Instead most Canadians will have to make do with highlights that will be shown on CTV tomorrow.

It was only earlier today that CTV announced that it had changed his mind and had decided to show the event at BC Place in Vancouver and the rest of British Columbia.

Sir Philip had tried to put pressure on CTV to change their mind and broadcast the Ceremony nationwide.

He said: "It absolutely smacks in the face of one of our four values, which is equality.

"So, when I heard this, I was not very happy about it, at all.

"I think they're really missing out, not getting it to the rest of the country.

"These are Canada's Games, and they should be all over the country.

"It seems they've [CTV] partially responded [by showing Ceremony in British Columbia].

"I'm glad there's been some improvement, but it's not everything that should have been done.”

But a spokesman for CTV claimed that it was unfair to criticise the decision and that their coverage should not be compared to last month's Olympics, when they broadcast more than 2,200 hours of coverage.

They plan to show 57 hours during the Paralympics, 30 in French and 27 in English.

The spokesman said: "It would be erroneous to compare coverage of the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Games to coverage of the 2010 Olympic Games.

"For an accurate count, you must compare this year's Paralympic Games coverage to what has been delivered in the past.

"When you look at these statistics, the Consortium's coverage of the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games is far and away more robust than what Canadians have ever received."

Sir Philip was less critical of the BBC's decision to show only an hour's highlights of the Games on BBC2 on March 22.

He told insideworldparasport: "It would have been good to have had more but Britain is not a winter sports nation and they have a relatively small team here."


Related stories
March 2010: BBC defend lack of Paralympic coverage as CTV cave into pressure to show Opening Ceremony live