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David Braley, shown in this 2002 photo, is the new owner of the Toronto Argonauts. (Kevin Frayer/Canadian Press)

David Braley is now the owner of two CFL franchises.

The Toronto Argonauts announced Tuesday night that co-owners David Cynamon and Howard Sokolowski had reached an agreement to sell their club to Braley, who also owns the B.C. Lions. The move had been rumoured for weeks.

Braley is a Hamilton businessman who owns Orlick Industries Ltd., an auto parts manufacturer. A former owner of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, he acquired the B.C. Lions in 1997.

CFL commissioner Mark Cohon dismissed concerns about one person owning two teams, or 25 per cent of the league.

“We’d rather have one guy with considerable means who loves the game sit atop two franchises, than having a stop-gap measure and not get the right people into one of our most important franchises,” Cohon said.

“What I want to make sure of is that the league is in a stronger position moving forward, and I think under David’s helm it will be.

“Clearly, David has a love for this league and he wants to make sure that southern Ontario, and in particular the GTA, is strong. We’re not putting any timeline on [Braley owning two teams] because we want the fans in both cities to know that he’s committed to both franchises.”

Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

Braley wasn’t available for comment Tuesday and is expected to speak with the media Wednesday. But in a statement he addressed his first order of business: the status of GM Adam Rita and president Bob Nicholson, stating both men will remain with the organization.

“I believe strongly in the Argonauts brand and will work to turn the Double Blue into a winning team on the field and a leading franchise within the Canadian Football League,” Braley said. “It will take time and effort, but I am extremely confident that with the right people and plan in place, we will succeed on behalf of Argos fans.”

Looks for improvement

Braley, a former interim CFL commissioner, didn’t rule out selling the Argos some day but stressed that his most pressing need now is improving the team and franchise.

And there’s plenty of work to do. Braley takes over an Argos club that posted a league-worst 3-15 record last season and has missed the CFL playoffs the last two years. Earlier Tuesday, the Argos hired Jim Barker as their new coach, replacing Bart Andrus, who was fired in December after just one season.

Surprisingly, there’s nothing in the CFL’s constitution preventing one person from owning two different teams. There’s also plenty of support within the board of governors for Braley having two franchises.

However, recent constitutional amendments mean Cohon must be informed of any financial transactions made between owners, thus creating transparency. And Cohon made it clear his mandate is to do what’s in the best interests of the CFL as a whole.

“Any transactions between the football clubs I have to approve and I have the power to veto them if I don’t deem them as fair market value,” he said. “We’ll work forward in the future to make sure we don’t schedule Argos and Lions games late into the season.

“There’s a number of steps we can take to make sure the integrity of the game is there.”

Cynamon and Sokolowski have spent much of the off-season kicking around the idea of selling the franchise they rescued, or securing additional business partners to help offset their mounting losses.

“I’m very sad,” Cynamon told The Canadian Press. “This is not a day that I actually envisioned happening when I bought the team.”

‘A lot of interest’

A CFL source requesting anonymity said at least one group inquired about purchasing the Argos and had a representative meet with Cynamon and Sokolowski. However, the meeting ended quickly when the asking price was unveiled at between $12 million and $15 million.

Cohon said there was a lot of interest in the Argos, which extended the process. Cynamon and Sokolowski assumed control of the team seven years ago.

The two owners, with help from the CFL, had also attempted to land a new partner this off-season — reportedly approaching both TSN and Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz.

According to a published report, Katz was interested but backed away, leaving Braley as the only viable alternative.

Last June, it was revealed that Braley fronted Sokolowski and Cynamon half their $2-million franchise fee to purchase the Argos and continued to lend the team money.

Cynamon and Sokolowski joined forces to rescue the Argos from bankruptcy seven years ago. The team had been abandoned on the league’s doorstep by Sherwood Schwarz, the New York insurance magnate who had grown weary of suffering multimillion-dollar losses.

“We saved it from non-existence,” Cynamon said. “We don’t buy this team, it doesn’t exist. There was nobody else even kicking the tires. We think we’ve brought the brand up to respectability on the street — and that’s proven in the corporate sponsorship and ticket sales, which are in the triple-digit percentage growth increase.”

