Sam Sullivan

Find Sam at GlobalCivic.org

2011-03-22T03:21:04Z

For visitors looking for Sam Sullivan, he is spending most of his time devoted to his work at Global Civic Policy Society. Find out more at www.GlobalCivic.org.

Riding the Ziptrek line on the Rick Mercer Report

2010-03-27T15:03:48Z

"As foolhardy as everyone else" - Sam rides the Ziptrek line

Sam Sullivan got a lot of different duties during his time as the Canada's Paralympic Ambassador for the 2010 Games. Perhaps the one that really tested his nerve the most was riding the free Ziptrek line set up at Robson Square, alongside CBC TV's Rick Mercer. The piece featuring Sam aired on the March 23rd program, which you can see in longer form here.

Sam Sullivan interview with CBC's The National

2010-03-16T06:23:00Z

Sam Sullivan in his role as Canada's Paralympic Ambassador interviewed for CBC's The National newscast by Ian Hanomansing.

Sullivan's message of inclusion resonates

2010-03-06T16:11:18Z

By Randy Shore, Vancouver Sun

Sam Sullivan delivered one of the city's proudest moments when he accepted the Olympic flag on behalf of Vancouver and the 2010 Games in Turin, performing a series of assiduously practised loops in his wheelchair to ensure the flag would unfurl.

The former mayor battled the cold that day in 2006 and was on the verge of going into a debilitating muscle spasm.

But it wasn't Sullivan's electric pirouettes and athleticism that made an impression; it was his message of inclusion.

Sullivan, of course, stood on the shoulders of giants such as Rick Hansen and Terry Fox. But Fox and Hansen were terrific, charismatic athletes with well-marketed causes. They made themselves heroes with ability and determination and became Canadian icons, each with a highly polished public image.

Sullivan made himself a leader with ability and determination, too, but he also convinced a city to endorse his leadership and elect him to the city's highest office without the slightest whiff of Superman about him.

Sullivan's message was entirely different and it resonated.

"The fact that I was able to become mayor impressed people all over the world," Sullivan said. "There are two issues around disability, access and inclusion. Sure you can get up the ramp, but are you a full and equal citizen when you actually get into the building?"

Sullivan was the first mayor ever to accept both the Olympic flag and the Paralympic flag for a host city. He was the first host city mayor ever to bother showing up for the Paralympic closing ceremonies.

"That was very emotional for me," said Sullivan. "The people with disabilities who were there, it was a big moment for them."

As a result of the media coverage of the Olympic flag handover -- there is little coverage given to the Paralympic ceremony -- Sullivan was deluged with letters from all over the world, many of them from disabled people "blown away" that he had been elected mayor of a major city.

Sullivan heard from a Croatian woman here in Vancouver who said his performance inspired her town to install wheelchair ramps on their sidewalks, the town's first accessibility program.

A mayors' group in Italy told Sullivan that the Paralympic Games had roused public sentiment and provided an opening to create change in their cities and become more inclusive.

"They were all excited and had big plans to take on some long-standing challenges, but they had never had the momentum to get it done."

The Paralympics can provide that kind of momentum, he said.

When the world's Paralympians arrive in Vancouver they will be in for a better-than-world-class experience. Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson says our city is more than ready to host the Paralympic Games.

"The Paralympic Games tend to be overshadowed by the Olympics, but it's important not to forget that the Paralympics get a lot of media attention around the world as well," Robertson said in an e-mail interview. "There's a real opportunity for Vancouver to unite around the Paralympics, to share in the experience and be proud that we're hosting such a great event. You certainly don't see any of the anti-Olympics cynicism towards the Paralympics; it's all positive."

"People will be very impressed with the accessibility of Vancouver," Sullivan said. The city is at least five decades deep into a revolution in awareness of people's needs and a consensus that everyone has a right to go places, do things and participate fully in life.

"We really are one of the most accessible cities in the world. I have recently been to American cities where you couldn't get a wheelchair-accessible cab," said Sullivan, who toured Turin while he was there for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. He also spent several weeks in Beijing during the 2008 Summer Paralympics.

