A value of $1.2 million has been put on Canada’s boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games. That’s the figure sport minister Gerald Regan says will be paid to the Canadian Olympic Association (COA) “in compensation for losses resulting from the boycott.”

In making the announcement, Regan pointed out that following the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union in December 1977, the Canadian government urged the COA to boycott the Summer Games. In April 1980, the COA took the decision to accede to the government’s wishes.

The payment of $1.2 million is intended to compensate the COA for the reduction in revenues it would normally have received from corporate sponsors if Canada had sent a team to Moscow. The revenue loss is expected to seriously affect the COA’s ability to implement long-term sport development projects in the three years remaining before the 1984 Games, said the minister.

Regan also noted that two other major boycotting nations — West Germany and the United States — have also decided to compensate either their athletes or their Olympic associations in some form.

“The Canadian Olympic Association,” said Regan, “holds a unique position, having responsibility for organizing the participation of Canadian athletes in the Olympic Games, and it (the COA) voluntarily supported government policy by respecting the boycott request.”

Regan also emphasized the uniqueness of the situation and said that the decision should not be interpreted as setting a precedent regarding compensation for losses suffered as a result of government foreign policy decisions.

The statement coincided with another which announced that Canadian grain farmers will receive $81 million in compensation for losses resulting from the government’s embargo of wheat shipments to the Soviet Union because of the Afghanistan situation.

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