Posts with the Montreal Olympics tag

Barris Beat

Time to confront the trolls

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Team Canada captain Maxime Comtois in his penalty-shot attempt.

It was one of those breathless, white-knuckle moments. At the end of regulation time, the quarter-final, elimination game at the World Junior hockey championship was tied – Canada 1, Finland 1. Then, a couple of minutes into sudden-death overtime, a Finn rushing to catch a Canadian forward on a breakaway, slashed the Canadian’s hands from behind. The referees awarded a penalty shot, and Coach Tim Hunter chose Team Canada captain Maxime Comtois to take the shot.

“I was thinking (I have) to score,” Comtois told Canadian Press later, “and I didn’t. … It hurts.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Why has nationalism fallen from grace?

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Rally at Place du Canada in Montreal, Oct. 27, 1995. Edmonton Journal.

We travelled up Highway 401 eastbound that fall morning – from Uxbridge to Montreal – to make a statement to friends and strangers alike on the other side of the Ottawa River. We felt threatened by voices of separation in la belle province, but heartened by the “No” forces – both francophone and anglophone – that wanted Quebecers to give Canada one more chance. And that autumn day we car-pooled, bussed, hitchhiked, and rallied – some 100,000 of us – at Place du Canada in Montreal.

I remember one of our daughters who couldn’t travel with us to the pro-Canada rally that Oct. 27 morning, left a note on the bathroom mirror.

“I’m sorry I can’t go with you,” she wrote. “Please save my country.”

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Barris Beat

Principles worth competing for

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Diane Jones (Konihowski) in full flight over hurdles early in her career. University of Saskatchewan photo.

She said it was one the most difficult decisions of her life. She weighed every option. She considered the reactions of her peers. She wondered what other Canadians might think of her, that her choice might turn fellow citizens against her at the time she most needed their support. She agonized over it as she prepared for perhaps the greatest opportunity of her career.

“I considered giving up my Canadian citizenship,” she told me back in the 1980s at her home in Saskatchewan.

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Barris Beat

Canada Day attitude

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B. J. Byers presented a solo concert in Uxbridge on June 22, 2013… It was 15 years in the making.

Part way through B.J. Byers’ concert last Saturday night in Uxbridge, the young pianist finished one of his toughest pieces – an etude by Chopin. He wiped the perspiration from his face with a towel, smiled broadly – as if he had just conquered Everest – and acknowledged the packed house at Trinity United Church.

“There was once a time, I wouldn’t have been able to face this,” Byers said. “I would have just turned and run away.”

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