Both Turin and Beijing made large investments in accessibility before hosting the Paralympics. Beijing purchased a fleet of 2,000 wheelchair-accessible buses, added wheelchair access to 123 subway stations, bought dozens of wheelchair-friendly taxis and installed 12,000 square metres of wheelchair ramps to prepare for the Games. Permanent wheelchair access was built at the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. While many of the wheelchair ramps were temporary, nonetheless, Sullivan was very impressed.

"I had been there five years earlier and it was a bad situation," he said. "Few people with disabilities even went out of their homes let along held jobs or public office. I was blown away by the progress they had made."

Turin, with its cobbled streets and ancient buildings and shops, found wheelchair accessibility almost impossible to provide.

But the fact that we are world leaders in accessibility doesn't mean we don't have an important mission, Sullivan said. The Olympic and Paralympic Games have a transformative power that can reach around the corner and around the world.

"In Beijing, the Paralympics revolutionized everything in China," he said. "I was so impressed by the amount of effort that the entire country put into the Paralympics. I had never seen anything like it."

The Western tourists and media fled the country after the closing of the 2008 Olympics and the Chinese flooded in, filling venues with loud support.

"I went to the media centre during the Olympics and it was full, one side for the Chinese media and the other side for the western media," Sullivan recalled.

"During the Paralympics, the Chinese side was still full with hundreds of reporters and the Western side was all but empty and the lights were out. You couldn't even detect movement."

"I found one CBC technician and he was just watching the equipment," Sullivan said. "The entire western world left and the entire Chinese media machine was on overdrive."

China was primed to embrace the Paralympics after a disabled torchbearer was swarmed and assaulted by anti-Olympic and/or pro-Tibet protesters in France during the 2008 torch relay.

Wheelchair fencer Jin Jing defended the torch with determination and was anointed the "smiling angel in a wheelchair" by the Chinese media, a rare event in a country where disabled people are seldom seen outside their homes.

Chinese television was all Paralympics all the time, Sullivan said. "It really helped to make Chinese people aware of the lives of disabled people and athletes and how difficult they were."

Whether Vancouver and the western media can live up to China's example remains to be seen.

"It was embarrassing how the Western world treated the Beijing Paralympics," he said. "I hope that once the Vancouver Paralympics are under way that people will really begin to appreciate the athletes and their stories and personalities."

In additional to the transformative social legacy of the Paralympic Games, B.C. will enjoy a physical legacy when the Games wrap up.

Sullivan and Coun. Tim Louis got the ball rolling before leaving politics, putting Vancouver's support behind a Rick Hansen initiative called Measuring Up, a guide for communities to assess their accessibility and inclusivity and identify areas to improve.

"Measuring Up has been taken up by Legacies Now and it has made a really big difference across B.C.," Sullivan said.

Robertson is optimistic that the Games will have a lasting impact on the city beyond the physical.

"I've spoken to past host city mayors and one common theme is how positive the reception to the Paralympics has been," Robertson said. "These are amazing athletes with compelling stories, and for most of them this is their only chance on the world stage. They're not multi-million-dollar sports stars, they're regular people pulling off amazing athletic achievements, and it's a guarantee to be inspired by them."

"Our city experiencing the stunning accomplishments of Paralympians during the Games will be a tremendous social legacy of the Paralympic Games," he said.

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2010 PARALYMPIC GAMES

A three-part series looking at the Paralympics, which open on Mar. 12 and will include 1,350 athletes from 40 countries.

Today: The social and physical legacy of the Paralympics and it's impact on Vancouver and Whistler.

Monday: How technology gives Paralympians a physical and psychological edge.

Tuesday: The 2010 Winter Paralympic Games will be a major coming-out party for Canada's disabled athletes.

Olympic celebration: Canada wins hockey gold!

2010-03-01T23:07:05Z

A few photos from my Vancouver neighbourhood while people pour onto the streets to celebrate hockey gold!

