Detop, I love you.
(sacrament)
Waving a prohibited flag at a medal podium is a political statement. Such incidents have happened in the past and they were political statements then as well. That is why Jennifer Carroll was required to and did sign an agreement -
“that prohibits athletes from carrying provincial flags on the podium.” National Post Dec. 12
The fact that she was not suspended despite upsetting her coach shows that Swimming Canada did not overreact. This only became a news story after Quebec politicians decided it was one more example of how their province is persecuted by the rest of Canada and held to a double standard.
Just because Jennifer did not mean her action to be a political statment, does not mean that it was not. It just means Jennifer was naive or misinformed.
The initial news reports didn’t indicate that all provincial flags were prohibited, and I understand her being reprimanded for breaking that rule. Nevertheless, calling it a “political gesture on par with the Black Power salute at the Mexico City games” is bloody ridiculous, because it was not, for the same reason that Schmirler the Curler’s or Catriona Le May Doan’s Saskatchewanning-around was not.
However:
And I heard a report, which I can’t find on line, that Amateur Sport Canada has reversed the ban on provincial flags at platform ceremonies. At any rate,
That’s because now they’re saying there’s all kinds of creepy politics with Jennifer and another swimmer:
To which I say: yeah, right. If that was what it was about, you should have reprimanded her for that, instead of for waving the damn flag, especially in light of this:
It seems obvious to me that someone has a Quebec-sized chip on their shoulder. If this was really about breaking all those rules that woman mentioned, she would have been reprimanded for that and nobody would have ever heard about it.
But no, it’s because displaying the flag of her home province is suddenly as obscene (excuse me, “unprofessional, self-serving, disrespectful, upsetting and the most embarrassing action by a Canadian swimmer in my history of the sport”) as if she had flashed everyone her tits on the podium. I think that’s bullshit.
There is such a thing? Dude, I’m all over that, parce que je suis né à Hamilton! 
UlteriorAnd me . . . although I’m more likely to sleep through them than anything else. 
Daerlyn: ça se voit ici en fond de page.
MODS!
Clean up! Frog-speak in the pit!
Jeez, what a ridiculous story. Petty politics, all around.
But insofar as the title of this thread is concerned, I do think that flag-waving of this sort, on the podium of an international sporting event, is unavoidably a political statement. Flags are first and foremost political symbols, and simply because you want to use a flag to convey your own idiosyncratic meanings (“Thank you!”), this does not somehow “denature” the flag of its political symbolism.
If I decide to burn an American flag on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, I cannot expect anyone to take me seriously if I claim that I was merely doing it to say “Hi Mom!” (because, well, that’s what I wanted the gesture to mean). Individual intent is only part of the picture here.
Kay. I should have said, “A Quebec flag is not a radical political statement”, all by itself, of the type they were accusing her of committing
quote:
But Toronto coach Linda Kiefer, who was part of the Swimming Canada staff at the Commonwealth Games, said she feels that the politicians are just making political hay. She said Carroll and Rolland had frequently fallen afoul of the rules laid out by Swimming Canada for conduct at the Commonwealth Games.
“They didn’t attend team meetings,” Kiefer said. “They broke curfew. They didn’t come to the pool after they finished swimming. These are simple rules that the athletes must follow. Once you finish swimming, you are still part of the team.”
When Carroll went to the podium to accept her medal, Kiefer said: “We were speechless when we saw her walk out with the flag. There had been enough stuff that was happening beforehand between herself and Nadine Rolland . . . That was basically the last straw.”
I really haven’t followed this story much, but a Quebecker with an Anglo name waving a provincial flag at an international event reaaly surprised me. I suspect that what we have here is a troll and the media attention is feeding her.
Because there’s no such thing as an anglophone Quebecer who loves their province.
I have a Scottish Protestant name and I’ve been known to wave the Irish tricolour on a few occasions [sub]cough[/sub]. That’s a pretty superficial thing to base an accusation of trollism on.
You haven’t really been following the story, but you’ll accuse her of being a media troll? How classy!
FTR there are a lot of anglophones who are quite proud to hail from Quebec.
Also, Sport Canada turned her down for funding. The province of Quebec, on the other hand, stepped up to the plate gave her full support and funded her training. She wouldn’t have been at the event without that provincial support.
Think of this double standard as reported by the Globe and Mail:
What does waving a provincial flag have to do with provincial pride? I lived in Ontario for 27 years and can’t recall ever seeing an Ontario flag. Are Ontarians not proud of their province? Sure they are, but they are Canadian first and foremost beyond our borders.
Don’t see any Americans flashing state flags in the Olympics or the Pan American games either, even when they’re from the south. When you consider that Americans have some intense interstate/collegiate competion, no one can accuse them of failing in their state pride.
Waving a Quebec flag can only be interpreted as an act of defiance in an international event given the history Quebec’s lean towards separation. No sane Canadian adult could interpret it otherwise. In this case it appears we are dealing with a shit disturber with an axe to grind and who has a history of non compliance with the rules.
I think the difference between this incident and Sandra Schmirler (RIP) waving the Saskatchewan flag is the fact that Saskatchewan has never had a major separatist movement nor has it had a couple referendums on the subject. Québec’s flag is pre-loaded with such political context, at least for those people so bored with real life that they’d get upset with such inconsequential BS.
I’d say Ms. Spierkel and Mr. Johnson really need to get over themselves and focus their attentions on their sport.
And, hey, enough of that crazy French-talk! Many of us Albertans don’t talk no funny non-english language!
Mon crayon est large et jaune! Je suis une grand fromage vert!
Apparently, Ms. Schmirler felt, and Ms. Le May Doan feels, otherwise.
My satchel has got a Maple Leaf and a Fleurdelisé side by side, out of respect for both my country and my province. I happen to be a sane Canadian adult. And a true Scotsman.
Classic.
And you wonder why anglophones are suspicious.
I was being sarcastic.
It’s a pity that athletics is not centered on athletes.
Competition in most amateur sports at the international level is structured by nation, rather than simply by results. Thus if a person wants to make a run at an international championship, one usually gets tied into a national team, with a lot of strings attached.
One of the strings is often not having one’s own choice for one’s coach.
Another of the strings is having to participate in team activities outside of the actual competition or training, including waving the national flag and wearing the national uniform.
Instead of an athlete participating on his or her own terms, an athlete must participate on the grounds of representing one’s nation.
Thus it is not the athletes that have politicized international competition, but rather it is the nations themselves. And when an athlete dares to step outside of the political bounds that have been forced on the athlete by virtue of the athlete wanting to compete at the highest level of competition, the athlete takes heat.
Of course there is the argument that as long as the nation provides the funding necessary to the the athlete training and competing internationally, then the athlete should tow the party line.
Under closer inspection, though, this falls apart. In general, it simply proves that the nation, not the athlete, has politicized sport. With specific reference to the matter at hand, the argument becomes silly, for the federal government only contributes a dribble toward sport, and of all the provinces, Quebec by far shells out the most for sport. If one is to assert that the government that contributes significantly to an athlete should be recognized on the podium, then in the matter at hand, the Quebec flag and not the Canadian flag should be waived.
Finally, the podium is it is the athlete’s moment in the sun. The athlete has earned that place, not the sport organizing body, not the funding agency, and not the provincial or federal Crown. The athlete has earned the place in the sun and should have the right to freedom of expression at that time of all times.
Hard to tell with the Quebecois…
I’m not Quebecois. In other words, not only did you make a racist assumption, you made it about someone who’s not even part of that race. I don’t know whether to feel irritated or amused.