The one day I actually decide to read the Ottawa Sun, I fell upon this this article written by the mayor of Ottawa's Chief of Staff (Walter Robinson) that really ticked me off as a Habs fan and as a quebecker. This guy is a rep who works for Mayor O'Brien and he decided to bash Montreal and explain why Ottawa's fans and why Ottawa's mayor is so much better. He forgot to mention that Ottawa's mayor is criminal but that's a side issue.
Although, I didn't support the rioting whatsoever but this guy is on crack if he thinks Ottawa is better than Montreal. It's not our fault we actually care about our hockey team!
Montreal wins a first round playoff series and they start a mini riot on St. Catherine St.? Let's hope the Habs don't go too far in the playoffs or the city will have its hands full with drunken, rowdy fans and we will have to again suffer through the appalling behaviour of some classless clowns boo-ing the U.S. national anthem at the start of each game.
While the actions of a few stupid fans in Montreal are sadly not surprising, the bigger issue of crowd control in Canadian cities as their teams make it further into the Stanley Cup playoffs is not to be taken lightly. Vancouver, Edmonton and Montreal have witnessed the ugly side of Cup fever over the past 15 years.
Last edited by caniacgirl12: 04-24-2008 at 09:06 AM.
Reason: Can't post entire articles
A designated "party area" may work for buttoned-down cities like Ottawa, but the pure joyous life energy contained in the city of Montreal will spread wherever it damn well wants. You can't contain the population of Montreal when it comes to hockey.
In the fall and winter that steam you see coming up from the grates in the street is hockey. In the spring the rains are hockey. In the summer the thick smog that sticks hazy over the island is hockey, dirty black hockey smog polluted from the cars and chimneys, but it's hockey. The hills are hockey, the girls are hockey, the pubs and the Jacques Cartier bridge and the faded paint on the wall in the Snowdon Metro are worn with the friction of hockey, year in and year out, as it courses through the brick and metal and plaster and people.
I do not know what you would expect from someone in the Ottawa mayor's office to say. Of course, like all politicians, they want to put a positive spin on the work they had done.
He seems to be proud of their municipal gov't for planning ahead and anticipating any potential issues effectively, and I do not see any harm in that.
In fact, I would think that he is giving some helpful advice to the other cities in how to go about preventing riots from happening.
Sometimes it is helpful to confront the issues and not turn a blind eye and brush off what other cities have done to combat violence.
It helps that the Ottawa arena is in the middle of freaking nowhere, too. The only things nearby are car dealerships (which could be interesting if Montreal ever wins a series there.. lol).
You can't contain Habs fans' fun to a "party" area. To imply as such is admission that you just don't get it.
I do not know what you would expect from someone in the Ottawa mayor's office to say. Of course, like all politicians, they want to put a positive spin on the work they had done.
He seems to be proud of their municipal gov't for planning ahead and anticipating any potential issues effectively, and I do not see any harm in that.
In fact, I would think that he is giving some helpful advice to the other cities in how to go about preventing riots from happening.
Sometimes it is helpful to confront the issues and not turn a blind eye and brush off what other cities have done to combat violence.
No. 1 the mayor of Ottawa might end up going to jail for a number of things, so the last thing these guys should be doing is condemning the city of Montreal for its behaviour.
No. 2 the mayor of Mtl should declare war on Ottawa and send all its hooligans there. Ottawa gets a little livelier and Mtl qets a little quieter. Problem solved:
Well we can't disagree on everything that was said in this article. Somebody will need to wake up in this city and have better strategies and have more policeman on site. It's freakin stupid to say after what happened in 93' and happens too frequently in this city that they were surprised, not prepared....I mean come on! With all that frenzy, you didn't expected it?
While Montreal is not the most calm city in the world, we do not have what other big cities in Canada and in the US have.....a mayor that knows what he's doing and a police corps who doesn't give a **** to be caught on tape hitting *******s who keeps giving that city a bad rep.
That city decided to go with the "police de quartier" or "police communautaire" well that clearly doesn't work. They have to stop talking and start acting. And hooligans or any other idiots will respect you the day you start conducting yourself like a real authority. Right now they're laughing at you and you're asking for it.
Police brutality? Does that even exist? Oh yes, one time a guy died 6 years ago 'cause he was hit too hard. But what about all the mess that was done to proprieties, to people, to institutions because we decided to talk about it instead of acting. Aren't you sick and tired to pay for an ineffective authority? I know I am. And if people think that it's fine to crash a store's window or burn police cars, why shouldn't they agree that they might receive a freakin blow to the stomach because of it?
Montreal authority is a joke. And that's the problem. Not the people in this city even though there are some stupid ones. Reality check is that there's some stupid ones elsewhere? Difference? In other towns, they don't permit them to be that stupid....
Ottawa loves quiet so much that last week a 10-yr old kid was arrested during the day cause he and his friends were playing video games too loudly. They handcuffed the kid and everything.
My own theory is that I have no idea why the first riots (early 90's, hockey + rock) actually started, but since they have occured other riots will happen because the precedent exists. The first riots must have been spontaneous actions, see crowd psychology for that matter. The mini riot that happend after game 7 wasn't an impulsive act, it happend because a lot kids flooded the DT with the idea that it would... haven't you ever joked about getting a new radio if the Habs won the cup? ... "Le gros, on s'en va se chercher des beaux coats de cuir au screamin' eagle" ...
Once the precedent is set, other occurencies will happen... the thing I liked about the last incident is that a lot of people actually tried to stop the vandals... not sure the reaction would have been the same if we lost the game though.. anyways..
One thing this hero neglects to mention is that Ottawa's arena isn't in the downtown core. Actually it isn't even in the city of Ottawa! The Scotia Bank Barn is out in the boonies and is better suited to monster truck rallies than hockey games.
Ottawa didn't have to deal with 21273 fans getting out of the arena after a game and funneling into the streets of downtown. After most playoff games your lucky to get downtown around 1am if you actually are a real fan and stay to watch the entire game instead of trying to beat the traffic.
Luckily for the mayor and his lackies the city of Ottawa won't have to deal with a long cup run and sens mile will be a ghost town for many playoffs to come...
Is there another thread talking about this riot? I read that Higgins claims it wasn't the Canadiens fans who did it and a couple friends in Montreal told me it was Wu Tang fans.
Doesn't make sense because the Wu show probably started AFTER the hockey game and let out very late (as rap shows often do). And I've read a couple message boards about people who were at the Wu show coming out and seeing cop cars that were already burned.
