Good afternoon Vancouver, how’s your head?

The hand-wringing and spinning has commenced in full force now in the wake of the riot which gripped the downtown core after the Canucks Game 7 loss. The narrative which emerged, both in the media and thanks to public statements by the Vancouver Police, is that—are you ready for it?—anarchists are to blame.

As a self-identifying anarchist, part of me is not the slightest bit surprised—demonization of anarchists is rather old hat. In the popular lexicon anarchism is simply synonymous with “chaos”, a perspective entirely ignorant of the depth or substance of said political philosophy. Another part of me, however, is still surprised by the utterly moronic grounds on which the claim of an anarchist presence has been made.

I won’t bother with the whole “violence = anarchist” argument, as I have written on the subject before. Instead, I’d like to focus on the only other piece of, uh, “evidence” that’s been offered. Here it is: there were people who covered their faces during the riots and some even wore black. BOOM! Black Bloc! Call CSIS and strip my civil liberties, the anarchists are here!

Apparently, according to our respected media establishment, a hundred thousand people, many of them drunk, young and clearly stupid, collectively sharing disappointment and frustration has never in the history of time resulted in any sort of problems—hey, Montreal, how’s things? Clearly, the only way such a situation could degenerate into a riot is through the presence of someone who had recently been reading Emma Goldman or Lucy Parsons.

Emma Goldman urging Vancouver fans to burn the library. (Source: CTV Canada)

Never mind the fact that night after night after night, Canada’s highest profile chauvinist (apologies to the Prime Minister) has a soap box to celebrate the merits of “old time hockey” which in practice translates to nothing more than publicly-sanctioned brawls on ice skates. Don’t get me wrong, I quite genuinely consider myself a hockey fan, and I recognize that it’s an aggressive sport. But people like Don Cherry ensure and promote that it is a violent sport, unnecessarily so.

What is the argument here? It’s okay to steamroll a guy, bite him, elbow him, punch him, drive his face into the ice, slash him, crosscheck him during a hockey game, but when the public begins imitating this idiocy—WHERE DID THEY LEARN THIS?! The anarchists! Left wing loons! Oh, hey, should we consult some of the books that anarchists and other “left wing loons” have written criticizing violence, corporatization, sexism, racism and homophobia in sports? Nah, stick with the talking points.

But Jasmin, you say, this is all so…un-Canadian. Oh God, I know! I mean, as Canadians, the only violence we endorse is the sort which has multi-million dollar corporate sponsorship or is directed at Afghan civilians—or both. Basically, as long as the bullies are wearing some sort of uniform we’re fine with it.

What we absolutely cannot stand, as Canadians, is that our anger be politically motivated. I mean, if you were one of the people who were outraged at the multi-billion dollar, eco-terrorist, police state, corporate circus that was the Olympics you were a monster. How dare you not “believe”? Or for that matter, how dare you oppose the G20 summit in Toronto? If global elites want to meet in the heart of Canada’s biggest city to hammer out the details of economic and political policies directed at the exploitation and dispossession of the majority of the world’s population, they damn well should be allowed to do as much in peace and security without the sweaty rabble interfering! That’s the Canada we know and love.

This is nothing for people to mimic. Unless they are wearing skates. Then it really helps your team get motivated!

I mean, look, the fact that in Greece, Spain, Egypt, Tunisia (hell, even Wisconsin!) and elsewhere, people have organized and directed their rage at government and corporate elites, have staged revolutions and insurrections, have attempted to restructure the fundamental shape of their societies—that’s not the sort of thing we as Canadians support. We are a static people, a people who are viciously predisposed to not critically engaging with the world around us, it seems.

So much so, in fact, that the one time something mildly explosive takes place, we immediately blame—not the drunken, reactionary mass which actually instigated the riot—but the minority of our population who are actually engaged in struggles for social, economic and ecological justice. The fact that these people were likely at home, reading, is no reason not to blame them.

So, let’s just all agree with TSN’s Bob McKenzie who tweeted: “After watching news reports/interviews, seems obvious initial trouble (burning vehicles) was orchestrated by left wing loons/anarchists.”  This is the sort of stunningly ignorant garbage that will allow us never to have to actually think about our country in a way that isn’t expressed in the form of a “Go Canada Go!” chant.

After all, we should never lose an opportunity to scapegoat the voices of dissent in our society. It’s what’s made us great.

 

Jasmin Mujanović

Jasmin is a PhD candidate in Political Science from York University in Toronto. Originally from Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, he has likewise resided in Croatia, Slovenia, Germany and now Canada. His topics of hyper-ventilated interest include: Balkan, anarchist and generally radical politics as well as adding the phrase "the political economy of" in front of his many other eclectic interests. He has been published in the New Left Project, ZNet, Balkan Insight, TransConflict as well as numerous smaller publications for both political commentary and recreational poetry. Day-to-day fits of rage are Tweeted with zeal. He is deathly afraid of moths.