So this woman at the Commonwealth Games, an anglophone (no less) from Montreal, wins a medal. Brings a little Quebec flag with her. Cos, like, she’s from Quebec. And everybody’s in a big kerfuffle:
Bullshit!
Okay. I think I’ve got it now. So now people from Quebec are not allowed to be from Quebec anymore. Or if we are, we’re not allowed to draw any attention to it. Because just being from Quebec (or god forbid, being happy to be from Quebec) is apparently a political statement now, in a way that just being from Saskatchewan isn’t.
You know, I must have missed a memo. I wasn’t aware that my address or the flag of my home province constituted a radical act. I feel someone should clarify. And then fuck off, ciboire!
Sorry to sound like an asshole, because I have no strong feelings about this, but I think I know the reason:
I’ve heard stories about groups who hold protests and things saying that Quebec should be it’s own separate country, and should separate from Canada. I guess that’s what they thought she was supporting.
However, I think if she didn’t say anything about it, they were wrong for assuming that was her statement. Maybe her statement was just, “Hey, I’m proud to be from Quebec.” I mean, I’m proud as hell to be from Michigan.
Oy. I just… wonder what would have happened if an Ontarian had brought along an Ontario flag? No protest, no doubt. But how much would you BET there would have been a whole lot of kerfuffle if someone’d brought a franco-ontarian flag…?
Beh. Morons. It seems obvious she was simply proud to let people know which province she was from, nothing more… gee.
It puts me in mind of the Nagano Winter Olympics, and the head of the Bloc Quebecois got pissed off that there were too many Canadian flags at the gold medal hockey game (I can’t recall if it was mens’ or womens’). Apparently, she wanted more Quebec flags. Or something. I don’t know. Pretty stupid complaint. Kinda like this one.
This may piss off some of my countrypeople, but I’d wave a California flag before I’d wave an American flag.
Yup, that’s what they thought she was supporting. And you know, if she had been waving a Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste flag with a big Patriote rifle-toter emblazoned on it, I’d agree with them.
But there is no legitimate way for an organization that purports to represent Canadian athletes from every province to argue that the flag of a particular one of those provinces is a political statement, especially when the woman who was waving it says it wasn’t.*
The Maple Leaf was used by the federalist side in the sovereignty debates. There was a bloody enormous one at the No rally just before the 1995 referendum. And I’m so sure that if she had had a little Maple Leaf with her, it would have been considered an “inappropriate political statement” of federalism. Seriously, I don’t even think the friggn Bloc Quebecois would have noticed! But a fleurdelisé is some kind of gross political grandstanding, somehow. Rrrrrrrrrrright.
[sub](*: “Carroll, who wears a lucky red cowboy hat, said it was not a political gesture, but a way of saying thanks to people who had supported her.” link)[/sub]
Waving a Quebec flag as “a way of saying thanks to the people who had supported her” is about as political as Sandra Schmirler was by waving the Saskatchewan flag, that is to say, it isn’t.
I disagree matt_mcl. Waving the Saskatchewan flag was political too, it just wasn’t very controversial. Declining to carry a Quebec flag would have been political too. Flags are symbols of identity and they carry political baggage. Now of course you might say that Canada should be big enough not to get upset about this, and I’d agree. But I’d still have to say that that’s a political statement too.
So who’s politicizing? The woman who waved the thing wasn’t. She was waving a Quebec flag because (!) she’s FROM QUEBEC and she has FRIENDS IN QUEBEC. Oh, my God!
There’s a “bit of history” behind the Maple Leaf too, but if she had gone to the podium with a little Maple Leaf, nobody would have said anything.
Premier Bernard Landry and leader of the BQ Gilles Duceppe are discussing the news report
Bernard Landry : Osstie de câlisse de tabarnak ! Did you see that Ti-Gilles ? English Canada just slapped us again !
Gilles Duceppe : Voyons donc Bernie, I don’t see it that way at all.
BL : What do you mean ?
GD : Well it’s obvious, they react to the Fleur-de lysée in the same fashion vampire reacts to the cross ! We might not need another referendum.
BL : You mean we could simply… exorcise them ?
GD : Of course !
BL : I can see how it might work… At the next Premier conference I should go dressed in a Québec flag, carrying a container filled with caribou. At the moment they start to recoil, I should take the aspergillum out and intone : Vade retro Canada !, I exorcise you in the name of the Félix, the Michel and the Holy Yvon !
GD : You got the general idea ! But you might something stronger for Ralph Klein.
BL : Hmmm, you may be right. I know ! I’ll carry some gros gin also. GD : Yeah, That’ll probably work.
Well, to be fair, I should note that “Canada” is not getting upset about this; the kerfuffle was condemned not only by the Tories and the Bloc* but also by the Liberal* minister Denis Coderre.Swimming Canada is the body that condemned her; I’ve no idea if that’s a government body, independent group funded by the govt, or what.
But this shouldn’t be anything to be “big” about. I don’t see what the big deal is. “People from other provinces are waving their flags - why don’t I wave mine?” != some kind of faux pas to be “big” about.
I had a similar response to happyheathen, matt, but you got it before me.
Anyway, I think that assuming that the Quebec flag is a political statement is even more of a political statement, anyway: it says that pride in Quebec is a bad thing for a swimmer to engage in. Or it says that being proud of being a Quebecer is the same as being a separatist. Either way, it’s political, and if the Canadian sports authority, whatever it’s called, wants to avoid politics, it should start with its own damn self.
Nicely put, Ulterior, et bienvenue au forum. Keep an eye out for Hamish, scott evil, LaurAnge, detop, Bryan Ekers et.al. - we’ve been known to converge for random Dopefests and poutine fights.
I think it was in 1994 that Cathy Freeman did a lap of honour at the Commonwealth Games with the Aboriginal flag after winning the 400m. It caused quite a stir here in Australia, particularly with Arthur Tunstall, the Commonwealth Games chief at the time who was notorious for telling racist jokes about aboriginals.
When she won the world champoionship a couple of years later, she carried both the Aboriginal and the Australian flag, although I think she was still criticised because the aboriginal flag on the outside of the Australian flag.
Flags can be a political statement, but I doubt that they were in this case, as she just grabbed the first flag that a family member passed her.
If I ever won a gold medal (and if I ever got to represent Australia at the Commonwealth games, in all likelihood I would), then I wouldn’t mind seeing the shitstorm that arose if I carried an Australian flag sans union jack.
In Scotland, the home of the football club I hold a season ticket for, there is talk of banning both the Irish tricolour and the Union Jack at football matches because they are considered by some halfwits to be not only political but sectarian statements. (How a flag which was created to symbolise peace between Catholics and Protestants can be considered sectarian is beyond me, but obviously we aren’t dealing with the deepest thinkers here.) So if you see Jennifer Carroll, give her my sympathies.
