According to reports of a private meeting of the IOC executive, suggestions were made that Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman apologize to the full IOC voting membership during TO-2008 bid’s official presentation tomorrow for his inappropriate remarks about Africans.
But Lastman said, “if I send a letter of apology before the 13th, I felt very strongly that it would be like asking for their vote and it wouldn’t be a sincere apology and I wanted to do it without asking for anything”.
Lastman explained his absence from the Toronto bid’s presentation to the international media Thursday by saying it was a provincial press conference and he never takes part in provincial press conferences.
But Lastman will have a key role in Friday’s 45-minute presentation to the IOC, although it will be on videotape. A source says the show will include tape of Lastman walking through various Toronto neighbourhoods to show the city’s cosmopolitan nature.
