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(Date Posted:03/24/2003 22:55:51)
Last week at a Canadiens de Montr?l home game against the New York Islanders, the USA National anthem was booed. The team's management issued an apology on behalf of their fans and then berated said fans for their lack of class. At the next game, prior to the singing of the anthems, former great Jean B?iveau exhorted the fans to respect our neighbours regardless of personal political convictions (anti-war sentiment runs very very high in Montreal, especially among French Canadians).Saturday night, on the English language Hockey Night in Canada, commentator Don Cherry wore a stars and stripes necktie and expressed his outrage that Canada was not standing shoulder to shoulder with the USA. Cherry was a former coach of the Boston Bruins in the days of Bobby Orr. Cherry has been known to comment that the NHL has become too "Europeanised"; he has also criticized "hot headed French Canadians" from time to time.Don Cherry is probably the only employee of the CBC who has enough public supportthat he can openly criticize the federal government's policy on air without fearof being fired or having his budget cut.Nevertheless, it kind of bothers me when a man like Don Cherry, whose knowledge of hockey is unquestionable, uses his hockey platform to promote personal political views.To paraphrase Jacques Chirac's ignoble quip, both Michael Moore and Don Cherry missed a great opportunity to shut up.
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Il n'y a que deux puissances au monde, le sabre et l'esprit: à la longue, le sabre est toujours vaincu par l'esprit - Napoléon Ier
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