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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781926824246 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Baraka Books |
| Publication date: | 10/01/2010 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 250 |
| File size: | 49 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
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Read an Excerpt
Discrimination in the NHL
Quebec Hockey Players Sidelined
By Bob Sirois, Jacqueline Snider, Robin Philpot
Baraka Books
Copyright © 2009 Les Éditions de L'Homme, division du Goupe Sogides inc.All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-926824-24-6
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
The prime minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, declared that Quebec was a nation on November 22, 2006. One week later the House of Commons approved a motion to that effect. The prime minister also stated that Canada had been founded by two nations. Although the National Hockey League was created by a group of English- Canadian business men in 1917, the pioneers of the NHL belonged to both of Canada's founding nations.
Montreal Canadiens are the pride of a nation
In the early 1900s Montreal had two large French-Canadian hockey teams: Le National and Le Montagnard. These two teams recruited their players from well-known Montreal classical colleges. They were big rivals fighting for supremacy in French-Canadian hockey. In 1907 however, the Montagnard team was dissolved, and in 1908 Le National pulled out of the professional circuit. This left the major leagues without a single French-Canadian team.
In 1909 a new league was created, the National Hockey Association, and four of the five teams in that new league belonged to John Ambrose O'Brien. This Ontario entrepreneur firmly believed that hockey in Montreal would profit financially from an English-French rivalry, and that a patriotic face-off of that nature would enhance French Canadian interest in the sport. Montreal had two teams then and one of them was called Le Club de hockey canadien. French-speaking hockey fans quickly identified with the players on the new team and soon developed into a large group of faithful supporters. People ended up calling the players Les Habitants or even The Flying Frenchmen because of their ties to French-Canadian society. Hockey was one of the rare domains in which the French and English would compete and sometimes, if not often, the French would win. It was clear that the local team inspired great pride throughout French Canada.
Hockey also became a distinctive identity factor for both Canadians and Quebecers since the passion for hockey was then one of the rare things that united the two nations whose relations were strained. The same can be said one hundred years later.
Until the mid-1970s the majority of National Hockey League players were Canadians or Quebecers. With the globalization of the League and the arrival of many European and American hockey players, the Montreal Canadiens slowly lost their French identity, but that did not mean that young Quebecers would not stop dreaming of wearing the tri-coloured uniform that represented their nation. The Montreal Canadiens' centennial was also the hundredth anniversary of French Canadian participation in professional hockey.
This book documents the experience of the Quebec nation in the National Hockey League from the 1970-71 season until the 2008-2009 season.
Many books have been published about the Montreal Canadiens and many biographies have been written about all the legendary hockey players but no one has established as comprehensive a study as this one on Quebec hockey players in the NHL. Statistics are provided on the NHL Entry Draft since 1970, along with an exhaustive study of Quebecers who have played on NHL teams, including players who might have played only a single match over the last forty years. A whole chapter deals with Quebec coaches who led NHL teams during that period. Although many serious studies have been conducted on the specific situation of French-speaking Quebecers in professional hockey, the media have largely ignored them. Their silence is surprising. Personally, I find them very useful and refer to them often.
Censored!
If you think I'm going to talk about that eccentric who rants and raves on the very English national television network, the CBC, the man who enjoys dumping on French-speaking and European hockey players, then you've got the wrong book. I'd rather not even mention him. Why promote someone who means absolutely nothing on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River?
If you think I am going to comment on the Shane Doan affair and specifically on the foul language he used with four French-speaking referees at the Bell Centre in December 2006, rest assured, I'll pass on it. If you believe I am going to lose sleep on the Sean Avery-Denis Gauthier incident about how French-speaking hockey players are supposed to be wimps because they wear visors, again I hope you'll understand that I really don't give a damn. I won't say anything more about the Patrice Brisebois incident where he was called a "Fucking Frog." I don't plan on wasting my time, or yours, on the Gilles Gratton affair in which he accused his St. Louis Blues coach of being racist. I won't bore you with the case of Robert Picard who settled one incident with a teammate who had used a racial slur ... and I will also remain silent about a similar event that pitted Alain Langlais and Bill Goldsworthy of the Minnesota North Stars against each other.
And if you thought that you might learn about how speaking French is actually forbidden in some NHL locker rooms, while other languages like Russian, Swedish, and Finish are allowed, well, you will be disappointed. It is perfectly obvious that French, unlike other languages, tends to rub some English-speaking people the wrong way and make them feel vulnerable. As former NHL referee Ron Fournier says on French-language television, "That's official." I won't talk about it at all. I won't write anything on those contentious issues because I might make Quebecers sound like whiners again, and that is certainly not the aim of this book.
