Sports & Play
Guns, Tanks, Tasers, and the Grey Cup Trophy
A gratuitous entry is great, and is expected seeing that the Grey Cup is the most coveted football prize in Canada. But is the ridiculous authoritarian military and police pomp necessary?
The Grey Cup traveled from Hamilton to Toronto (a mere 66 or so km). But to make the short trip, police first drove the trophy to a police helicopter, which flew the cup to a Hamilton airport where it was then passed on to a Canadian Forces chopper, which brought it to Toronto's Island airport, where it was then passed on to a Canadian Navy boat, which brought it to the mainland, where it was taken by an Army convoy to City Hall (run-on sentence intended).
Do Torontonians really need a weapon-laden pep rally? Does associating the long-standing, proud Canadian sporting event with "heroes" and "valour" divert attention from the fact that Canadians soldiers are dying and sending children to be tortured in Afghan prisons; the RCMP are taser-trigger-happy; and the SIU's phones are constantly ringing?
Never mind the cost. It's the over-the-top, muscle-flexing, military nature of it all that irks me. We might as well add some blue to our national flag and be through with it.
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This event is ironic, seeing as how, considering the amount of gas used, they are wasting the resource that our soldiers are dying over in the first place, for this event.
I mean, it might make some sense for Minor League Hockey (where many of the rurally born and bred players might at least have family in the Canadian army), but the CFL? Puh-lease.
If anyone wants to see the real Grey Cup, I know for a fact that it is going to be at the Flatiron and Firking tomorrow, Thursday, from 12 to 1.
emphasis on stunt. as in canada is stunted.
I mean, it might make some sense for Minor League Hockey (where many of the rurally born and bred players might at least have family in the Canadian army), but the CFL? Puh-lease.
Posted by: beth maher at November 21, 2007 12:44 PM
Beth - contrary to what you might think the CFL is packed with many Canadian football players. In fact the league has a quota which demands a certain % of Canadians on each team.
That aside, seeing how most posters here don't seem to appreciate the CFL or Sports in general, the league and the Grey Cup are one of the longest and proudest traditions this country has.
Torontonians are typically plaqyed with negative attitudes - personally I think that all this concrete we have makes us really unhappy. But why be so gloomy all the time. If you don't have anything good to say just don't say it - you really don't have to piss on everybody's parade.
Where are you from Mike? You know, so we can bad-mouth it and you can take that as further evidence that everything in Toronto is bad.
(Not sure why you think it should be apparent to me that you arrived at this blog via Google News, but whatever, that's not germane.)