So for those of you who may not know, Canada recently hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics, and during the course of the Games, broke the record for most gold medals one by a single country by racking up a total of 14 Gold Medals, culminating in an overtime victory in the gold medal final match between the Canadian and American men's hockey teams on the last afternoon of the games. Altogether, it was a resounding success for the Canadian team, and for the Games in general, despite some tragedies along the way.
Well, Gil LeBreton, a writer for the Fort-Worth Star Telegram, walked through the streets of Vancouver and saw something else altogether. He watched on as Canadians wore their pride openly, and he saw...Nazis.
Yes, that's right; in an article he penned last week, Mr. LeBreton likened the crowd reaction at the 2010 Winter Olympics to that of Germany, then deep in the throes of the Nazi party, at the 1936 Summer Olympics.
The gist of his argument is that Canadians did not pay attention to international athletes at all during the Olympic run. He also implies that the Organising committee was complicit in this, stuffing every event with large Canadian crowds.
He also, paradoxically, seems to state that Canadians wanted to party, and the success only gave them a valid excuse to do so. This is the gem of the paragraph where he reveals that
"There was embracing, all right, but then Canadians have always had the reputation for drinking a lot of beer. The loose marijuana laws only added to the nightly revelry in the downtown streets -- which, frankly, seemed to have little to do with the Olympics."
And he closes with this line.
"Nice party. But so 1936."
Yes, Mr. LeBreton thinks that, because Canadians wore Canadian jerseys and supported Canadian athletes, that a comparison to Nazi-ruled Germany was appropriate. Since he didn't see "a single flag or shirt with the five Olympic rings", he was able to jump to the conclusion that we'll start a war in the next 3 years.
The funny thing about the article is that Mr. LeBreton, an American citizen, spends a whole paragraph writing about American achievements before showing his impartiality by talking about athletes from other nationalities, like Apolo Ohno, who is...american.
Even if one were to look past the Nazi comparison, the tone of the entire editorial smacks of unfounded cynicism, as if somehow Canadians were at fault for putting their own athletes ahead of everyone else and not loudly cheering and celebrating when athletes of other nationalities won prizes. But why? When did it become a bad thing to cheer for the team you think represents you? That people identified with nationalities is a natural product of the games, but I don't recall any such sentiment following the Sydney Olympics, the Salt Lake Olympics, the Beijing Olympics, the Greek Olympics, the Turin Olympics. Do you mean to tell me Canadians cheered harder for their teams than people in all those countries? And you mean to tell me this is a bad thing? How?
It seems obvious what Mr. LeBreton wanted; Canadians to lie on the street and cry whenever Americans lost, the government to issue a formal apology every time a Canadian joined or beat an American to the podium, and so on. The fact that Canadians cheered for Canadians somehow irked him, enough to basically call us a nation of fratboys. What we ever did to him will remain one of the world's mysteries.
Following the tide of angry questions thrown his way, Mr. LeBreton issued an apology the next day, which read like this
Essentially, it boiled down to this paragraph
"My intention in Monday morning’s wrap-up column wasn’t to offend Canada, the land of my ancestors, and my hosts of the past three weeks. On the contrary, I was trying to express my disappointment and surprise that, in my opinion, Canadians had failed to grasp the global mandate that being an Olympic host entails."
The global mandate being, essentially, to play gracious hosts to everyone else. Yes, Mr. LeBreton essentially thinks that Canada should've acted like a 1950s housewife throughout the Olympic games. He continues to slam Canada's patriotic display, painting a scene where Canadians were leaving during a medal presentation to German athletes as the straw that broke the camel's back and pushed him to this sentiment.
The real source of Mr. LeBreton's comparison of Canada to a World War instigating government, then, was that Canadians didn't behave the way he thought they'd behave, which is to say, with not an iota of displayed pride. Which is real smart on his behalf, and perfectly understandable. I mean, if we're not going to formulate our sense of identity on the pre-conceived and unfounded notions of a Louisiana-born journalist, how are we going to formulate our sense of identity?
And another point I wanted to add to this whole matter; Can we stop comparing every perceived slight to Hitler and the Nazis? They put people in camps for being different and attempted to conquer an entire continent through war. If your neighbour Hank lets his dog pee on your rose garden, that doesn't make him Hitler. If your professor gives you a low grade, that doesn't make her a Nazi. And if Canadians support their athletes with more fervour than you'd like, that doesn't make them Nazi Germany. So can we stop blowing things out of proportion like this? It serves no purpose other than sensationalization, and it diminishes the horror of the atrocities they did commit. Your pissy, anal boss is not the same person as someone who killed thousands of people in a quest for a master race.
And finally, there's this response I found to Mr. LeBreton's columns
In particular, this sentence stood out to me
"My two cents: Gil, if you have the balls to write a column comparing Canadians to Nazis, then have the balls to tell them to kiss your ass when they show up at your door with pitchforks."
Balls? It takes balls now to agitate a country like Canada, which prides itself on its peacekeeping status, and has never instigated a war in its history? It takes balls to compare such a country to a party who's pretty much synonymous with evil? And it takes balls to do this from the comfort of your own country? Did I miss the part of history where Canada became the hulking bully in the playground whom nobody insults because that's a guaranteed punch to the face? Because that's what this article seems to be making Canada out to be.
You know who has balls? Jerry Mitchell, whom I've mentioned before, who looked a murderer in the eye and pursued justice for people he didn't know despite having his family threatened. You know who else has balls? Rosa Parks, who faced down an entire way of thinking and a bus full of angry people just because she refused to be treated badly due to the colour of her skin.
Look at those two accomplishments. Compare them to the act of calling Canada a modern day Nazi state, from outside the country, no less. You see the discrepancy? But apparently it's brave to hurl insults from afar now.
But there is a silver lining; if the bar for having "balls" is so low now, eventually just walking out the front door will become an incredibly brave act. Then we'll all look like badasses.
