"I want to say thank you fans,"
said Russian winger Alexander Radulov.
"Like 18,000 say 'Russia, Russia go.' So thanks."...
By then, the crowd had gone from 'Let's go Russia,' to 'U.S. sucks'
and finally a rousing chorus of the goodbye song.

BOO FRIEND, CHEER ENEMY

Vancouverites should naturally cheer for the American team
rather than for a team from a country which, not 20 years ago,
was chiefly known for its vicious soul-crushing despotism
and whose hockey teams were reviled by Canadian fans.

The following story describing Canadian hockey fans booing the American team and cheering for the Russian team is a perfect example showing how Canadians - since Pierre Trudeau - have been taught to defend and support the advancement of Red Russia and China and to despise and malign our fellow-continent democracy, the United States. ~ Jackie Jura

Canadian fans take cheap shots at U.S.A.
Pete McMartin, Vancouver Sun, Jan 5, 2006

It was near the end of the United States' semi-final game at the World Junior Hockey Championships when a group of foreign relations experts in the stands began chanting: "U.S. Sucks!"

Small detail here: A Canadian team was not on the ice at the time. If one were, that would have gone some way toward explaining the Yankee animus oozing out of the stands: file it under home-ice over-exuberance. It would have been forgivable. Barely.

But the Americans were playing the Russians at the time. And the Canadian crowd wasn't just rooting for the Russians, it was rooting against the Americans. And the chanters weren't so much interested in a hockey game as scoring points against America the country, not the team. (Take away the beer bellies and the baseball caps, and you could have had yourself an anti-World Trade Organization demonstration. When the hockey louts start chanting the same slogans as the local Trotskyist cell, you know you have an ugly trend.)

This wasn't a one-game phenomenon, either. There is a theory that a cheap shot precipitated the anti-American booing, when, in the closing seconds of Canada's round robin win Saturday, and to the shocked disgust of fans who surely had never seen anything like it before, U.S. defenceman Jack Johnson attempted to introduce his elbow into the person of Canadian Steve Downie. (Two ironies about Johnson's attempted mugging of Downie: Downie walked away unscathed, and -- Hello! This is Vancouver! Home of Todd Bertuzzi!)

But a news service reporter who has covered all the American games told Sun sports columnist Cam Cole, who told me, that the U.S. team has been booed all through the tournament. This wasn't a one-dirty-shot deal. The Canadian crowd's antipathy toward the American team has been a constant.

The Americans have noticed. In the American's 2-1 quarter-final win over the Czechs, U.S. goalie Cory Schneider said he had to concentrate to block out the boos raining down from the stands. (Another delicious irony: Schneider was a Canucks first-round draft pick in 2004.) With admirable restraint, Schneider, commenting about the upcoming U.S.-Russia game, said: "I'll be interested to see who they cheer for tomorrow." So was U.S. head coach Walt Kyle, who, delusionally, it turns out, said: "It'll be nice to have the home crowd tomorrow -- finally. If they cheer for the Russians tomorrow, I'll be very disappointed. I'll have trouble crossing the border again, if that's the case."

Kyle was under the mistaken impression -- one still shared by many Americans, the poor, trusting boobs -- that because our two great countries are neighbours and have co-existed peacefully for over 150 years and have vast economic and cultural ties, that he could consider Canada a home-ice-away-from-home and Vancouverites would naturally cheer for the American team rather than for a team from a country which, not 20 years ago, was chiefly known for its vicious soul-crushing despotism, and whose hockey teams were reviled by Canadian fans as products of a drab socialist machine that saw sport as nothing more than an arm of state propaganda.

But Kyle hadn't figured on the Canadian weakness for envy; I'll bet he didn't even suspect that that weakness existed, or would find expression in something as well intentioned as an international hockey tournament. His charges are, after all, 17-to-19-year-old boys, not architects of the war against Iraq. Likely, the only thoughts they have on softwood lumber is that it makes for lousy hockey sticks. They are ambassadors of their country of a kind but they are also, effectively, children, as one writer to The Sun, a John Loch, from Nova Scotia, pointed out in an e-mail:

"Vancouver fans," he wrote, "appear to have done it again: embarrass their wonderful city with low-class actions at hockey games. In 1972, they booed Team Canada and gained an ignominious reputation that has remained. Now, they have booed a group of U.S. teens and, worse, included 'U.S.A sucks' in their invective. It's one thing to cheer for a hockey team but it's something else to be that negative towards a group of kids.