I have therefore decided to censor myself, however only after this short essay entitled The French Blue Line.
The French Blue Line
Imagine for a moment, after a hard bodycheck from Jarome Iginla or another homerun by Barry Bonds, a frustrated player from the opposing team yelled out, "Go take a hike, filthy Nigger!" Such comments, and especially those that include specific words, stir up anger in the popular media machine, and rightly so. There's no doubt that, as the La Presse columnist Patrick Lagacé pointed out, the frustrated person in question would suffer "the wrath of God and then some."
The targeted player's community, whether their skin was black, yellow, white or red, would fittingly storm the media and the hotlines. The political and pressure groups, buffeted by popular outrage, would seize on the story and the commissioner responsible for the professional sports league would most likely impose exemplary sanctions on the person who made the racial slur. That would happen if we were dealing with skin colour. Imagine what would happen if the insults were of a religious nature! That would create a real commotion, if not civil war ...
What is racism? It occurs when an individual shows scorn or contempt for another group with a different skin colour, a different culture or a different religion. Language, which is the heart of culture, can also become the source of racism. In short, it's a vicious attack aimed at injuring the pride people have in their origins, their beliefs or their sense of belonging. Being able to nurture and value one's particular roots, origins, and history, without falling into chauvinism, is a human right. Simply put, it's a question of live and let live.
Quebec is the only jurisdiction north of the Rio Grande where the majority speak a language other than English. The people of Quebec have been struggling for centuries to preserve their identity. The French-speaking citizens of Quebec are particularly attached to the French language and to their history, just as they are emotionally attached to their national sport of hockey.
For Quebecers speaking French and playing hockey in the twentieth century hasn't always been an easy mix. Hockey rinks have often been venues for very unsportsman-like confrontations between English and French, up to and including professional hockey in the NHL. Physical barriers were known to be used to separate hockey fans from the two groups who had come out to support their team at the Montreal Forum.
With time and the arrival European players as hockey went global, one might have expected the situation to change and that offensive and disgraceful comments or acts relating to cultural differences would be prohibited. Great strides have been made in this area, but it seems that certain differences take longer to accept and appreciate than others. In Canada, a supposedly bilingual country, hateful remarks can still be heard in 2010 from a clown cum sports commentator dressed in red who gets his thrills insulting French-speaking players on a government-owned national TV network. The National Hockey League has remained silent all too often or has studiously ignored racial slurs about "Frogs," especially when they are made by star players. Even when politicians of all political stripes get involved, Quebecers rarely get more than a friendly pat on the back, while the problem is conveniently swept under the rug.
In many other professional sports, racial slurs are not tolerated. Rule-breakers are punished immediately. Why does the NHL still operate with a 1950s mindset?
Hockey fans and professional hockey players from Quebec don't want to be considered different and don't want by-laws tailored for them. They simply want the same rules to apply to everyone. The question isn't whether the French or the English are more racist, both are known to take cheap shots. The real problem is that when a player crosses the French Blue Line, even if the referee blows his whistle the player is never called offside.
Uncensored
These questions are constantly addressed in the French-language media but rarely an echo is heard in the English media, unless it is to shoot the messenger. Here is a sampling of comments made by respected columnists and reporters from a broad selection of Quebec's mainstream media.
On Don Cherry
Don Cherry enjoys controversy. The most recent dates back to last January 24 [2004] when a crew from the CBC television program Enjeux was accompanying him while doing a feature on him. During his comment on Hockey Night in Canada, he claimed that French-speaking and European hockey players were wimps because, according to him, they were mainly the ones who wore visors.
— Alain Gravel speaking on Enjeux, February 17, 2004.
Letter to a Distinguished Colleague, Shane Doan
Why is it that racist slurs directed towards the "frogs" or the "fucking Frenchmen" continue to be tolerated in a professional sports league and that those who make them are not reprimanded?
— Vincent Marissal, La Presse, May 5, 2007.
The Disappearance of Quebecers
Are Quebecers playing in the National Hockey League to be considered as a threatened or disappearing species? It seems to be true.
— Martin Leclerc, Le Journal de Montréal, September 4, 2006.
The Annual Nose Thumbing(Selection of Junior Team Canada)
That's about enough! Only one Quebec hockey player picked this year, two in 2007, three in 2006, one in 2005, and two in 2004. What is holding back the people in positions of authority and keeping them from denouncing it publicly?
