Female ski jumpers mount final appeal VANOC says it supports female jumpers but must obey IOC

CBC has posted the following item on their news blog.  You can post a comment on the same page if you apply online to send your feedback or posting.  http://www.cbc.ca/sports/amateur/story/2009/11/11/bc-women-ski-jumpers-appeal.html
A group of 14 female ski jumpers appear before the B.C. Court of Appeal on Thursday in their final bid for inclusion in the 2010 Winter Games.

The women claim Vancouver’s Olympic organizing committee, known as VANOC, is discriminating against them by not staging their event.

They lost in B.C. Supreme Court in July and were expected to argue before the Appeal Court that the judge’s findings in that hearing were flawed.

B.C. Supreme Court Judge Lauri Ann Fenlon ruled while it was discriminatory to exclude the female ski jumpers from the 2010 Games, it was not VANOC’s decision but that of the International Olympic Committee.

The IOC, Fenlon said, is not subject to Canadian human rights law.

But the lawyer for the ski jumpers told CBC News that he would argue that the pivotal fact is that Canadian human rights law does apply to VANOC.

“What we’re asking for and have always asked for — and I think the judge confused this in her reasons — is a declaration that VANOC cannot proceed under the Charter [of Rights and Freedoms] hosting a men’s event without hosting a women’s event,” Ross Clark said.