The duo won the Grey Cup in their first full season in charge, beating the B.C. Lions in 2004, and almost seemed destined to kick-starting a renaissance of Canadian football in the league’s most stubborn market. There was talk of a new stadium, and the promise of a stable franchise.

Some of the edges had already begun to fray. Plans for a new stadium on the University of Toronto’s downtown campus were opposed by some members of the school’s faculty, as well as students and local residents. The venue was envisioned to seat 25,000 and follow in the model of Molson Stadium, which had helped make tickets for the Alouettes a hot commodity in Montreal.

Stayed at Rogers Centre

The Argos were forced to move on and, after a similar plan dissolved at York University north of the downtown core, they settled back into Rogers Centre, signing a long-term lease in the venue they had been trying to escape.

Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, the parent company of the Maple Leafs and Raptors, had out-flanked the Argos to win a seat at what is now BMO Field — home of the popular Toronto FC soccer team.

Cynamon said he and Sokolowski exhausted all other avenues before committing to a sale, listing the failure to land the Argos their own, smaller venue as the major problem. Without that stadium, he said he felt he and Sokolowski had taken the Argos as far as they could.

“It’s a business day, but it’s a very sad one,” Cynamon said. “I think there’s a lot more emotion that goes into a public entity and a sports franchise than a typical business. Even though this is a relatively small transaction for Howard and I — somewhat immaterial in financial terms — it’s the most material in emotional terms.”

The Vancouver Canucks fell victim to two red-hot hockey players in Antero Niittymaki and Martin St. Louis.

Niittymaki stopped 39 of 40 shots and St. Louis scored twice in the third period, including the short-handed winner, as the Tampa Bay Lightning struck down the visiting Canucks 3-1 on Tuesday night.

St. Louis also earned an assist, while Steven Stamkos contributed a goal and assist for the Lightning (26-21-11), winners of four straight games and seven of their last nine (7-1-1).

It is Tampa Bay’s first four-game winning streak since November 2007.

Ryan Kesler replied with a power-play goal for the Canucks (35-21-2), now 2-3 on their eight-game, pre-Olympic road trek.

“We want to make sure we are better than .500 on the road trip,” Canucks netminder Roberto Luongo said. “Our road record is not where we want it to be and we have to find ways to be better on the road.”

Vancouver had several chances to open the scoring early in the first period, with both Mikael Samuelsson and Henrik Sedin ringing shots off the left post and Steve Bernier clanking a shot off the crossbar behind Niittymaki.

At the other end, Stamkos staked Tampa Bay to a 1-0 lead eight minutes into the contest, firing a wrist shot from the faceoff circle past Luongo for his 31st goal this season.

Stamkos has points in each of his past 10 games, compiling eight goals and eight assists over that span.

The Canucks outshot the Lightning 15-5 in the second, but Niittymaki held them at bay, including foiling Alex Burrows on a breakaway.

But with seven seconds left, Kesler received a return pass from Christian Erhoff off a faceoff and counted his 15th goal on a rising screen shot from the top of the circle.

“It was a great screen by Bernier and a great shot by Kesler,” Canucks assistant coach Rick Bowness said.

St. Louis restored Tampa Bay’s lead on an odd-man rush with Stamkos 2:52 into the third period, collecting Kyle Wellwood’s blind pass in the neutral zone and curling the puck inside of Erhoff before snapping a shot between Luongo’s pads for a gorgeous short-handed tally.

Luongo kept the Canucks within striking distance with a lunging glove save on Vincent Lecavalier — it was upheld by video review — but St. Louis’ second goal of the game and 20th overall completed the scoring with 4:20 remaining.

With files from The Canadian Press

The Ottawa Senators continue to breathe down the necks of the NHL Northeast Division-leading Buffalo Sabres.

The Senators notched their 12th win in the last 13 games with a 3-2 come-from-behind win over the visiting Calgary Flames on Tuesday.

The win also snapped the Sens’ five-game losing streak against the Flames (29-22-9), who have now lost two straight.

Ottawa (34-22-4) moved into a tie in points with the Sabres, who picked up a solitary point in their shootout loss to the Boston Bruins on Tuesday.

Buffalo (32-18-8) still controls the division and the third seed in the Eastern Conference by virtue of having the better point-percentage, having played two fewer games.

Jason Spezza’s bad-angle goal late in the second period stood up as the game winner for Ottawa while Calgary’s Jarome Iginla had two assists — his ninth and 10th points in the last eight games — in a losing effort.

