Vancouver, Canada – A mentally ill man with a homemade security pass was able to get within metres of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden during a security breach at the Opening Ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, CTV News has learned.
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As dozens of police held back thousands of protestors outside of BC Place in Vancouver, a 48-year-old British Columbia man slipped past several layers of security inside the venue, said RCMP Assistant Commissioner Bud Mercer, the head of the 2010 Integrated Security Unit (ISU).
Mercer said the man’s target was clear.
“He had an infatuation with the US Vice President.”
Biden was seated in a section reserved for dignitaries. Twelve steps away from the VP and out of view of the cameras, the man started making his way down the stairs after the national anthem ended.
That’s when two female plainclothes Mounties charged with protecting Biden acted, Mercer said.
“They described him to me as simply not fitting in,” he said.
“They approached him, determined that the accreditation he was carrying was forged or fake, confronted him and escorted him out one or two steps at which point he attempted to run and was taken into custody.”
Mercer, who heads up the unit tasked with securing the Games, says members of his team were also providing security for the Vice President while he was in Vancouver taking in Olympic events.
Mercer says the man was not carrying a weapon and did not intend to harm Biden.
He had managed to get close to him with a homemade all-access pass.
A picture of the pass obtained by CTV News makes clear it had nothing to do with the Opening Ceremony and appears to be text printed off the internet and laminated.
Mercer says checking passes is the responsibility of the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee and event services on the outside of the venue.
In order to get into the stadium, the public first had to pass through a checkpoint manned by Vanoc staff.
Those people do not fall under the umbrella of the official billion dollar security team which involves thousands of police and military personal.
The man did encounter officers at the next checkpoint — where he was scanned for potential weapons. But Mercer says police would have assumed his credentials were in order because he got past the first entry point.
He insists the security system did work — eventually – and that the vice president was never in danger. Mercer said Biden’s secret service staff complimented the two Mounties involved.
“I think the exact words were ‘job well done. Remind me not to mess with you,'” he said.
The RCMP says it has not made any changes to it security protocols because of the breech.
Police say the man will not face charges. He has been committed to a psychiatric facility for treatment.
No big deal…these episodes are almost a daily occurrence when the security is handled by locals but the last one or two rings of professional security always picks up the problems (thats why the WH episosde with the party crashers last month got so much publicity). Your never going to get a 100 percent failsafe system. The objective is to keep the number of outer security breaches to a minimum which they did.
The guy must be Canadian, because there aren’t too many Americans who have this “infatuation” with VP Biden.
If you had read the article, the second paragraph would have left you with do doubt that the man was in fact British.
if u really would have read it, then it actually says, a british columbia man, which means that he was canadian. british columbia and british people are to very different things, british is from england, and british columbia is in canada………………………………..
To #4 , FYI, British Columbia is a province in Canada so in fact the man is Canadian not British!
To #5 : for your info, thats exactly what i was saying… but thanks for making it sound clearer than i made it sound.. fact is it happens to be that i am from vancouver british columbia!!!! lol
It’s Amazing that Biden, charged with protecting the world’s environment, has time to pack up the crew, load up airforce and fly out to watch a games that he could have watched on tv and thereby saved the US government (we, the taxpayer) the cost of fuel, maintenace, and security teams flownout to Vancouver; and saved the environment from the exhaust fumes of thousands of gallons of jet “A”. But like tree hugger, AL Gore, saving the environment is something we, the little guys, have to do, not something the guys that tell us about it have to do.
With over 1 billion dollor security and all the big talk on security. It is clearly that the security is not doing their jobs, the vancouver police and RCMP are push the responsbility to the olympic organizer. We got very lucky this time !!!