— Maurice Dumas, Le Soleil, Québec, December 15, 2007
We are to blame too
We have not insisted enough on being respected. I'm talking mainly about the players who, after being on the receiving end [of racist slurs], have often tried to trivialize it. Maybe they thought that they would be called whiners. A "frog" has always been a "frog," whether it was Maurice Richard, Jean Béliveau or Guy Lafleur.
— Bertrand Raymond, Le Journal de Montréal, April 3, 2007.
Éric Desjardins: "Racism" on the Ice
I often got called "frog" or "fucking Frenchman," but I didn't let it get to me. I knew that they were just trying to make me lose my concentration, which meant that I was doing my job well or that I really was bothering the guy who was making the remark.
— Comments made to Mathias Brunet for www.cyberpresse.ca May 5, 2007.
What cannot be censored are the facts documented in the many essays, research papers, and articles written by Canadian and American academics on the subject of discrimination against French-speaking Quebecers in the National Hockey League.
Economics and sociology professors have revealed some surprising and troubling indicators. After their studies were published, critics and opponents in English Canada challenged their research saying that the sample used was too small and that the results could be attributed to factors other than discrimination. With this book, the sample used is now complete. Those other factors raised are also addressed throughout this book.
"Hockey is all messed up in Quebec," reported the Journal de Montréal on June 26, 2008, quoting New Jersey Devils scout Claude Carrier. The statement was made a few days after the "annual slap in the face" that the majority of Quebec hockey players have to endure when National Hockey League holds its annual draft. In fact Claude Carrier's statement is a striking example of the so-called "other factors." It is just another one of those myths, stereotypes, prejudice, and pseudo-scientific explanations that some hockey personalities, both French and English, have tried to make people swallow for decades.
In another article in the Journal de Montréal in September 2008, San Jose Sharks' scout Gilles Côté suggested a way to straighten out minor hockey in Quebec. He ventured his own diagnosis on the health of Hockey Quebec, supposedly to improve minor hockey throughout Quebec. Another scout, Mario Saraceno from the New York Islanders, also spoke out in the Journal de Montréal on September 2006, and offered his recommendations on solving the problem of underrepresentation of Quebecers in the NHL.
Claude Carrier, Gilles Côté, and Mario Saraceno should first answer the nagging question as to how long Quebec hockey has been in such bad shape? One year, ten years, forty years, or always? Chapter 2 on the NHL Draft provides answers as to whether minor hockey in Quebec is ravaged by some unknown cancer or whether an anti-French virus has attacked certain NHL teams. If a virus has in fact infected some teams, then I hope the right antiviral medication will be found. The three NHL scouts mentioned above have screamed at the top of their lungs that hockey is all messed up in Quebec and that Hockey Quebec has always been at fault for the underrepresentation of Quebec hockey players in the NHL. Although all three are experienced hockey scouts, their suggestions sound like shameless simplistic clichés. The chapter below on the NHL Entry Draft provides more accurate and enlightened grounds for a diagnosis of the problem. It is hoped that scouts will then understand that other very real factors are at play, but unfortunately they are taboo.
The three NHL scouts are cited as examples, but they are not alone. Several other gratuitous comments made by supposedly serious hockey people also appear in this book. Readers may be asking questions such as: do any NHL teams completely and intentionally ignore French-speaking Quebec hockey players during the draft? This leads to the obvious question as to whether reference to Quebecers in hockey encompasses all Quebecers or just those whose mother tongue is French, and to the question who is a Quebecer? Although politically correct sports fans might want to lynch me in front of the Bell Centre, this book makes a distinction between French-speaking and English-speaking Quebecers. Not to worry, however, all sports fans will find reason to unite once again by the end of my book.
To complete this study, it was necessary to identify the hockey players' birthplaces. That was easy enough for those born in Quebec. However, many players were born in other provinces or other countries, their parents having immigrated here for work or other reasons. Francis Bouillon, André Roy, Donald Brashear, Jere Gillis, and Scott Garland are hockey players in this group. The research was complicated and possibly some players have been missed.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Discrimination in the NHL by Bob Sirois, Jacqueline Snider, Robin Philpot. Copyright © 2009 Les Éditions de L'Homme, division du Goupe Sogides inc.. Excerpted by permission of Baraka Books.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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What People are Saying About This
"I agree with Bob Sirois' conclusions. The many statistics are interesting and troubling. With firsthand experience, I can say that it reflects reality exactly." —Michel Bergeron, former NHL coach, New York Rangers and Quebec Nordiques
"This seems to be strong material and worth serious study by the NHL." —New York Times
"An enlightening book." —Le Devoir
"Explosive conclusions!" —The National Post
"I agree 100% with Bob Sirois." —Bobby Holik, 2-time Stanley Cup winner with the New Jersey Devils