For better or worse for their new team, two former Toronto Maple Leafs had a hand in both goals in the first period.

Niklas Hagman scored his first goal as a Flame to open the scoring 16:51 in, thanks to a great feed from Iginla.

With the Calgary captain leading a 3-on-2 rush into the Senators zone, Hagman took a pass in the slot and launched a slapshot over the glove of Brian Elliot and into the top corner.

That lead lasted only 19 seconds as an interference penalty assessed to another new Flame, Ian White, was converted off a pinballing shot by Alex Kovalev.

With 2:50 remaining in the first, Kovalev had his shot from the faceoff circle deflect past Miikka Kiprusoff off both Calgary’s Jay Bouwmeester and Daymond Langkow.

Iginla feeding new Flames

The second period saw another new Flame benefiting from a pinpoint pass from Iginla.

Heading into the low slot on a rush into the Ottawa zone, Matt Stajan took a backhand pass from Iginla, made a quick deke on Elliot before lifting the puck over the goalie’s blocker to re-take the lead 3:18 into the second period.

Stajan and Hagman each finished with a goal and an assist, but that was the last goal given up by the Senators goalie, who rebounded from getting the hook in their last game, a 5-0 loss to Toronto on Saturday.

“It didn’t take us long to get back out on the ice and prove that we’re the team that we are. We’ve just got to keep doing this on every night and not have off nights,” Elliott said.

The Senators’ Jonathan Cheechoo looked to have the tying goal on his stick about five minutes after the Stajan goal, but Kiprusoff absolutely robbed the struggling forward as he tried to stuff in a wraparound attempt.

Diving across his crease, Kiprusoff denied an almost sure goal as he laid his outstretched stick across the goal-line to deny Cheechoo’s chance.

But the Finnish goaltender couldn’t stop the next shot he faced, a Jarkko Ruutu wrister that tied the game with just over half the period left to go. The Senators pest got the chance after the Flames coughed up the puck on their own half-boards.

Hagman returns

Calgary got a scare soon after when Hagman left the ice favouring his left shoulder following an open-ice hit from behind by Senators defenceman Anton Volchenkov. Hagman went to the dressing room but returned to the ice before the end of the period.

Spezza put his team on top for good with his weird-angle shot with 3:23 to go in the middle frame.

Sitting at the bottom of the faceoff circle on Kiprusoff’s glove side, Spezza took a pass across the slot from Cheechoo and proceeded to rifle the puck from on one knee, sending the Senators to the dressing room at the second intermission with a 3-2 lead.

“I’m just trying to get myself around the net and capitalizing on my chances,” said Spezza. “The team is playing real well and individuals do well when the team is playing well.

“We’ve got to win a couple of games here and then get some rest [during the Olympics]. These are important games and everybody’s looking forward to the rest. It’s been a tough grind.”

The Flames managed only six shots in the scoreless third period.

“I’m not happy at all,” Flames coach Brent Sutter said. “That game was there for us tonight to get some points and we just didn’t play a good enough game here after the first 28 minutes to expect to win. It wasn’t good enough.”

With files from the Canadian Press

Calgary Flames goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff, left, looks on as Ottawa Senator Peter Regin (43) and Flame Ian White (3) battle for the puck in the first period in Ottawa on Tuesday. (Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)

The Ottawa Senators continue to breathe down the necks of the NHL Northeast Division-leading Buffalo Sabres.

The Senators notched their 12th win in the last 13 games with a 3-2 come-from-behind win over the visiting Calgary Flames on Tuesday.

The win also snapped the Sens’ five-game losing streak against the Flames (29-22-9), who have now lost two straight.

Ottawa (34-22-4) now moves into a tie in points with the Sabres, who picked up a solitary point in their shootout loss to the Boston Bruins on Tuesday.

Buffalo (32-18-8) still controls of the division and the third seed in the Eastern Conference by virtue of having the better point-percentage, having played two fewer games.\

More to come

Finance Minister Ted Morton, right, delivers the Alberta budget in Edmonton on Tuesday while Treasury Board President Lloyd Snelgrove scans some pages next to him. (John Ulan/The Canadian Press)Alberta’s Progressive Conservative government is projecting a record $4.75-billion budget deficit and planning cuts in many departments while increasing health-care spending by 16.6 per cent.

