Montreal was a city on the verge of a nervous breakdown in the weeks before the 1976 Olympics.
The Olympic Stadium tower and retractable roof wouldn’t go up for years, but it looked like competition facilities would be completed on time. The Games would go on. Excitement was building.
But so many things were going wrong.
At the vast east-end Olympic Park, chaos reigned. Construction workers were sabotaging the work site and working to rule, hoping to use their leverage to squeeze higher wages out of Quebec.
Fraud, collusion and corruption allegations were flying. There were growing calls for an investigation into enormous cost overruns.
Some Montrealers complained the city was an armed camp.
Soldiers patrolled airports, X-ray machines hummed in hotel lobbies, military helicopters buzzed overhead. Officials feared terrorists would target Montreal as they had the Munich Games four years earlier, when Palestinian terrorists murdered 11 members of Israel’s team.
Political turmoil was rife.
Pierre Trudeau, prime minister at the time, was threatening to bar Taiwan from the Games, angering the United States and other countries. Dozens of African, Arab and Caribbean countries were warning of a boycott if New Zealand were allowed to compete, pointing to its rugby team’s tour of apartheid South Africa.
Locally, the tension was thick between Montreal and Quebec. Then-premier Robert Bourassa, in a panic over lagging preparations, had taken control of the Games from then-mayor Jean Drapeau, who would later be officially blamed for the Olympic financial disaster.
There was, of course, an English-French war raging. The issue: the language of the air. As the world was preparing to fly to Montreal, thousands of Canadian pilots and air-traffic controllers walked off the job over Ottawa’s decision to allow the use of French between pilots and control towers in Quebec.
Construction workers involved in building 1976 Montreal Olympics facilities.
Labour strife was rampant. Workers of various stripes – from hospital nurses to liquor store workers to Hydro-Québec technicians to subway-car builders – paralyzed workplaces.
Did we mention the city was suffering through a heat wave?
Starting today through Aug. 1, the Montreal Gazette will run a special series looking at the 1976 Olympics — the triumphs, the scandals, the personal stories.
As Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, deals with its own monumental problems in the buildup to the 2016 Summer Games, here’s a look at the tense six weeks before the Olympic Cauldron was lit in Montreal.
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June 1: Work on the Vélodrome is completed, two years behind schedule. It was originally slated to open for the world cycling championships in June 1974.
Former Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau shows off the Olympic Vélodrome to then-IOC president Lord Killanin before the Montreal Games.
June 2: Accused of slowdowns and sabotage, plumbers working at the Big O speak out. They describe frequent shortages of tools, equipment and construction materials; thefts of equipment by individuals, work gangs and companies; constantly changing engineering plans forcing workers to tear up completed work and redo it; surprise electrical blackouts that leave crews with nothing to do for hours or entire shifts. The situation had been even worse in 1975, according to the biography Drapeau, by Brian McKenna and Susan Purcell: “Workers were being asked to work seven 12-hour days. Some took to sleeping their entire shifts in shacks on the site, others played cards endlessly for high stakes. A bootlegger sold booze and some workers were drunk most of the time. A lottery was established. Loan sharks set up shop. Marijuana and even heroine were available on the site. An investigation turned up a time-clock fraud, whereby workers paid certain time clerks to punch them in and out illegally, while they remained at home in bed, gambled or stayed in the tavern all day.”
June 3: Emergency safety precautions are put in place after the National Research Council declares the 7,000-seat Vélodrome roof a potential fire hazard because its plastic materials burn twice as fast as wood when ignited. Twelve firefighters will be stationed at the Vélodrome during competitions.
June 4: The opposition Parti Québécois demands a formal warning be issued to foreign visitors that they attend events at the Vélodrome at “their risk and peril.”
June 6: An eastern extension of the métro’s Green Line opens, adding nine stations over eight kilometres, including two stops — Viau and Pie-IX — that bookend the Olympic Park. But a strike by Bombardier workers has delayed the arrival of new subway cars. To deal with the expected crush of riders, cars are taken from the Orange Line.
June 7: About 1.5 million Olympic tickets go on sale. Available at Eaton’s downtown store, they must be purchased in person — no phone or mail orders — and can be charged to Eaton accounts or paid in cash.
June 8: Canadian-born media baron Lord Thomson of Fleet says Quebec has botched the Games. “If we had done the job in Ontario, we would not have had all this graft and corruption,” he tells a reporter. “Ontario would have done a better job.” A month earlier, the Olympic Installations Board had accused plumbers and electricians of cutting wires, plugging pipes and staging slowdowns. It had obtained an injunction that ordered the mischief to stop, but more than 100 workers had been fired for defying the order. And the OIB now says some electricians never returned to a regular work pace. “If (electricians’) work rhythm does not return to normal, we may not have as much electricity as we wanted,” the OIB says.
