Where were you during the Olympics?

"Canada is the best country for sports, athletics everything!"

This quote from an animated woman who had just finished watching Canada beat Finland in the World Cup of Hockey finals last night in Toronto. In my opinion she obviously had a few too many.

Best in Hockey? Yes. Best in any other sport especially athletics, umm clearly not even close. Are our memories that short that the shameful parade of failed Canadian athletes at the Athens Olympics has been already wiped from our collective memories? Two words. Perdita Felicien. Ok nuff said. Of course up here in Toronto only Hockey counts so any win in Hockey is treated as if the world has stopped and we are the greatest country in the world which actually was a quote for another obviously delusional possibly inebriated person on the streets.

So all of Canada plus three guys in Northern Alaska and two in lower Mongolia celebrate with an unabashed fervor while the rest of the world goes "huh what hockey tournament?" before going on with life as if never disturbed.

Of course what is any sports celebration in recent history without a little rowdy behavior? Happy and apparently rather lawless fans engaged in vandalism and other disorderly behavior; jumping on cabs, overturning cars and fighting with police. Remember when that sort of thing only happened with soccer hooligans in Britain? Well its been exported all over the world now. Most recent sporting successes in North America; NBA championships, NFL, World Series wins have been greeted by pandemonium in the streets as fans get carried away by the excitement of the triumph. Or are they really getting carried away? Is this a heat of the moment response or a planned reaction to sporting events in this day and age? Does each city have its own instigators who cant wait for a big win so that they can get away with this sort of action?

Anyway, so far even though police were injured, the media coverage of this event is being downplayed. It wasn't that serious just a few yahoos acting a fool is the accepted wisdom. No comments about the negative side of crazy hockey fans running amok on our cities streets or about not having any more hockey tournaments in Toronto because it attracts the wrong sort. Meanwhile if it was some random person getting shot in Pickering on Caribana Saturday, billions of miles away from the actual Caribana parade on the Lakeshore, the news would be jam-packed with media commentators and regular citizens calling for an end to this event as it obviously attracts dangerous types and somehow promotes violence. Aint that nice?.