Looking ahead to the Paralympic Games

2010-02-27T05:27:12Z

GlobalTV on the announcement of Sam Sullivan as Paralympic Ambassador

Sam Sullivan appointed Canada's Paralympic Ambassador

2010-02-26T05:13:00Z

Government of Canada Announces Canada's Paralympic Ambassador and Invests in the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games

The Honourable James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, the Honourable Gary Lunn, Minister of State (Sport), and the Honourable Steven Fletcher, Minister of State (Democratic Reform), today announced that Sam Sullivan will be Canada's Paralympic Ambassador and also announced additional funding for the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games.

"On behalf of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, I am pleased to announce Sam Sullivan as Canada's Paralympic Ambassador. I know he will be a great inspiration to our athletes," said Minister Moore. "I am also pleased to announce that our Government is providing an additional $12 million in funding to deliver and broadcast the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games."

"Canadians have fully embraced the spirit of the Games, and hosting the 10th edition of the Paralympic Winter Games is a proud moment for our country," said Minister of State Lunn. "We are excited to celebrate our Paralympians and their amazing achievements."

"In a few short weeks, the Paralympic Winter Games will take place on Canadian soil for the first time in history," said Minister of State Fletcher. "This is our opportunity to showcase the Paralympic movement to the world and raise the profile of Canada's elite Paralympic athletes."

As Canada's Paralympic Ambassador, Mr. Sullivan will bring a greater visibility to the Paralympic movement while showcasing Canadian leadership and athletic excellence.

"I am thrilled to be Canada's Paralympic Ambassador and I look forward to encouraging people throughout Canada to cheer on our athletes as they go for gold," said Mr. Sullivan.

Mr. Sullivan became a quadriplegic at the age of 19 as a result of a skiing accident. He served as councillor for 12 years on Vancouver City Council before being elected mayor in 2005. He was an important part of bringing the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games to Vancouver and took part in the closing ceremony of the Turin 2006 Winter Games, where he received the Olympic flag as representative of the host city. Mr. Sullivan is the founder of six non-profit organizations that have improved the lives of thousands of North Americans with disabilities, and has received numerous awards, including Canada's top honour, the Order of Canada.

Today's funding announcement brings the Government of Canada's total investment in the planning and staging of the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games to $32 million. Of the additional $12 million in funding, $10 million will support the delivery of the Games and $2 million will support the television broadcast of the Games.

From March 12 to 21, Whistler and Vancouver will host 1350 athletes and officials from 44 countries at the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games.

The Paralympic Games date back to 1948, when the International Wheelchair Games were staged to coincide with the 1948 London Olympic Games. The event gradually grew to encompass other sports and other disability groups, and now the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games are the ultimate international competitions for world-class athletes with disabilities, with an emphasis on the participants' athletic achievements rather than their disability.

Appointment as Paralympics Ambassador

2010-02-26T00:47:38Z

The Hon. James Moore and VANOC CEO John Furlong attend the official announcement of Sam Sullivan as Canada's Paralympic Ambassador

Ex-Vancouver mayor confident Olympics cost is worth it

2010-02-21T20:36:47Z

By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY

On the eve of the Olympics, the man who was this city's face of the Winter Games was holding court on a universe of social causes, from homelessness and drug addiction to more rights for the disabled.

Throughout the afternoon event, timed to the screening of a film about his life as a quadriplegic, there was barely a reference to anything Olympic.

In fact, Sam Sullivan, the former Vancouver mayor who in 2006 appeared in his wheelchair for the ceremonial handoff of the Olympic flag in Torino, says he doesn't have much interest in the sporting events.

It's not that he's unhappy the Olympics are here. It's just that for him, he says, winning the Olympics for Vancouver was never about the Games.

"My goal was to assure that we had a better city when this is over," Sullivan says. "At this point, we wouldn't even have to have the events and we'd still be way ahead."

For the thousands who have come here to celebrate the highest levels of athletic achievement, Sullivan's remarks may sound, at the very least, impolitic.

But the former mayor's comments also underscore the controversial quest by Olympic host cities to use the international sporting spectacle as a catalyst for massive urban and regional redevelopment projects.

