Posted on 02/07/2004 4:59:02 AM PST by mhking
A road trip for a group of U.S. peewee hockey players to a tournament in Montreal turned into a foray into enemy territory as the boys were barraged with anti-American insults and witnessed protesters trashing the American flag, reports the Globe and Mail.The paper said the 11- and 12-year-old boys from Brockton, Mass., had been looking forward to the trip, which soured soon after their "Coach USA" tour bus rolled into downtown Montreal on March 20.(2003)
Hundreds of college students were marching through the streets in an anti-war demonstration and seized upon the bus as a target for its anti-U.S. venom. Several demonstrators made obscene gestures toward the bus, and an American flag was dragged through the street.
"We felt horrible," Brockton Boxers coach Ernest Nadeau said. "How would you feel if the Canadian flag was dragged down the streets in the U.S.A.? This is a country that's supposed to be our ally," he told the paper.
At another demonstration, the Americans watched as a crowd cheered when a protester waved the Iraqi flag, and booed the U.S. flag. Next, the Stars and Stripes were doused with kerosene and ignited.
"It went up in a puff of smoke and flames, and the crowd went wild. They were all cheering," said parent Bill Carpenter.
"I said to my kids, 'These folks disagree with our government, not you personally,'" he told the paper. Carpenter's 24-year-old son is a U.S. Marine who was sent to retrieve bodies of Americans killed in the 2001 terrorist bombing of USS Cole in Yemen. He has canceled his family's planned summer vacation to Quebec.
At the Montreal Canadiens-New York Islanders game at the Montreal Bell Center that night, the U.S. national anthem was widely booed by the crowd, creating confusion for the visiting youngsters.
Parent David Cruise felt so uncomfortable that he left with his son after the first period.
"Whether you're for or against the war, we have guys over there dying," he said. "The next time, we'll stay in the States. I'm not going back there again."
The insults grew personal when the players hit the ice. During a game against the Beverly Bandits, a team from Beverly, Ont., the boys said their Canadian counterparts were verbally abusive during face-offs.
"They told us we s----, gave us the finger and said 'Down with the U.S.A.' or 'The U.S.A. s----," Nadeau said.
Making matters worse, the referee chimed in, "I agree with you," following one Canadian player's derogatory comment.
"It was a shock to go to a tournament and have kids saying this to us. These are our friends that are doing this," Nadeau said. "We didn't expect Canadian players - especially young boys - would take things to that extreme."
"We were very offended by the whole thing," said Carpenter. "I understand the opposition to the war. But we were made to feel unwelcome just about anywhere we went. ... As Americans, we felt in the past that Canada was our closest ally and friend. No one told us we were heading into unfriendly territory."
A Canadian father contacted WorldNetDaily after hearing about the story to "apologize on behalf of all decent Canadians."
"I want to express my regret that such a thing happened. I am a hockey dad and it made me see red when I read that story," George Wannan told WND. "The majority of non-French Canadians feel outraged that our French Canadian prime minister and his predominantly French Canadian cabinet have made all of us appear to be anti-American. That just isn't the truth - not at all."
Wannan emphasized that it was French Canadians who dished out the insults, "and they are French, after all," he said.
"God Bless America!" Wannan said in concluding his comments to WND. LINK
So this is not about Americans being bigots , intolerant and anti Canadian ? Maybe New Yorkers ? Definitely hockey fans . Well, some hockey fans anyway .
by Bruce Arthur National Post May 2, 2002
Days after being cheered as he sang the Canadian and American anthems before an NHL playoff game in Toronto, Robert Pomakov watched , horrified, as unruly New York hockey fans burned his Canadian flag in the parking lot of Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Mr. Pomakov, an opera singer, saw both his Canadian and his TorontoMaple Leaf flags torn from his car and set on fire by a crowd chanting "U.S.A! U.S.A!" in the moments before Sunday's Game 6 between the Leafs and the New York Islanders.
"We lost four of our soldiers and they were basically defending these idiots," said an outraged Mr. Pomakov. "If patriotism is what drives these people and their ignorance, then I am ashamed to have our soldiers defending them."
Four Canadian soldiers were killed in Afghanistan on April 18 when a U.S. fighter plane mistakenly bombed them.
Mr. Pomakov, 21, is working on his masters of opera degree at the world-renowned Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, from where he drove to Long Island for Sunday's game at the Coliseum, which is named in honour of U.S. war veterans.
He and fellow Torontonian Patrick Magee, also 21, decked themselves in Team Canada and Leafs jerseys and attached one regular-size Canadian flag and one Maple Leafs flag to broomsticks on their rental car. After being heckled as they pulled into the parking lot before the game, they could only look on as both flags were set alight.
"I was just shocked," he said. "There's a line that needs to be drawn, and this was so far across. You can't believe that you're watching the Canadian flag burn.
"There wasn't much we could do. There were a lot more of them than there were of us."
Mr. Pomakov felt the Americans' treatment of the Canadian flag was disgraceful.
Mr. Pomakov said the flags incident has not soured him on life in the United States. Still, he was pleased to see Toronto's Game 7 win on Tuesday, which set up a second-round Battle of Ontario series with the Ottawa Senators that begins tonight in Toronto.
Violent actions, racist comments, and insults, against a group or an individual are always deplorable. However, let's put this into context:
A road trip for a group of U.S. peewee hockey players to a tournament in Montreal turned into a foray into enemy territory as the boys were barraged with anti-American insults and witnessed protesters trashing the American flag, reports the Globe and Mail.For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, though I don't agree with the actions of a few New Yorker hockey fans, they were simply reacting to the deplorable conduct of the Montreal Canadiens towards small American children during a hockey game 2 months earlier.The paper said the 11- and 12-year-old boys from Brockton, Mass., had been looking forward to the trip, which soured soon after their "Coach USA" tour bus rolled into downtown Montreal on March 20.(2003)
Hundreds of college students were marching through the streets in an anti-war demonstration and seized upon the bus as a target for its anti-U.S. venom. Several demonstrators made obscene gestures toward the bus, and an American flag was dragged through the street.
At another demonstration, the Americans watched as a crowd cheered when a protester waved the Iraqi flag, and booed the U.S. flag. Next, the Stars and Stripes were doused with kerosene and ignited.
The New York incident happened in 2002 . Not 2003 . Almost a year earlier.
There is no way to defend the actions in Montreal .
But as you said , for every action there is a reaction and labeling a group of people, in this case French Canadians , because of the actions of anti war protesting students , some of whom very well could have been American , is not fair . I know several French Canadians , who do not speak French , rather English or Joule , who after 3 or 400 years are farther removed from France than Americans are from England .
I guess most of us are guilty of making generalizations in cases like these. When the majority of people act in certain way… and in this case, as indicated in the polls, 63% of Quebecers were against America going into war with Iraq. And, as far as I know, they were free to express their anger as it happened on March 2003 during a hockey game, I tend to say… French Canadians.
The clip runs 8:42 and the offending comment occurs at about the 7:40 mark.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.