Belated Thoughts on the Vancouver Hockey Riot

I remember way back in 1986 or 1987, when the Hamilton Tiger-Cats won the coveted Grey Cup (and the whole world cheered). I was living in London, Ontario at the time and I could only chuckle at watching the news that in response to the win a bunch of goofs went downtown and trashed the place. My friends and I laughed when we saw a brief glimpse of a bad-ass from our former high-school in the midst of the chaos. A concrete block was thrown through the window of a bus (nobody was injured).

The television reporters (and a few others) were full of grave seriousness as they reported on the carnage and condemned the rioters, but I just thought it was a stupid joke for the most part.

Evidently, in Montreal, there's a tradition of smashing windows and burning police cars (and, apparently, it couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch of racist pigs). These things are like "Acts of God" almost. It's just a craze that sweeps through a crowd of individuals the way grasshoppers get turned into locusts, and while I don't want to completely trivialize it, I think that as long as nobody gets seriously hurt, well, what can you do but collect your insurance and sweep up the broken glass.

I suppose I'm trivializing it, if not completely, at least way too much. "If it was your home that was under attack, your windows being broken, you wouldn't be singing such a happy tune thwap!" No doubt true. But it's also the case that a few broken windows don't signify the downfall of Canadian civilization either. It's especially the case that window smashing at a political event is NOT the first stage in an attempt to impose a regime change and install members of the Black Bloc in power.

The threat of some smashed windows is certainly no justification for spending $1,000,000,000.00 and upwards on "security." (Speaking of which, how much was spent on security in Vancouver in case of a victory or defeat riot? Was it anywhere approaching $1,000,000,000.00?) If not, why not? There appears to have been much greater destruction.

So, what do I think about the Vancouver riot? A little bit shocking. Pretty excessive. Grist for comedians. The work of anarchists and other left-wing kooks? Oh, I highly doubt that. I think that anyone who says that is seriously jumping the gun. Sports fans rioted. A few people were drunk and pissed, and then the mob mentality took over. I wasn't pleased that Bruins fans were assaulted (especially if they were visiting US-Americans), or that people who tried to interrupt the violence were themselves brutally assaulted.

But this was sports hooliganism over all, not yet another sign of the danger of the leftist enemy within. And, sadly, this sort of behaviour is becoming more and more common. And if you want to know who's fault it really is, it's Don Cherry's fault. It's the whole importation of the cultural phenomenon of obnoxious, macho, US-American braggadocio. This is the attitude of the self-satisfied louts and boors who believe that because of their incidental strength and power, they are exempted from the normal standards of civilized behaviour and decency. This is the sort of mentality that the pathetic, flabby, insecure, cowardly bully, stephen harper wants Canada to adopt. We're going to be a "strong" and "tough" military power, that, together with its best buddy, the world's only super-power, the United States, stands up for what it wants without regard for the rules or the opinions of pipsqueak countries.

Except that Canada is not a great power. And Canada needs international cooperation and civility more than does the United States. And those goons who attacked US-Americans in Vancouver have to realize that they're not the shit compared with the United States, and we, as a country, should apologize to any of them that were hurt. However, in a country ruled by a party that, together with its supporters, sees nothing wrong in the RCMP murdering a Polish immigrant just arrived in the country, and lying about it afterwards, this sort of revolting, bullying, loutish is simply to be expected.