Vancouver is no exception. Among the larger Olympic-related additions to the region's landscape:

â€¢An $800 million convention center complex on the city's waterfront.

â€¢A $1.1 billion high-rise residential development that now serves as the athletes' downtown Olympic Village.

â€¢The $600 million Sea-to-Sky Highway, a two-lane scenic road now carrying thousands of fans to the Olympic Alpine events in Whistler.

As in other Olympic host cities, notably Athens in 2004, the jaw-dropping price tags have spawned vocal opposition.

Chris Shaw, one of the city's most strident critics, says the redevelopment did not include Vancouver's poor downtown East Side, home to hundreds of homeless and drug addicts.

He also thinks the end cost of the Games, including the huge effort to haul in snow to shore up rain-damaged venues on Cypress Mountain, will soar well past the Games' current $6 billion cost.

Sullivan rejects the criticism, saying the high-rise residential development, now containing 1,100 units with 5,000 to come, will add to the city's much-needed housing stock.

An added benefit of the building boom, he says, was partially to shield the city from the financial crisis that has gripped much of the world. "This is not a scandal," Sullivan says.

Sullivan's inclination to speak his mind, even if it rubs people the wrong way, is one of the reasons he is no longer Vancouver's mayor, says Paul Tennant, retired political science professor at the University of British Columbia.

Tennant says Sullivan, who uses a wheelchair after a skiing accident when he was 19, is not a classic political creature who sought out issues and relationships to advance his career.

"He wasn't a good public pretender," Tennant says. "He's not a faker; he's not a phony."

Except for a stint as torchbearer when the Olympic flame arrived in the city Friday, Sullivan does not have the public profile he held in Torino. But people, remembering that moment in Italy, still seek him out.

"I never doubted the tremendous benefit this would have for the city," he says. "The day after the sporting events are over, I still get to wake up in Vancouver."

Meeting with Jean Chretien & Tom Pollak

2010-02-20T18:02:53Z

Former PM Jean Chretien, Sam Sullivan & Tom Pollak of Explore.org

Carrying the Olympic Torch

2010-02-13T23:21:24Z

What an honour it was to be able to carry the Olympic Torch through my old neighbourhood of East Vancouver. Thanks, Tom, for the great photos!

Sullivan carries the Olympic Torch

2010-02-12T21:26:55Z

Sullivan carries the Olympic Torch - Photo: The Province

Sam Sullivan to welcome torch to his old neighbourhood

2010-02-11T21:08:08Z

By Kristen Thompson, Metro Vancouver

Sam Sullivan has waited a long time for the Olympics to come to his hometown, and tomorrow the former mayor gets to carry the torch through the neighbourhood where he grew up -- Commercial Drive.

"It's a real (sense of) completing the circle," Sullivan said. "(Having) to leave my neighbourhood because of my disability, and then to be able to come back and have this ability to connect with my past -- it's really quite amazing."

The image of Sullivan, then Vancouver's mayor, receiving the Oslo flag in Turin and spinning in his chair has become iconic and made Sullivan the face of the Games in Vancouver.

"I'm amazed at all the people from different countries (who) ... recognize me (and) still think I'm the mayor," he said.

When Sullivan lost the mayoral seat to Gregor Robertson in late 2008, he told Metro Vancouver he was especially disappointed at not being able to welcome the world as the Olympic mayor.

As for the anti-Olympic protesters who are expected to line the streets for the portion of the torch relay along Commercial Drive, Sullivan said it "doesn't phase" him.

"I'm used to protests," Sullivan said. "It validates me."

Sam Sullivan: GlobalTV interview before Olympics

2010-02-09T21:36:38Z

GlobalTV reporter Rumina Day caught up with former mayor Sam Sullivan on Commercial Drive. See the video report here.

Joel Epstein: Exploring Vancouver With A True Olympian

2010-02-04T01:28:20Z

Source: Huffington Post

Next week when the Winter Olympics get underway in Vancouver, BC, many will recall the iconic image of Sam Sullivan waving a massive Olympic flag at the 2006 winter games in Turin, Italy. Were Sullivan just another athlete or Olympic official the image he cut would be long forgotten. But Sullivan is no ordinary gifted athlete or business of sports bureaucrat.

