two big canadian events today:1) the greatest hockey player ever (at least to me) retired. this guy was my idol growing up - he wasn't the flashiest or the most dominant, but he always gave it his all. this was especially evident in the 7th game of the '94 stackley cup playoffs, when flash-in-the-pan pavel bure (who inexplicable beat out nicklas lidstrom for the calder trophy) completely choked while trevor linden scored 2 goals.
trevor, thanks for 20 years. you make me feel very old.
2) in a monumental move, canadian prime minister stephen harper apologized to the first nations people of canada. i wrote a very shoddy paper on this subject in law school. yeah yeah, i also submitted the paper 2 years after the deadline. that's not the focus here.
essentially, the canadian government, in conjunction with the anglican church, removed first nations (native) children from their homes and put them in "residential schools" in rural areas all across canada all for the the goal of assimilating or, to put it less politely, "kill[ing] the indian in the child." most of the children were sexually and/or physically abused. even those who somehow managed to escape such abuse were hardly educated, and forced into hard labor in these cold rural schools. if i remember my research correctly, i believe the last school was closed some time in the 1970s.
yes, the 1970s.unfortunately, there has been some "residential school" fatigue among canadians since this has been in the news for decades now. nonetheless, the government created a compensation fund for the victims and a truth and reconciliation commission will conduct further studies on the lasting impact of these schools. now only if the japanese would issue a proper apology and some fracking compensation to the comfort women...
4 comments:
The Bure-Linden-Courtnall line for Sega's NHL '95 was totally unstoppable.
Also, I think calling Bure "flash-in-the-pan" is a little ungenerous. While his production tapered off in later years, clearly it was the result of injuries. When Bure resurfaced with the Panthers, he returned to form with two more near 60-goal seasons. Also, this is the greatest fact about Pavel Bure:
"In 2001 a Moscow based newspaper called the eXile published an article claiming Bure broke up with Anna Kournikova after discovering she had two vaginas. Bure successfully sued the eXile under Russian libel law for 500,000 rubles (about US$20,000) in damages." -- From his Wikipedia page
omg geoff courtnall! i kind of forgot about him. he also has a restaurant, but i think it has a fairly boring name, like "courtnall's" or something.
i harbor a special resentment toward bure. he was such a whiner.
my favorite bure factoid relates to his brother valeri, who's married to candace cameron of full house fame.
Valeri's marriage to DJ is notable, but I am not sure if it defeats the libelous claim made about Kournikova's nether regions.
Should it be revealed that Valeri has smoked crystal meth with Stephanie Tanner, however, then we know who, in fact, is the most pop culturally relevant of the Bure brothers.
or if he appeared in kirk cameron's "left behind" movies.
Post a Comment