Posted on 04/22/2002 3:23:56 PM PDT by anatolfz
April 22, 2002
'It certainly makes me quite angry': city councillor
National Post, with files from The Canadian Press
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - A crowd of American basketball fans booed O Canada last night before the Detroit Pistons and Toronto Raptors played Game 1 of their first-round NBA playoff series.
When the Canadian anthem was played before the tipoff, it was met with a steady stream of boos from the sold-out crowd.
Among the crowd in this Detroit suburb were several thousand Toronto fans, who were decked out in Raptors gear and waving Canadian flags.
When Toronto, which trailed through almost the entire game, put together a run of points toward the end of the first half, the crowd began chanting: "U.S.A., U.S.A.!"
The anger at Canada might have been fuelled by dismay at the Detroit Red Wings losing the first two games of their NHL playoff series against the Vancouver Canucks.
Brad Duguid, a Toronto city councillor, said the incident was particularly badly timed, coming just days after a U.S. Air Force F-16 mistakenly bombed Canadian troops in Afghanistan. Four Canadian soldiers were killed and eight were injured.
After George W. Bush, the U.S. President, made only a brief public comment on the tragedy last Thursday, many Canadians called radio talk shows or posted to Internet discussion groups to express their displeasure.
Mr. Duguid said he hoped the boos were only the work of ''a small group of rowdies.''
''I think it's always in poor taste to boo somebody's national anthem, but when you think that Canadian soldiers are dying alongside American soldiers in Afghanistan, it certainly makes me quite angry.''
Mr. Duguid said since the Sept. 11 attacks he has made a point of singing the U.S. anthem at sporting events, to show respect for the Americans.
''My hope would be that Raptors fans, when the series comes here, show their class and not engage in the same kind of classless behaviour.''
Raptors radio announcer Chuck Swirsky, who previously worked for Detroit sports station WJR, said the booing was not at all classy and he noted that Canadians do not jeer the American anthem.
Last night was not the first time Canada's anthem has had a rough reception south of the border.
Last year, during Toronto's first-round playoff series with the New York Knicks the New York fans booed O Canada. The booing offended even the Knicks players.
Said Jerome Williams: ''When they booed the Canadian national anthem, I really felt that. When we're in Canada, they never boo [the Star-Spangled Banner]."
In 1995, during the Canadian Football League's ill-considered expansion into the U.S., lounge singer Dennis K.C. Parks made a mockery of O Canada before a game in Las Vegas -- singing it to the tune of O Christmas Tree.
In 1992, a U.S. Marine Honour Guard marched in to open a World Series game in Atlanta with the Canadian flag flying upside down.
Thye think that they are going to go to University and be a great sage. They think that all you need to know iis in the Sparks notes. They think that Life would be so much easier were it not for "Right wing idelogues".
Detroit basketball fans need to buy some class.
Thank you. Go Wings!
Where did that come from?
This is embarrassing.
It would appear from the last paragraph of this article that the South Park movie was slightly prophetical.......has anyone seen Kenny?
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