As the former mayor of Vancouver and a quadriplegic who worked tirelessly to ready the city and British Columbia for the games, Sullivan is an inspiring figure who will tower over the buff six and a half foot tall athletes at the games from his permanent perch in a wheelchair. Though he will never ski or ice skate again, as a living legend and champion of Vancouver -- and particularly its poor and dispossessed -- Sullivan deserves the Gold as much as any of the athletes who will be competing in this year's winter games.

Sam Sullivan is a builder, which is not easy for a quadriplegic. Whether it's designing on a napkin the one wheel contraption he now uses to "hike" in the mountains around Vancouver or as Mayor advocating for and authorizing the construction of the Canada Line (a north-south urban train line that runs to Richmond and the airport), the Downtown Streetcar and the new (and costly) Olympic Village; Sullivan is known as someone who gets things done.

But Sullivan does so much more than build with bricks and mortar. He's also fostering progress in Vancouver through his Global Civic Policy Society ("Policy without the politics") and lifting up the forgotten through his support of NAOMI, a drug rehab program for heroin addicts, and other programs for the city's needy. Global Civic which promotes a more engaged citizenry provides a forum for those who have dedicated their lives to local government through public office or the civil service. NAOMI, the North American Opiate Medication Initiative, is a clinical trial that is testing whether heroin-assisted therapy benefits people suffering from chronic opiate addictions who have not benefited from other treatments.

These programs, and other Vancouver initiatives inspired or championed by Sullivan are profiled in Sam Sullivan: Life in a Wheel, a new film from Explore, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit that champions the selfless acts of others. In the spirit of full disclosure, I work as a consultant for The Annenberg Foundation which is bound at the hip to Explore and has supported Sullivan's work through grants to the InnerChange Charitable Society and the Sam Sullivan Disability Foundation, among others. That's how I learned about Sullivan and his important work and inspiring story. As someone who works as a philanthropic advisor (among other things) I'm glad I did.

With the Winter Olympics just around the corner now is a good time to learn more about Sullivan and the way he is giving back to improve life for those less fortunate in Vancouver, the urban jewel in the Canadian crown. As an able bodied albeit overweight man in his late 40s, seeing the way Sullivan navigates around Vancouver in his wheelchair would be inspiring enough but there's much more to this exceptional human being and that is captured in Explore's film.

No one of course is perfect, and Sullivan has his critics as well. There are lots of people in Vancouver who blame him for the Olympic Village cost overrun and have nothing but disdain for his progressive drug policy and housing density initiatives. Indeed Sullivan lost his reelection bid for Mayor. Nonetheless, this is an exceptional individual worthy of an Explore profile. Viewing the film which can be found on line will help you judge for yourself.

The film follows Sullivan on a "hike" to the location where he was paralyzed 31 years ago during a skiing accident, sailing with the Disabled Sailing Association, traveling around Vancouver's neighborhoods with Explore's host Charles Annenberg Weingarten and visiting NAOMI, the heroin addiction treatment program he championed as Mayor. Speaking on film at NAOMI Sullivan explains that like the addicts who benefit from the controversial program that provides them with heroin and methadone while they are getting clean, "I manage my problem, I don't fix it." Sullivan is nothing if not an original thinker and (today) eternally upbeat individual. Near the end of the Explore film he states, "Before my disability there were 10 billion opportunities for me to explore. Now there's probably five billion, far more than I'll ever be able to attempt."

This sort of optimism from a man who has struggled much of his life to relearn limited use of his hands, arms, and shoulders and saw nine friends commit suicide is not common; but neither is Sullivan.

Over the next few weeks as we watch and read in the sports pages about the achievement of the world's greatest winter athletes it is worth paying tribute to the no-less spectacular achievement of Scott Sullivan. Explore's film is a fitting tribute to a gifted striver and achiever in his own right.

Joel Epstein is a corporate and philanthropic giving and strategic communications professional