“We’ve chosen to make cuts in some areas and increase spending in others to protect essential services,” Finance Minister Ted Morton said Tuesday at a news conference before his budget speech.

“These choices, we believe, strike the right balance between spending too much and spending too little, between fiscal discipline and protecting essential services, and between funding services today and also not saddling future generations with debt.”

The government is projecting it will spend $38.7 billion during the 2010-11 fiscal year while taking in revenues of $34 billion, up slightly from the previous year. The budget contains no tax increases.

The government of Premier Ed Stelmach plans to cover the deficit for Alberta Health Services, the province-wide health board, at $542 million for the current fiscal year and $759 million in 2010-11, with the latter number including $40 million in pension adjustments for AHS staff.

AHS is also getting a $512-million — or six per cent — increase in its base funding.

Overall, health-care spending will rise to $14.85 billion from $12.74 billion.

The province is also raising the possibility of Alberta’s first public-sector job losses since the 1990s. While the final numbers have not been determined, the layoffs could amount to about 250 full-time jobs.

Education funding will rise slightly, increasing 0.7 per cent — or $43 million — on an overall budget of $6.1 billion.

The province’s “rainy-day” Sustainability Fund — built from budget surpluses in previous years — is estimated to end the 2010-11 year at $8.6 billion, down from the $15 billion forecast for the end of 2009-10.

The fund is forecast to sit at $2.8 billion by the end of the 2012-13 fiscal year.

15 departments face cuts`

Treasury Board President Lloyd Snelgrove defended the government’s spending decisions.

“While it’s all right to suggest we could cut $5 billion, I would feel a lot more comfortable if they [critics] could show Albertans where they would like to cut the $5 billion from and see if Albertans support longer waiting lists, no roads, 60 people in the classroom,” he said.

Finance Minister Ted Morton, left, and Treasury Board president Lloyd Snelgrove listen to a reporter’s question at the Alberta legislature Tuesday. (Michelle Bellefontaine/CBC)“I quite frankly think we are one of the few places that has the courage to talk about addressing health care on an ongoing basis and not being afraid to fund it.”

In last year’s budget, the government said it would have to find $2 billion in cuts if the economy didn’t improve. A total of $1.3 billion was found and put toward health care because the economy is showing signs of recovery.

According to Morton, about eight departments saw increases to their spending, while 15 will face reduced budgets.

Children and Youth Services faces a $36-million drop in spending, with nearly $28 million in cuts coming from child intervention services, now budgeted at $382 million. Spending for foster care will be $163 million, an increase of $1 million from the previous year.

Culture and Community Spirit will see a 15.1 per cent drop in its operating budget.

The province plans to maintain the forecasted 2009-10 funding levels for the Persons with Developmental Disabilities program. While it has slightly increased spending on the Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) benefit, the maximum monthly income amount of $1,188 will remain the same.

Alberta school boards will see a 4.6 per cent — or $246 million —increase in the money they get for their operating budgets, which will total $5.6 billion in 2010-11.

Morton lost credibility, Wildrose leader says

The amount of government spending was slammed by the leaders of opposition parties on both sides of the political spectrum.

“We’re all going to have to sacrifice? That was a bunch of baloney,” said Danielle Smith, leader of the right-wing Wildrose Alliance Party. “We knew it was all rhetoric and that we were going to see a sea of red ink but, man, I didn’t expect this.”

“This budget shows they’ve given up any hope of controlling spending … I think that minister Morton has lost a lot of credibility today by putting his name to this train wreck.”

Smith said her party has come up with some alternatives that will be announced at a press conference Wednesday.

Liberal Leader David Swann said he was shocked by the amount of spending.

“They’re addicted to spending and not looking at where the money is going,” he said, singling out the government’s decision to cover the AHS deficit. “They’re simply covering their asses.”

Swann said he will call for an audit on health-care spending.

While Alberta NDP Leader Brian Mason had less of a problem with the amount of spending, he was concerned about the long-term effects of relying on the Sustainability Fund to reduce the deficit.

“It’s postponing a greater problem and Alberta’s revenues have not kept up with the expenditures,” he said.

Concerns about the Sustainability Fund were shared by Scott Hennig, Alberta director of the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation.

