I escaped Vancouver at 5 pm last night on a seaplane and headed back to the safety of Victoria, where I live.
I love Vancouver. I work there at least twice a month, I would like to move there (well, at least to Greater Vancouver) soon. I consider it my city. Last night and still this morning I am incensed and ashamed at what happened after the Stanley Cup Game 7.
When I say I “escaped” Vancouver last night: I mean it. Everyone at our office in downtown Vancouver was anxious to leave early for their homes in Kitsilano, White Rock and North Vancouver. The car honking started at about 10 am. By 2 pm, our weekly team meeting was disrupted by honking cars and yelling from the street.
It was not a celebratory atmosphere. There was no music or dancing or street performers or crowds of smiling faces. Just stupid, aggresive yelling and honking and people lined up five-deep to get into the bars. This was not the Olympics Games of 2010.
My walk to the seaplane terminal was peaceful; as I got further from Granville Street it got quieter. There was a crowd of people (lots of families, it looked like) waiting for the game to start on the big screen at Canada Place near the Convention Centre. I thought “Maybe things will be all right.”
But I knew better.
We all knew better. We knew this would happen.
At the very least, we were worried it would happen again.
What I can’t understand is: why wasn’t the city more prepared than last time this happened in 1994? Why did the cops seem so surprised? Why didn’t Vancouver learn its lessons? Are we doomed to repeat this again?
Can we all now agree that Vancouver has a systemic problem with hockey riots?
Some other observations/rants resulting from reading my Twitter stream last night:
“Those aren’t real Canucks fans.” “This has nothing to do with hockey or the Stanley Cup.” Um – not so, I suspect. You may want to distance yourself as a hockey fan from the violence, but the sad fact is this didn’t happen at the Olympics, this doesn’t happen any other time than the Canucks losing a Stanley Cup final. Yes, it has something to do with hockey. That doesn’t mean all Canucks fans are rioters, it means we have to take a sober, rational look at the systemic factors triggering the riots and taking measures so it doesn’t happen again.
True, this doesn’t happen on Boston or anywhere else there’s a passion for hockey. That only means there’s something about the conflagration of hockey in Vancouver that needs to be examined.
“Those people weren’t from Vancouver. They came from somewhere else (Surrey) to riot in our city.” I’ve got bad news for you: to the rest of the world, Surrey, New West, North Van, Langley, Richmond — they’re all “Vancouver.” The people watching CBC Toronto, CTV Calgary, Reuters, CNN and BBC are not watching their tellies fretting “Oh poor Vancouver, some hooligans crossed a bridge and caused mayhem in that beautiful, peaceful city.” Besides, that’s just prejudiced and it doesn’t help matters.
“This is just a few dozen anarchists trying to make a point.” “These are the anarchists from the G8 and Olympic protests.” I don’t even know what to say to this. I saw young drunken men and women wearing (or taking off and burning) their $150 Canucks jerseys either participating in or cheering on rioting and looting. I didn’t see any black-clad masked people with “A” armbands protesting the violence inherent in the system of overpriced sporting infrastructure and overpaid sports players and executives while little children starve. I will refer you to a course in political science and ask you to please grow up. I’m not defending anarchists, I’m just asking for a little discernment here.
One more: “Those are failed human beings.” I do hope law-breakers are caught and justice is done, but the “fail” goes wider than that. These were the acts of individuals, to be sure – but they were individuals acting within a particular, volatile set of circumstances in a particular context. The answer does not lie in shifting the blame for all this mess onto one group of people: it wasn’t the Vancouver police’s fault. It’s not the mayor’s fault. It’s not Surrey’s fault. It’s not hockey’s fault. It’s not the anarchists’ fault. It’s not the Downtown East Side’s fault.
Vancouver is us. What are WE going to do about it?
I agree absolutely with every perfectly articulated point you make. This issue CAN be remedied, but not by making broad, stereotyped statements that don’t hit the mark. Well said!
The mood in downtown Vancouver this morning was somber.
A funereal kind of mourning and remorse.
As I rode the Canada Line in people were talking about feeling shame, disappointment.
Destruction was seen as a form of self-mutilation.
People question how it can be that we passively accept cuts to the arts, homelessness, and government ineptness but will riot over a hockey game.
Not a moment to be proud of.
The most damage was done within one block of the office where I work.
Charred remains, piles of smashed glass, and sheets of plywood nailed over broken windows.
Went for a walk at lunch and interestingly the people of Vancouver have started writing on the plywood.
Expressions of sadness, thankfulness, support and dismay.
Sayings and signatures like those on a cast for a broken arm or leg.
One says “This wall is our championship.”
There are hundreds of people writing, photographing and assembling around these sheets of plywood.
A wailing wall of sorts.
First step in the What are We going to do about it? is the healing that comes through these graffitti expressions of remorse.
But obviously way more will need to be done.
Paul: thank you for your comments. As always, your thoughts are considered, gentle and deliberate. I think we need more, much more of that calm ethos in this world.
To everyone else, I’m proud to say Paul is my boss, but much more than that he is a colleague and an inspiration.
Tori,
Very well said.
Very well said. Have you seen the statement from the Dean of New Westminster? I think it touches on some of the same points.
http://www.cathedral.vancouver.bc.ca/2011/06/16/riots-in-our-pacific-city/
Pretty much says it all.