Olympic torch arrives in Canada

VICTORIA, British Columbia, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- The Olympic torch for the 2010 Winter Games arrived in the western Canadian city of Victoria, British Columbia, Friday on a flight from Athens.

A military aircraft touched down 90 minutes late with the torch, which was paddled across the harbor by Indians in dugout canoes to the provincial legislature where the ceremonial cauldron was lit from it, the Victoria Times-Colonist reported.

The torch will begin a record 28,000-mile journey that will take the flame to every province and territory -- to 1,036 communities -- and back for the opening ceremonies of the games in Vancouver Feb. 12.

Soon after the flame's arrival, police arrested one protester for assaulting a plainclothes police officer, the newspaper said.

Hundreds of other protesters were expected to participate in a rally organized by the Five-Ring Circus Anti-Olympics Festival and police said they would be monitoring it closely.