“That’s supposed to get them through the next two years?” he asked. “Good luck … not if they’re going to continue to run deficits at almost $5 billion a year.”

Doctors from the University of Miami hospital speak during a news conference at the international airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Monday after a man was pulled from rubble nearly a month after the earthquake. (Kena Betancur/Reuters)

A 28-year-old man was pulled from rubble in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Monday, claiming to have been trapped there since the massive earthquake on Jan. 12, according to media reports.

Villagers were rummaging through the ruins of a marketplace when they found the man buried underneath. Two Haitians told medical officials he may have been supplied with food and water during his reported ordeal.

Nery Ynclan, a University of Miami media officer in Haiti, said the patient was in stable condition Tuesday and being treated for dehydration and malnutrition at a field hospital near the airport.

The man identified himself as Evans Monsigrace, 28, she said, adding that his family told doctors varying accounts of his ordeal.

The man has normal kidney function, suggesting he had food and water at least for a week if he was trapped Jan. 12, Ynclan said. “Someone could not survive 28 days without water,” she said. “You can go nine weeks without food.

“He came in delirious, asking to die,” Ynclan added, saying Creole translators were at the field hospital. “He’s still out of it. He answers basic questions,” she said, adding that he is nibbling on chocolate and probably will be at the field hospital for a week.

Death toll expected to rise

Meanwhile, Haiti’s government raised the death toll of the earthquake to 230,000 on Tuesday, a figure that matches the toll of the 2004 tsunami in Asia. The toll is expected to rise further as more bodies are counted.

Another 300,000 people were injured in the quake, including an estimated 2,000 to 4,000 people who required amputations, often necessary because fractures have been left untreated for too long.

The Canadian government says at least 27 Canadians were killed in the quake, while 70 Canadians are still unaccounted for.

With files from The Associated Press

Finance Minister Ted Morton, left, and Treasury Board president Lloyd Snelgrove listen to a reporter’s question at the Alberta legislature Tuesday. (Michelle Bellefontaine/CBC)Alberta’s Progressive Conservative government is projecting a record $4.75-billion budget deficit and planning cuts in many departments while increasing health-care spending by 16.6 per cent.

“We’ve chosen to make cuts in some areas and increase spending in others to protect essential services,” Finance Minister Ted Morton said Tuesday at a news conference that preceded his budget speech.

“These choices, we believe, strike the right balance between spending too much and spending too little, between fiscal discipline and protecting essential services, and between funding services today and also not saddling future generations with debt.”

The government is projecting it will spend $38.7 billion during the 2010-11 fiscal year while taking in revenues of $34 billion, up slightly from the previous year. The budget contains no tax increases.

The government of Premier Ed Stelmach plans to cover the deficit for Alberta Health Services, the province-wide health board, at $542 million for the current fiscal year and $759 million in 2010-11, with the latter number including $40 million in pension adjustments for AHS staff.

AHS is also getting a $512-million — or six per cent — increase in its base funding.

Overall health-care spending will rise to $14.85 billion from $12.74 billion.

The province is also raising the possibility of Alberta’s first public-sector job losses since the 1990s. While the final numbers have not been determined, the layoffs could amount to about 250 full-time jobs.

Education funding will rise slightly, increasing 0.7 per cent — or $43 million — on an overall budget of $6.1 billion.

The province’s “rainy-day” Sustainability Fund — built from budget surpluses in previous years — is estimated to end the 2010-11 year at $8.6 billion, down from the $15 billion forecast for the end of 2009-10.

The fund is forecast to sit at $2.8 billion by the end of the 2012-13 fiscal year.

15 departments face cuts`

Treasury Board president Lloyd Snelgrove defended the government’s spending decisions.

“While it’s all right to suggest we could cut $5 billion, I would feel a lot more comfortable if they [critics] could show Albertans where they would like to cut the $5 billion from and see if Albertans support longer waiting lists, no roads, 60 people in the classroom,” he said.

“I quite frankly think we are one of the few places that has the courage to talk about addressing health care on an ongoing basis and not being afraid to fund it.”

In last year’s budget, the government said it would have to find $2 billion in cuts if the economy didn’t improve. A total of $1.3 billion was found and put toward health care because the economy is showing signs of recovery.

According to Morton, about eight departments saw increases to their spending, while 15 will face reduced budgets.

