Back in 2003, we cats attended a National Hockey League game between the visiting Montreal Canadiens and an American team that we won't name. (Let's just say they were in the south, and we hope that someday they move to Quebec.)
Before the game, the Canadian national anthem was played, and the crowd booed lustily. Why? Because Jean Chretien's Liberal government had refused to let Canada join the Worst Person Who's Ever Lived's trumped-up and phony invasion of the country that didn't attack us on September 11.
(We don't know what Tory Stephen Harper, who became Prime Minister in 2006 and who has a direct-dial phone line to Karl Rove, would have done about Iraq. Since Canadians overwhelmingly opposed the war, it would have been fun to watch.)
Anyway, we were reminded of all this because of something else that happened in the NHL just the other night. After Montreal's P.K. Subban scored the winning overtime goal in the Canadiens' first playoff game against the Boston Bruins, the Twittersphere lit up with racist comments from angry Bruins fans.
This is grimly hilarious for several reasons. First, because it's happened in Boston before (a couple of years ago, against the Washington Capitals' Joel Ward), and second, because in 2012 the Bruins drafted Subban's brother Malcolm. (We assume that, like P.K., Malcolm is also black.) Want more irony? Willie O'Ree, the Jackie Robinson of the NHL, first took the ice with the Bruins in 1958.
We're not saying that there are no racists above the 49th Parallel. But it's interesting that all three of these black hockey players are Canadians — and that once again, whether we're dealing with racism, nationalism or xenophobia, we cats feel compelled to apologize for American bad behavior.
But what else is new this week? We may say we're the land of the free and the home of the brave, but in reality we are a violent, judging, vengeful and embarrassing people. Just ask Mary Fallin. We cats HISS.
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