We learned from the media recently that the Montreal Canadiens (ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Canadiens) will now be saying a land acknowledgement (a historically false one on top of that) before each of its games in Montreal. How odd and how sad… why?
Some columnists in Montreal have analyzed that it may be due a marketing strategy to re-improve an image? Maybe. As far as Bambi is concerned, she wonders if this organization did not receive a form of pressure (or threats?) of some sort to become woke like that? Same phenomenon we have sadly increasingly seen elsewhere.
We have seen it in soccer games in the United States and in European and world competitions. Not about land acknowledgements there, but about knees on grounds rather. Sometimes we even see images of dark-skinned athletes looking at their (less tanned) peers in an odd way when the latter are on the ground while they are standing up proudly to their national anthems.
Indeed, for Bambi, one thing is clear in her mind, whether the statement is true in the case of Montreal or not (this is not the point), no ideology neither religious nor secular has its place in a sport, period. Sports are simply meant to assemble people and to entertain them while being their common pride (regardless of the team or the winner/loser of any game).
Make no mistake. Contrary to what it pretends, the wokeism bulldozer that is speeding up in Canada (and the world) with little resistance is neither about Indigeneous people nor about immigrants [or whatever someone wants to call them: “Invisible/visible minorities” (Bambi’s preferred name) or “racialized” (Bambi’s most distasteful term) or “BIPOCs” (what a funny term for Bambi…)]. It is an ideology that is using minorities and, from time to time, exploiting tragic stories about them.
If you think Bambi is exaggerating, just do a quick tour of the media and see what happened to her on February 22, 2021. A whole cancellation (or censorship) campaign took place; Many smart folks from our elites (media, academia, social media, and all the words ending with ia) indulged in it. Perhaps they did so willingly (to advance agendas or careers) or cowardly (when fear paralyzes decision-makers, you know how seriously bad things have become in a country). It may also feel good to appear virtuous OR to simply have a false sense of safety that we are/will remain untouchable by being a part of a mob.
Charters of human rights, work agreements, history, evidence, common sense… all these do not matter in cancellation stories. So, maybe the Canadians of Montreal know that deep inside. They perhaps think that if they repeat slogans (empty or false ones, who cares?) no one will attack them or their players in the future. So, they lie down in front of those imposing ideologies… just like we have seen throughout history in other places.
Of course, Bambi may be wrong in her analysis above, but this is her own reading of what is described below. She will end now and simply share a quick translation of a thoughtful article by Dr. Joseph Facal entitled “It is a stupid decision on behalf of the CH” [“C’est une décision idiote de la part du CH“] (https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2021/10/19/cest-une-decision-idiote-de-la-part-du-ch):
“At first I thought it was a joke, but no.
The Montreal Canadiens will have the house announcer say before each home game that the game will take place on the “traditional and unceded” territory of the Mohawk Nation.
Yep, even the CH is crawling in the face of wokeism and the deceptive rewriting of history.
False
Three words come to mind: hypocrite, dishonest, and silly.
This is hypocritical, because the CH has never cared for natives, as it has not cared about francophones for a long time.
Ah, but natives, this is the hot new cause in the society of spectacle and the staging of good feelings.
Because make no mistake, the HC places the Aboriginal cause very, very, very low in its scale of priorities.
However, it sees the direction of the wind and therefore does, as we say in the world of figure skating, the “compulsory figures”.
It’s also dishonest, because it’s historically false.
Apart from activists or historians who have become activists – and who betray their profession – there is not a serious researcher who believes in this thesis of a sustained Mohawk presence in Montreal when the city was founded.
When Maisonneuve founded Montreal in 1642, no Aboriginal nation was permanently established there.
Some come there occasionally to hunt, but not the Mohawks.
Native people had already lived on the island of Montreal, since Jacques Cartier had spoken of it a hundred years before, but they were Iroquoians.
The Mohawks were then at home in the north that would become New York State.
These Iroquoians, some Mohawks say today, were our ancestors. Small problem: they did not speak the same language.
While they were waging war against the Mohicans, Algonquins, Attikameks, Innu, the Mohawks certainly made a few forays here, but they returned home afterwards.
Joseph Goebbels, from sad memory, is credited with the following words:
“With repetition and a good understanding of the psyche of the people involved, it should be quite possible to prove that a square is in fact a circle. After all, what are “circle” and “square”? Simple words. And words can be shaped to make the ideas they convey unrecognizable. “
Wokeism has understood this perfectly: by imposing words like “unceded” or “systemic”, we want you to buy the vision of things contained in the expression.
Exasperation
Finally, it is a stupid decision on the part of the CH, which is likely to backfire.
Between us, the basic hockey fan seems to give a damn about all this.
I suspect, however, that this is the kind of jeering that could quickly turn into annoyance, if not exasperation.
Who will be the first victim? The Aboriginal cause itself [indeed and sadly, Bambi agrees!!!].
This organization is run by fools of the worst kind: fools who think they are shrewd.“