Children and Youth Services faces a $36-million drop in spending, with nearly $28 million in cuts coming from child intervention services, now budgeted at $382 million. Spending for foster care will be $163 million, an increase of $1 million from the previous year.

Culture and Community Spirit will see a 15.1 per cent drop in its operating budget.

The province plans to maintain the 2009-10 funding levels for the Persons with Developmental Disabilities program. While it has slightly increased spending on the Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) benefit, the maximum monthly income amount of $1,188 will remain the same.

Alberta school boards will see a 4.6 per cent — or $246 million —increase in the money they get for their operating budgets, which will total $5.6 billion in 2010-11.

Morton lost credibility, Wildrose leader says

The amount of government spending was slammed by the leaders of opposition parties on both sides of the political spectrum.

“We’re all going to have to sacrifice? That was a bunch of baloney,” said Danielle Smith, leader of the right-wing Wildrose Alliance Party. “We knew it was all rhetoric and that we were going to see a sea of red ink but, man, I didn’t expect this.”

“This budget shows they’ve given up any hope of controlling spending … I think that minister Morton has lost a lot of credibility today by putting his name to this train wreck.”

Smith said her party has come up with some alternatives that will be announced at a press conference Wednesday.

Liberal Leader David Swann said he was shocked by the amount of spending.

“They’re addicted to spending and not looking at where the money is going,” he said, singling out the government’s decision to cover the AHS deficit. “They’re simply covering their asses.”

Swann said he will call for an audit on health-care spending.

While Alberta NDP Leader Brian Mason had less of a problem with the amount of spending, he was concerned about the long-term effects of relying on the Sustainability Fund to reduce the deficit.

“It’s postponing a greater problem and Alberta’s revenues have not kept up with the expenditures,” he said.

Concerns about the Sustainability Fund were shared by Scott Hennig, Alberta director of the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation.

“That’s supposed to get them through the next two years?” he asked. “Good luck … not if they’re going to continue to run deficits at almost $5 billion a year.”

A dope-testing lab considered the most sophisticated in the world is up and running for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Built in back of the speedskating oval in nearby Richmond, B.C., and under heavy security, the temporary lab has already run more than 200 tests, although there was no word on whether any came up positive.

“We are now conducting pre-competition testing,” lab director Christiane Ayotte, who also runs Canada’s only permanent dope-testing facility in Laval, Que., said Tuesday as she conducted a tour for the news media.

“This is something the International Olympic Committee implemented a couple of Games ago, recognizing that doping agents may be used not only at the time of competition, but also in preparation.”

A fully staffed and equipped lab is needed on site at the Olympics because test results are required within 24 to 36 hours to catch cheaters before they have a chance to skate another heat or enter another event. At a permanent lab, it would take 10 days to process a blood or urine sample.

The lab, with a staff of about 35, will operate 24 hours a day through the Games, processing 1,600 urine tests and more than 400 blood tests, or about 90 per day. Another 400 tests will be performed at the Paralympics in March.

About half of the equipment was shipped west from Ayotte’s Laval lab, but the rest came from around the world, including some of the latest technology for analyzing samples. And when the Richmond facility is dismantled after the Games, the new machinery will go to the permanent lab, which Ayotte said will be part of the 2010 Olympics legacy.

The dope-testers don’t promise to catch every cheater, but they are confident their techniques and equipment have improved to the point that they are winning the war against banned substances.

“The methods we have today are far better than 20 years ago,” said Arne Ljungqvist, chairman of the IOC medical commission and a vice-president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). “I’d say the Games are getting cleaner and cleaner all the time.”

‘Everything detectable should be detected’

It was 22 years ago that the most famous positive test in Olympic history was made — nailing Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson for a banned anabolic steroid after he won the men’s 100-metre sprint in world-record time at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

But while steroids and masking agents for the muscle-building drugs got finer after that, so did the tests, which can find traces 1,000 times smaller than even five years ago.

“We are confident that everything detectable should be detected,” said Ayotte.

They are also confident they have the best people in their lab.

About half the staff come from Laval, but the rest are from around the world, including WADA-accredited facilities in Paris, Vienna, Cologne, Germany and Lausanne, Switzerland.

All the top experts in the field are also on hand, as well as lab directors from the last two Games in Turin, Italy, and Beijing, along with one for the next Summer Olympics in 2012 in London.