"Recalling the rude way that Montrealers treated 12-year-old U.S. hockey players after the start of the Iraq war, I guess you're just being consistent -- consistently boorish and worse."

Is this an overreaction? Can you see too much in the actions of a bunch of yahoos at a hockey game? Well, there are legitimate places for expressions of anti-Americanism, but I don't think a hockey rink is one of them. That it has seeped down to that level is, I think, a symptom of something greater.

(And imagine the Canadian reaction if an American hockey crowd had chanted "Canada Sucks!" Imagine the country-wide alarm! Imagine the indignant frothing! Imagine the CBC-televised forum hosted by Peter Mansbridge on the crisis in U.S.-Canada relations, featuring the nationalist ravings of Maude Barlow!)

Still, Kyle should know, before he leaves never to come back, that there are still Canadians who feel as Loch does, that the anti-American chanters in the stands are not true sportsmen; that they do not typify the Canadian sense of patriotism; that they do not personify our relationship with his country; and that lastly, and most importantly, they are idiots.

Kyle and his team deserve an apology. Consider this one.

Canadians hurl abuse at USA hockey players (burned flag; "told us we s----, gave us the finger and said 'Down with the USA'"). WorldNetDaily, Apr 2, 2003

CANADA'S WINTER HEROES and CANADA'S RED TRUDEAU and AMERICA'S MORONS and CHINESE TAKE-OVER and PM LAUDS CHINA TAKING-OVER and CHINADA'S SOVIETIZATION and USA GAVE CHINA PANAMA CANAL

6.Super-States and 28.Reality Control

Support for Russia will be short lived
Gary Kingston, Vancouver Sun, Jan 04, 2006

Hope the Russians enjoyed being a GM Place favorite for one game. It's going to be 'Nyet Russia Nyet' now. Russia set up a gold medal showdown Thursday with Canada at the World Junior hockey championships by winning a Tuesday semifinal 5-1 over a U.S. team that has apparently overstayed its welcome, although its continued insistence on sending out villainous, black-hat blueliner Jack Johnson every second shift might have something to do with that.

In a rare hockey occurrence in a country that has long despised the Big Red Machine from way back in the day when it was the CCCP, the announced crowd of 18,630 clearly backed the Russians. Maybe it was the fact the Americans had been in Vancouver since Boxing Day competing in Pool A and the slick Russians were making their first appearance since going 4-0 in Pool B at Kelowna and Kamloops. And maybe it was the Johnson factor, the rugged blueliner still the target of boo-birds for his cheap-shot elbow on Canadian Steve Downie in Saturday's round-robin finale.

"I want to say thank you fans," said Russian winger Alexander Radulov. "Like 18,000 say 'Russia, Russia go.' So thanks."

Tuesday's game was a tight, tense affair through two periods, with the Russians up 1-0. They blew it open in the third and the final five minutes threatened to get ugly as there were some big, high hits on both sides. As it was, there was a steady parade to the penalty box as referee Jyri Petteri Ronn tried to keep emotions from exploding and all-out brawl from occurring.

By then, the crowd had gone from 'Let's go Russia,' to 'U.S. sucks' and finally a rousing chorus of the goodbye song.

The Russian victory sets up a gold medal re-match with Canada. The Canadians won the 2005 title in Grand Forks, N.D., downing the Russians 6-1.

"It feels good [to play for gold again]," said Radulov, who was a member of that Russian team. "If we will play like [we did against the Americans], we will have a chance to win the gold medal. But Team Canada is a good team, so we will have to be ready."

Russian star Evgeni Malkin said he expects a tough game Thursday. "They will have the home crowd. It will be interesting, [but] it won't be the same result as last year."...

Jackie Jura
~ an independent researcher monitoring local, national and international events ~

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