip to Russia. But Canada House was such a popular destination on Friday that they ran out of identification cards at the front door. Even Russian President Vladimir Putin dropped by for a visit.
Rob Kneteman, the geologist from Calgary, was near the bar before Putin’s visit.
“I think it defines what Canada is,” he said. “Every person in here will stop and talk to you. Everyone’s here just for the country, and to have fun.”
At
least four Canadians wish to adopt stray dogs from a shelter in the Olympic city, according to a spokeswoman for the kennel.
The Canadians are among 314 people in Russia and overseas who have asked to take in dogs that might otherwise be killed in a controversial cull designed to rid Sochi of more than 2,000 strays. Authorities say the dogs pose a threat to public health, while the exterminator referred to them as “biological trash” that had, in at least one case, “bitten a child.”
Strays have always thrived in Sochi because of its pleasant Mediterranean climate. But their numbers multiplied greatly when they were fed by the tens of thousands of construction workers who spent several years preparing Olympic sites. Those workers then abandoned the dogs when they returned to their homes in other parts of the country or in nearby former Soviet republics, which Russians call “the near abroad.”
The homeless dogs have been a constant feature of the XXII Olympic Winter Games. One intrepid mongrel was seen last week watching the opening ceremony a few metres from where patrons had paid more than $1,000 for a prime seat to the extravaganza, which attracted a global audience of billions of people. Whether the dog was “planted” to embarrass Russia — as some posts on Twitter said the Russians claimed — is unknown.
A bitch and her two almost grownup pups frolicked for a while before basking for hours in the spring sunshine a few days ago only 50 metres from the finish line of the Olympic snowboard piste. Strays have been spotted at almost every Olympic venue and are a constant presence in side streets near the Black Sea coast.
“We are really surprised that this issue has attracted so much attention,” said the spokeswoman for PovoDog, which is a play on words that combines the Russian word “povodok” for leash and the English word for “man’s best friend.”
Aiding the cause, slopestyle skiing silver medallist Gus Kenworthy of the U.S. tweeted photos of himself with the puppies he said he intended to take back with him to Colorado.
The plan for other Sochi dogs bound for homes and families in the U.S. and Canada is to airlift them to Washington, said the spokeswoman, who asked that her name not be used. Aeroflot, Russia’s flag carrier, has offered to fly them across the Atlantic for free.
“I imagine those Canadians who are adopting these dogs will arrange to get them to Canada once they have landed in Washington,” said the spokeswoman.
Information about the process can be found on PovoDog’s Face- book page, which poignantly asks: “Do you want to adopt a dog?”
Some dogs have already begun the processing required for the long journey, the spokeswoman said. That process involves export papers, medical clearances and appropriate vaccines to prevent diseases such as rabies.
“These dogs are not dangerous, but they are street dogs so some of them have health issues that are being cured before they are adopted,” she said.
“People really love these dogs because they are very friendly. The Olympics have provided a great chance to find homes for them.”
The recently opened PovoDog shelter now cares for 150 dogs, as well as some stray cats. By the end of next week, when journalists have been invited to tour the facility, there will be enough kennels for 250 dogs. The shelter’s expansion project is the result of an unexpected donation by Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, who made his fortune in the 1990s by cornering the Russian aluminum market and has since taken control of much of the world’s aluminum production.
Deripaska, who Forbes Russia reckons is worth at least $8 billion, has spoken of how he was moved by the plight of Sochi’s homeless dogs. The oligarch, who is said to be a favourite of Russian President Vladimir Putin, spent his summers as a child on the Black Sea coast. He fondly recalled a stray his family took in, not far from where the Olympics are now taking place.
“My first dog I found in the street of my village, (in) the tiny village (where I grew up),” PovoDog’s benefactor told the BBC. “It was a very close friend for five years.”
It is harder to keep a dog as a pet in Russia than, for example, Canada, because Russians tend to live in crowded one- and two-room apartments. Nevertheless, it is common anywhere in the country to see dogs out for a stroll with their masters, even in the dead of winter in much colder places than Sochi.
“I would not say that foreigners love dogs more than Russians do, but the foreigners who are here now for the Olympics can see the problem for themselves,” PovoDog’s spokeswoman said. “Russians who adopt these dogs do not get so much attention. They just come and take them home. It isn’t as easy as that if the dogs are going to the U.S. or Canada.”