Their lab is hidden at the back of the oval and would likely not be noticed by spectators there for the speedskating. As test samples are top secret and must be protected from any tampering, a high-tech electronic security system is in place that had to be put on “disarm” temporarily as visiting reporters filed in.

Inside, the lab is packed with work benches where about a dozen white-coated technicians, all looking deep in concentration, ran samples in glass vials and bottles through gleaming-white machines in a wide variety of tests.

Rows of bottles and beakers are everywhere, while a separate room has large stainless steel refrigerators for storing samples.

Photographers and cameramen were prohibited from taking pictures of any bottle with a code number on it to protect the identity of the samples.

‘Our job is to catch athletes’

During the Games, samples will come in each night from the various sports venues. Staff will sort the samples — two for each urine test — and begin screening them for banned substances.

If anything suspicious is found, thorough testing on the A-sample is conducted the next day to confirm a positive test. If so, the B-sample is tested to verify the findings.

They hope there are no positive tests, but it seems there are always some who try to beat the system.

“Our job is to catch the athletes who may be doping,” said Ljungqvist. “They have no place in the Games and we want to protect the athletes who compete clean.”

A Montreal inventor has developed a three-dimensional baggage scanner that he says can make air travel safer and more convenient for passengers.

William Awad is also putting the finishing touches on a more modest body scanner machine, which highlights metal or organic material on a generic human outline, but does not show the contours under people’s clothing.

However, his toughest challenge could prove to be getting his machines into airports. During a recent demonstration in Awad’s Montreal office, when he put a carry-on suitcase through a conventional baggage scanner, nothing of concern showed up.

Then, when the bag was put through Awad’s machine — which has the power to reveal many of the blind spots inside suitcases — several knives and stimulated explosives were found.

Reid Morden, a former director of Canada’s spy agency CSIS, called Awad’s inventions a quantum step forward in passenger safety.

“The current technology is really passé and the people who want to do bad things in the air, and there are a lot of them, are increasingly sophisticated,” he said.

But it will be a challenge for a small Canadian company to crack the U.S.-dominated airline security market, said Andrew Thomas, editor of the Journal of Transportation Security.

Obtaining approval from the American Transportation Security Administration is a political process more than anything, he said.

“There still is the ability to influence the process through congressional or bureaucratic connections and you could just simply look at the board of directors of a lot of these companies to see that there is an influence there from former government officials.”

Awad said he has started the lengthy process to obtain TSA certification, which is key to getting into Canadian airports.

In the meantime, Awad is in talks to install his machines in prisons, courts and hotels, mostly outside Canada.

David Braley, shown in this 2002 photo, is the new owner of the Toronto Argonauts. (Kevin Frayer/Canadian Press)

Toronto Argonauts co-owners David Cynamon and Howard Sokolowski have completed an agreement to sell the franchise to B.C. Lions owner David Braley.

League commissioner Mark Cohon praised Cynamon and Sokolowski for their work over the past six years after the CFL board of governors approved the sale Tuesday and endorsed Braley, a former interim CFL commissioner.

“This is the next step forward for one of our oldest and greatest franchises,” Cohon said in a release. “David Braley is one amazing Canadian, deeply committed to this country and what makes it strong and unique and vibrant, especially the Canadian Football League.

“He has a track record of tremendous success in our league, in his personal business endeavours and charitable activities, and I know he will work tirelessly to make the Argos successful.”

Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

The sale was rumoured for weeks and gives Braley (also a former owner of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats franchise) control over 25 per cent of the teams in the league, something Cohon considers a non-issue.

“We are unanimous in the belief we would much rather have an exemplary person with considerable financial resources and an undeniable love for our league sit atop two franchises than have any one of our franchises owned by someone of uncertain means,” Cohon said.

Braley’s first announcement as the Argos owner was to state that current president and CEO Bob Nicholson will stay on with the club, as will general manager Adam Rita and newly minted head coach Jim Barker.

“I believe strongly in the Argonauts brand and will work to turn the Double Blue into a winning team on the field and a leading franchise within the Canadian Football League,” Braley said. “It will take time and effort, but I am extremely confident that with the right people and plan in place, we will succeed on behalf of Argos fans.”

The Argonauts have missed the playoffs in the last two seasons, and posted a CFL-worst 3-15 record in 2009.