This Quebec government advertisement ran in the Montreal Gazette on June 9, 1976.
June 9: Ticket buyers are waiting up to 30 minutes at the Eaton’s counter. “We sold about 20,000 to 25,000 tickets the first two days, and there were several hundred people lined up before store opening hours” on the second day, an Eaton’s spokesperson says. With a provincial election in the offing and the PQ playing up Olympic mayhem, Bourassa had taken over the organizing of the Games. In a provincial government ad in the Gazette, Quebec portrays itself as a saviour and takes a jab at Montreal. “Yes, we’re ready and fiercely proud of what we’ve done and of the Quebec workers on the world’s biggest single project. Proud, too, that Quebec took up the challenge, saved the Games, and gave the whole world something to remember.”
June 11: The Quebec government says it isn’t clear yet whether it will launch a public inquiry into the Olympic price tag, which has risen to more than $1 billion. In 1970, Drapeau said the Games would cost no more than $120 million. (In the end, Quebecers would finally pay off the Olympics’ $1.5-billion debt in 2006, 30 years after the Games.)
June 13: Quebec officially hands over Olympic facilities to organizers. In a speech, Bourassa does not mention the role of Montreal – or Drapeau, who is at the ceremony but pointedly declines to speak. Bob Keaton, a councillor with the opposition Montreal Citizens’ Movement, says Bourassa’s Liberals are “just as much responsible for the incompetence, maladministration and exorbitant costs as the city administration.” The premier tells reporters a legislature committee with full powers to summon witnesses will “get the whole truth about the cost of the Games.”
June 15: A Gazette editorial pooh-poohs Bourassa’s legislature probe, saying it would be “dominated by the governing party of one of the levels involved in the investigation.” Instead, what is needed is an independent inquiry, it says.
June 16: With the Munich Olympic massacre still fresh in the world’s memory, security is tight at Montreal airports. RCMP and Canadian Armed Forces personnel man command posts around-the clock. Soldiers are armed with semi-automatic rifles and 9-mm pistols. “All sorts of additional armaments are available to us, but I’m not prepared to say what they are,” an official tells reporters. In the run-up to the Games, reports had surfaced about alleged “Arab terrorist” plots to target Montreal. In April 1975, the Gazette reported that terrorists had “penetrated the special security screen set up by the federal immigration department for the 1976 Olympics” and were in Canada. In the end, terrorism would not rear its head in Montreal.
Security was tight at Mirabel Airport during the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.
June 18: Eighty-thousand health-care workers start walking off the job, threatening to paralyze most Montreal hospitals. They want more money and changes to training and scheduling rules. Emergency rooms and occupancy rates are reduced to bare minimum. “It has become a crisis situation,” a Montreal police spokesperson tells the Gazette. “We don’t know where to take emergency cases anymore.”
June 20: Pilots and traffic controllers start walking off the job in a dispute that would last nine days, shutting down airlines and airports. Pilots say allowing French in flight communication makes flying dangerous. A post-Olympic economic slump is predicted, with few significant construction projects in sight. “The projected $1-billion deficit of the Games has thrown a monstrous monkey-wrench into both city and provincial finances,” the Gazette reports. A $2.8-billion post-Olympic transport plan — métro extensions, and road, bridge and commuter-train improvements — has been shelved. Military choppers are flying over Montreal to familiarize military officers with the city. Motorcycle cops are zipping around to estimate driving times in case of an Olympic emergency.
June 22: CF-5 fighter planes and military helicopters begin policing off-limits airspace over the Olympic sites. “We recognize there are many terrorist-guerilla organizations active today and because of worldwide television and newspaper coverage, the Games would provide a perfect setting for their exposure,” an official tells reporters. Instead of saddling residents with a direct bill, Drapeau suggests Quebec explore methods of “voluntary taxation” to finance Montreal’s $200-million share of the Games deficit. He proposes an extension to the Olympic lottery and a new tax on tobacco.
1976 Olympic Games in Montreal: Debbie Field and Mitchell Ettinger show off their tickets.
June 24: Striking nurses are urged to defy a court injunction ordering them back to work. American pilots are refusing to fly into Canada, saying tension over bilingual flight communications have made Canadian skies unsafe. Queen Elizabeth’s itinerary is announced. She will arrive at St-Hubert airport July 16, and be met by Bourassa and Drapeau. The next day, before she opens the Games, she will visit Montreal city hall to sign the Golden Book and have lunch at an event hosted by Drapeau. She will attend competitions over several days before departing July 26.
