Vancouver 2010 Paralympics - Torch Relay, Opening Ceremony

About 600 people will carry the flame across Canada before the Paralympic Games begin with the Opening Ceremony on March 12 and end on March 21.

Elders from the Pikwakanagan and Kitigan Zibi Algonquin communities ignited and blessed the flame during a special ceremony on Victoria Island before it was placed in a lantern and brought to Parliament Hill where Paralympian Arnold Boldt dipped his torch to start the relay. He then handed of the flame to 15 other torchbearers at the ceremony, each taking a turn circling the Centennial Flame.

The flame will make its way to Vancouver with a new Paralympic flame created by members of the local aboriginal community in accordance with their customs, wherever the daily torch relay celebration takes place.

It's stopping in Quebec City Thursday, and Friday the flame will be in Toronto where a concert performance by local musicians is scheduled. The flame arrives in Victoria on Saturday.

Ashes from each flame creation ceremony will be collected and united in the final fire on March 11 at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and then carried to the official opening of the Games.

About 1,000 athletes and officials from more than 40 countries will take part in five sports - alpine skiing, cross country skiing, biathlon, wheelchair curling and ice sledge hockey.

The Opening Ceremony of the Paralympic Games will be at B.C. Stadium where 5,000 performers will be featured, more than at the Olympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

Executive producer Patrick Roberge said Tuesday that the ceremony will be a high-energy, friendly event, featuring audience participation.

He said, "the show's really all about inspiration. We're celebrating ability and trying to pick up where the Olympics left off, with Canadian pride. We want to show the Paralympians that Canada's ready to welcome them like no other country".

He added that while the Opening Ceremony will feature well-known artists and Canadian personalities, the show's more about a "collective" experience".

The show will feature some of the same elements as the Olympic ceremonies, including a parade of athletes, the raising of the Paralympic flag, and the lighting of a cauldron outside the stadium.

Two outside cauldrons, the one used during the Olympics in downtown Vancouver, and a Paralympic cauldron in Whistler will be lit simultaneously.