Welcome to Canada – The Vancouver Riot is Over

~ Amusives

My morning routine includes a few hours in my favourite chair with my laptop computer. I zip around the world on the Internet. Yesterday morning my first stop was Vancouver, and that was pretty much as far as I got as I watched the story of the Vancouver Riot be told. Initially I was dismayed by the  wildly speculative and inaccurate reporting about such a tragic event. As the story unfolded and a few actual details emerged, the finger pointing started. It was the police’s fault, it was the fault of the organizers, it was the game of hockey’s fault, it was the fans fault. Then, anticipating the response from the rest of the world, many entirely innocent Vancouver people said they were embarrassed and ashamed to be from Vancouver. Some were ashamed to be Canadians. Some were ashamed because they had once lived in Vancouver…

Blame? The only people to blame are the ones who took part in the riot. Many of these apparently arrived with the materials to light a car on fire, so I’m guessing they came to the hockey game with the plan to start a riot, and downtown Vancouver was just a handy venue full of easily manipulated participants.

Shame? The only people who should be ashamed are the ones who, yes, took part in the riot. Why should anyone else be ashamed of the city of Vancouver, or the country of Canada for that matter? Sure it is easy to be a patriotic Canadian when the going is good and Vancouver is hosting a great Olympics. But the true test of being a patriotic Canadian is to stand up for our country when the chips are down and someone is trying to destroy our name.

I’m a patriotic Canadian, so I would like to Welcome all visitors to Canada, and assure you that Vancouver is as perfectly safe a place to visit as any other normally safe place in Canada.

‘Chuck’, a  Rainy Day Bear chainsaw carving by David Westberg, raises a paw of Welcome to say it is safe to enter our Country.

And he puts up a warning paw and utters a growly “Go Away” to anyone who… well, at our house he growls at door to door salesmen.

Maybe you would like to Welcome friends or discourage rioters too. If so, you can order your own bear, or any of David’s other carvings from his website!

12 thoughts on “Welcome to Canada – The Vancouver Riot is Over”

  1. Hi,
    I don’t think the riots reflect onto Vancouver at all. I think a lot of people see these riots, and think immediately about the idiots that caused them, as I said earlier these type of things happen at sporting events no matter where in the world you live.
    If you would like to read a bit of a different story about the riot, I was reading about an Aussie that was in Vancouver when the riots started, all he could think about was kissing his girl, true. Read about it The Courier Mail an Aussie paper.

    Like

    1. Yes Magsx2, no place is immune to these types of events. I read the story about the Aussie in several different reports!

      Like

  2. I totally agree. I was surprised at how many of my Canadian friends on Facebook expressed shame at being Canadian over this minor little blip. Get over it Canada! It was a just a few jerks, not the whole country!

    I think what shocked the world over this riot (if they deigned to notice it at all) was that Canadians actually showed PASSION! We’re not known for being overt in our emotions. I mean really! I have seen, in Lucca, Italy, a visiting football team’s fans being escorted into the stadium under ARMED police protection with helicopters flying overhead. This is nothing compared to how some Europeans feel about their teams and their wins and losses. We need to put it in perspective and move on.

    Like

    1. Hi Deluxcanuck – Your comment about Italy reminds me of the crowd we got swept up in when we were in Istanbul, Turkey. We had left a restaurant, and suddenly we were being swept down a street in a wave of bodies. Next thing we saw was a wall of Riot Police in full gear. We pushed our way to the edge of the crowd, then hightailed it off through a park to our hotel. All the rest of the evening we watched the crowds and traffic in the street below our hotel room. We discovered later that this was a crowd from a nearby stadium after a sports match, but clearly the police were prepared for it to erupt into a riot.

      Like

  3. I am sad, angry and heartbroken that our reputation has been smeared by these hooligans. (The term ‘hooligan’ does not exactly describe these idiots as there are much more accurate and colourful terminologies we could use!)
    Hopefully, justice will prevail; those who are accountable will serve their sentences and be made to pay restitution for the damages. Here’s hoping.
    The true heroes of this story are the people who are helping to get the city back on its feet. Now is the time for the media to showcase the hard work and resilience demonstrated by the citizens of Vancouver and not give more coverage to the ones who caused this atrocity.
    You’re in our hearts Vancouver.

    Like

    1. Hi Judy – It is indeed unfortunate that a small group of people can do so much damage to the city. I certainly agree that the media owes it to Vancouver to showcase all the hard work of the citizens of Vancouver, and show the world what Vancouver is really all about!

      Like

  4. Since it was an aberrant occurrence, it shouldn’t reflect on the whole nation. Vancouver is a city I would love to visit, and the riot is not a deterrent.

    Like

    1. Hi CE – Vancouver is a lovely city and I hope this riot doesn’t deter anyone from visiting!

      Like

  5. You are so gracious. How many American do you find appologizing for our daily chaotic behavior? I love Canada and admire your blog. Chuck’s pretty great, too!

    Like

    1. Hi Paul – You have chosen your Canadian friends wisely, then. That, and you don’t let them into your liquor cabinet without supervision…

      Like

Comments are closed.