Canada's Dreyfus affair over Hockey. What foolishness. Luc Malo the BQ MP has made it his personal mission to be prosecutor, judge and jury in L'affaire de Sean Doan.
Parliamentary committee summons Hockey Canada
At the House of Commons Official Languages committee today he harangued and harassed Hockey Canada and Sport Canada officials refusing to believe them, when they said Shane Doan had not used an anti-French slur against a referee in the NHL.
"I mean it is not the first time that words like that are used against French players. That was almost a tradition and we should accept that? Never," Gilles Duceppe, leader of the Bloc Quebecois party, said.
No matter what they said Malo insisted they were wrong. His is a personal mission of scapegoating and political interference in the arms length operations of Hockey Canada. Perhaps his venomous misplaced attack on our national hockey team captain is the result of confusing Shane Doan with Don Cherry or Sean Avery.Mr. Doan allegedly made derogatory remarks toward a French-Canadian NHL linesman two years ago. Mr. Doan has categorically denied making the comment and the NHL cleared him when it looked into the allegation at the time.
But some MPs still allege that Mr. Doan made a racist insult and wanted Hockey Canada to explain its decision to parliament.
Bloc MP Luc Malo aggressively questioned the hockey officials, saying the whole controversy is their fault and it could have been avoided if they had simply appointed someone else as captain.
He asked why they took the word of the NHL over the word of the linesman, who claims it was Doan that made the insulting remark.
The officials explained that Hockey Canada is a partner of the NHL and it is not about to challenge the NHLs jurisdiction or trustworthiness. They said the NHLs investigation determined an insult was made on the ice, but it could not be proven that it was Mr. Doan that said it, and so they see no reason not to have Mr. Doan on the team.
Could the BQ's real agenda be that they would like to see two teams in Canada, one from Quebec and one from the ROC. That was after all the official party line of the BQ in the last election as expressed by their Marxist Leninist leader Gilles Duceppe. One that Hockey Canada flatly rejected. Revenge is a dish best served cold, and in this case it is ice cold.
When asked about a Quebec hockey team, the Bloc leader immediately rattled off the goalies who would be available: Martin Brodeur, José Théodore and Roberto Luongo.
"Today I'll announce goalies — tomorrow I'll give you the defence," he quipped yesterday.
Kevin Lowe, assistant manager of Canada's 2006 men's Olympic team, doesn't think much of Gilles Duceppe's idea of entering a separate Quebec team in international hockey competition — and he has company in the hockey world.
Lowe, who grew up in Montreal and is fluently bilingual, flatly rejected the Bloc Québécois leader's proposal, which was unveiled Wednesday as part of his party's election platform.
"Those politicians should stick to politics," said Lowe. "If they want to come and apply for a job in hockey, then they can have their say."
If lawyer Guy Bertrand has his way, Canada could be represented at the 2008 world hockey championship by Team Quebec. Bertrand, who is again proclaiming his sovereigntist faith after embracing federalism for several years, said Thursday he wants Quebec's hockey elite to play a pre-tournament best-of-three or best-of-five series against players from the rest of Canada.
Up for grabs would be one spot at the 2008 world championship, which will be held in Quebec City and Halifax.
Bertrand's scenario would see some of the losing players allowed to represent the winning team at the worlds.
"When you look at Czechoslovakia, it split in 1992. Since then, Canada has won four championships, the Czech Republic won five championships and Slovakia one. Not bad for a country that split."
— Duceppe returns to the hockey sovereignty theme he broached earlier in the campaign.
The BQ contests only Quebec ridings. Apart from earning ridicule early in the campaign for his claim that Quebec national teams should be able to play in international tournaments for ice hockey and soccer, leader Gilles Duceppe made few new policy announcements. Election 2006: Canada changes government
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