June 25: Some of the 1,000 official hostesses and guides are grumbling about training. Hostesses have been instructed to not chew gum, smoke, drink or get “personally involved” with the public while in uniform. “You wouldn’t want to be known as ‘les femmes faciles’ — easy women — around the world,” one hostess says her group was told. “They spend so much time telling us to take baths, keep our hair combed, brush our teeth, and wear deodorant, there is no time for us to find out what we are supposed to do,” she says. “I’m really concerned about what is going to happen when we actually start working and we don’t know how to direct the delegations to one of the stadiums.”
June 28: “Confusion reigned backstage at the dress rehearsal for the Olympic Games this weekend as organizers grappled with communication problems, ticket foul-ups, technical adjustments and security problems,” the Gazette reports. About 49,000 tickets were sold for the 35,000 available seats. During a downpour, the Vélodrome roof leaks, sending water onto the cycling track. Some spectators at dress rehearsals gripe about outrageous food prices — 75-cent hot dogs, $1 beer, $2 boxed lunches.
June 29: English-speaking pilots and traffic controllers call off their strike after Ottawa backs down. Angry francophone air-traffic controllers call a 48-hour “unlimited, selective work-to-rule campaign.” Jean Marchand, federal environment minister at the time, would resign from cabinet in protest. Quebec politicians suggest the racism and bigotry stirred up could lead Quebec to separate. (In 1979, French was finally allowed in the air, after a royal commission concluded bilingual control could be safely implemented.) Fraud and conspiracy charges are laid against developers of the Olympic Village. The OIB had seized control of the complex in April, citing escalating costs. The original estimate: $30 million. The new estimate: $90 million. Some English-speaking athletes complain about the Olympic Village. “Even though Village authorities have gone to great lengths to hire help for those who speak even obscure dialects, cafeteria staff refused to or could not speak English during the weekend,” the Gazette reports. Quebec says all commercial establishments, except grocery stores, can remain open beyond legal closing hours to accommodate an expected influx of hundreds of thousands of tourists.
Gallery: 1976 Summer Olympics photo flashbacks
The eyes of the world were on Montreal during the last two weeks of July 1976, when top athletes converged on the city for the Summer Olympics. History was witnessed – a male-female torch-bearer team, Nadia Comaneci’s perfect 10s, the African boycott. Here are some key moments captured during competitions, in the stands and around Montreal.
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July 1: The International Olympic Committee threatens to withdraw its sponsorship of the Montreal Games, saying Ottawa is overstepping its authority. The issue: Taiwan. Though Taiwan is self-ruled, the People’s Republic of China considers the island part of its territory. Under pressure from China, Ottawa is threatening to ban Taiwan unless it stops referring to itself as the Republic of China (Taiwan’s official name), using the flag of China, and playing the victory anthem of China. Taiwan won’t back down. The IOC says only it can decide who can compete. “We are in a position, one step removed, from cancelling the Olympic Games,” an IOC representative tells a reporter. “We would remove the name ‘Olympic’ from the Games and cancel all ceremonies and medal presentations. They would just become a Montreal sporting event.” Canada’s seven largest banks and a group of U.S. banking giants agree to a $700-million loan to cover a major portion of the Olympic debt.
Click on the image to look at the day’s edition of the Gazette on July 17, 1976.
July 2: Three thousand opening ceremony and 6,000 closing ceremony tickets are still available. Most are standing-room. Some Montrealers are renting their homes to out-of-towners attending the Games, for anywhere from $300 to $3,000 a week. Many are bypassing the official Olympic lodging bureau, created to inspect accommodations and set prices. Thirty families made homeless during the Games due to demolition or steep rent hikes have moved into temporary lodgings in a former school on Fullum St. An opposition MCM city councillor complains “the city can spend $1.5 billion for grandiose projects” but does “nothing for the real needs of the people.”
July 5: Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital, which was to treat any sick and injured Olympic athletes, can’t meet its agreement due to a staff shortage caused by ongoing strikes by nurses and X-ray technicians. “We look mighty stupid, but we can’t even serve our own population,” a hospital spokesperson says. The Montreal General Hospital steps in. Quebec liquor-store workers begin an unlimited strike, saying they’ll shut stores at least until after the Games. About 10,000 Hydro-Québec workers are holding rotating strikes. Hundreds of downtown business, restaurants and hotels are hit by electrical failures.
July 6: Ottawa orders that Taiwanese athletes, coaches and officials be barred from entering Canada while negotiations continue over their team’s official designation. Furious that New Zealand’s All Blacks rugby team is touring apartheid South Africa, African nations want the IOC to ban New Zealand from the Games. The IOC refuses, saying it has no power over rugby because it is not an Olympic sport.
Architect Roger Taillibert, centre, describes the Olympic Stadium design for then-mayor Jean Drapeau, left, and then-governor-general Jules Leger at the construction site in 1975.
July 7: Roger Taillibert, the controversial French architect who designed the Vélodrome, dismisses suggestions the facility is a fire ha