Canada’s American Style Arrogance and Hypocrisy Toward Quebecois Athletes

A travel blogger doesn’t seem to comprehend why a Canadian ex-pat and journalist from some American media outlet why he thought it disgraceful that Alex Bilodeau won gold. When this Toronto Star blogger, Jim Byers asked what was wrong with wanting to win? It took someone based in the U.S. to explain it to him:

“But you here go acting like bloody Americans. If that’s what you want, to beat your chests and chant ‘Canada, Canada, Canada’ like Americans chant ‘USA, USA, USA,’ be my guest. But it’s a disgrace to the country I grew up in and the country I love.”

Well, actually, there is also the original intent of Pierre de Coubertin which many seem to be forgetting:  that winning or losing didn’t matter as long as one participated? I think many have forgotten that these Olympics (as well as others from recent years)  from what I’ve been hearing and reading.

That reporter can also add typical American capitalism to the mix with one of the biggest offenses: having Wayne Gretzky being  the final torch bearer. He doesn’t represent amateur sport and having lived in the U.S. for over 20 years, he doesn’t even represent Canada.  If anything, the fact that he has been living state side all these years and that he personifies professional sport and – as the head of his own clothing line and huckster for soft drinks, beer, fast food, watches, cars and oil – he also incarnates the commercialism that surrounds sport.  Made in America just like that hideous overpriced tool shed they call the Canada Pavillion.

In September, the New York Times reported last September that American athletes (and those from other nations, I suspect) were being given far less opportunities than their Canadian counterparts to check out the venues like luge tracks, ski hills, etc.   That does indeed sound like a very American deed.

Then there is the women’s hockey team which will make it to the final against the U.S. without much effort. They turned out to be sore winners when they pummelled the Slovakian team 18-0 last Sunday.  With such little viable competition, this women’s hockey final is pretty much a foregone conclusion. These women really have no reason to be arrogant on either side of the border.

Figure skating judging, of course, remains corrupt. Who would even bother watching it anymore when the winners are pretty much predicatable?

How can we forget the hypocrisy of claiming Alexandre Bilodeau as our own after winning the Gold medal? The first gold medal won on Canadian soil.  Montreal Simon points out this hypocrisy in his post from last night. I would like to add that if he never won the gold, he would be just another Frenchie lost amongst the sea of Olympic skiers.

I haven’t been following the Olympics as I have been boycotting them, but it would seem that there was not enough French spoken at the opening ceremonies according to Premier Jean Charest. Given that even Federal Heritage minister James Moore and an Albertan point out there could have been more French spoken, it must be true.  However, like Simon,  I wish that a big deal hadn’t been made of it as it does just further fuel Parti-Quebecois leader, Pauline Marois’s manic language extremism in Quebec as well as the bid for the Quebec sovereignty movement, which appears to be making a come back. In fact, Henry Aubin in his column of today’s Gazette thought the lack of French was so obvious as to having him wonder if  a sovereignist mole had staged the whole ceremony to stoke Quebec’s resentment.

With the first Canadian gold medal won on Canadian soil by Alexandre Bilodeau, a French Quebecer has now, all of a sudden, become Canada’s prodigal son. Oh, the hypocrisy. But it wouldn’t be the first time we would have this kind of attitude toward Quebec Olympic athletes.

Remember Jean-Luc Brassard, another moguls skier who won gold at the ’94 Olympic games in Lillehammer, Norway? I think we all remember giving him hero status. However, four years later, at the  Nagano, Japan Olympic Games, he was chosen to carry the Canadian flag opening night.  The following day, he would only place a disappointing 4th place.  Brassard had caused quite the stir because he had blamed carrying the flag the night before for his failure. I remembered heaing the talk; the accusations of Brassard being pro-separatist and thus, didn’t deserve to carry the flag.  Separatist or not, it turns out that Brassard was just part of that flag bearing curse many medal winners seem to bear. He didn’t say anything much different than the others in his predicament, but I do remember, that hateful talk. I once pointed out to someone that if the flag bearer had been figure skater,  Elvis Stojko or some other non-Quebecois, this wouldn’t have gotten as much attention.  If another non-Quebecois athlete made these had expressed these kind of musings, no one would have given it another thought.

Yesterday, there were some grumblings from the Australian team about Bilodeau not necessarily earning that gold medal. A non-issue really, but if there was a more compelling reason to warrant at least a reconsideration of Bilodeau’s medal, a lot of Canadians would have attached some evil Quebecois plot to that.

In spite of Canada’s gold medal win, these games thus far, have been bringing out the worst of St-Stevie’s  American style regime in Canada.  Perhaps the only thing that can bring Canada back down to earth is if Canada fails to win any more  gold medals.

For those who have the stomach to read the Blogging Tories or other neo-con pundits, you would probably have read that the left would blame St-Stevie for low medal counts, no gold, or other losses. That sounds pretty ridiculous, but those very same fools would probably give St-Stevie full credit for gold medals and other wins.  Hell, I can see them all using whatever Canada’s successes in these games to artificially pump up St-Stevie’s numbers; to get voters to forget about democracy because, as we’ve said before,  a lot of Canadian voters love all that is shiny.

There are those who argue, keep politics out of the Olympics and other such events, but it’s inevitable. Especially the Vancouver games, where the most sacrifices were forced upon Vancouver’s most disenfranchised and vulnerable.  I hope the protesters continue to get their air time and there is not another incident like what happened over the week-end.  Folks need to know exactly who and what was sacrificed for all that Olympic largesse.

I especially hope that Canada never ever gets another bid to host Olympics: summer or winter.