Im not Canadian so maybe I don't understand. But, this article just isnt right. The poor kid is being punished for being good and only speaking english. Come play for one of the American teams, we win the Stanley Cups anyways. But, we dont have free health care so thats on you.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story...mp;lid=tab5pos1

Leave it to some idiot from ESPN to condense the entire history of French/English relations into a story about some kid who scores a lot of goals. He doesn't even prove the decision was a case of some sort of weird kiddie-hockey ethnic prejudice. It could be they just don't believe he should be playing (regardless of ethnicity).

As if the Canadian media hyping these tensions because it's easy and cheap isn't enough, now we have American sportswriters doing it. The guys at ESPN should stick to stories about the Donovon McNabb "is he underrated/overrated because he's black?" nonsense.

It really is hilarious how they oversimplify complex race relations into simple right and wrong and then come down with the wrath of God on the side of the right, ignoring about 95% of the issue.


edit: It's just a regular Canadian freelance idiot, not an American. Still, we don't need ESPN publishing this idiocy.

Obv..I dont understand the history here. But, the fact that the 8 yr old kid is "too good" is just appaling. Also why did they wait for the playoffs to make the decision. Seems suspect to me.

I agree it's a stupid ruling, but in no way does he prove it's an ethnicity thing. The story of the town's history and tensions is in NO way related, other than that's the town he plays in.

It's a cheap way to turn a story about a dumb ruling into a story about a dumb, prejudiced ruling.

I bet it is because he is a Murray.

This was quite an upsetting read for me this morning as a French Canadian that grew up in Aylmer, Quebec, which is pretty much the closest city to Shawville about 45 minutes away.

I know Gare Joyce from his blog, which I really enjoy reading btw. But the way he spins this story into a racial controversy really gets to me. Yes, historically, there have been many conflicts stemming from the language issue in Shawville.

You see, there is a law in Quebec that says that any sign put up by a store must have its French text in larger lettering than the English text. Well, sometime in the mid-80s, all signage in Shawville was in English and this situation was brought to the attention of some public service officers in Quebec City. They sent out some inspectors to Shawville to see what the deal was and hand out fines if there were any infractions. What happened is that some of Shawville's finest found out these inspectors were on their way and they put up a roadblock to block the access to the town. The inspectors were never able to set foot in the town. Needless to say, this turned into a huuuge scandal back in the day.

I'm telling this story just to give a little more background on why I think Gare Joyce jumped the gun to turn this into a racial issue.

IMHO, this story is the story of a kid that is way too strong to play houseleague hockey. He should be playing in the competitive division against kids of his skill level. Novice houseleague hockey players can hardly bear their own weight on skates, it makes no sense to have them play against this kid, which is obviously way too big and skilled to make the games fair.

I am sure this has happened time and again where parents from remote towns do not wish to drive their kid 5 to 7 days a week into the big town so he can play competitive hockey. So he plays houseleague and his team destroys everybody else. Is this good for grassroots hockey ? No way. Houseleague hockey is all about fun and participation and kids have no business having to get their a**es whooped by a kid that doesn't belong in their division.

Was banning this kid the right decision ? I'm not sure it is, but what I am sure, is that this is a hockey decision and not racial discrimination. Screw you, Gare Joyce.

End rant. I feel better now.

I read the story awhile back when it was in the Ottawa Citizen. Pretty much they banned him from the playoffs cause he was bigger and better then everyone. He isn't playing at the highest level he can and they felt it was unfair that he should play at a lower level where he can stomp over the competition. It had nothing to do with race or language when I first read the article.

Edit: Read the article. What an idiot throwing the whole French-English thing in there just to stir up conroversy.

Agreed, thats how I saw it at first.

This guy is a major doosh for saying this. Hockey Outaouais doesn't have to translate anything to english. If you live in Quebec you should know enough french to get around and if you don't too freaking bad.

I love the part about nobody in the whole town speaks any french. LOL