Tag Archives: violence

Activism, Corporations, Health, Media, Society, Unions

Boycott NHL Sponsors Until Team Owners Ban Head Shots

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OK, April Fools is over in Nova Scotia now, so I’m putting on my Cape Breton hat for this post to avoid having to post it in 4 hours.

We need to boycott NHL’s sponsors until the NHL owners figure out that not banning head shots is morally negligent. I say this despite my excitement at the Canucks clinching the Western Conference and the President’s Trophy this week for the first time in their 40 year history and an exciting playoffs coming up.

Here’s the context:

  1. The owners voted 24-6 against a proposal banning headshots.
  2. Mario Lemieux and Geoff Molson [Penguins’ and Habs’ owners] are considering establishing a premium league with the 4 other sane owners, a league without headshots and with respect for the human dignity of hockey players so they are not degraded to Rollerball players. This premium league may be just a threat/bluff/wake-up call for the other owners, but I don’t care. Someone needs to step up and the NHL Players’ Association doesn’t seem to be able to fully solve the problem of protecting its members health despite some positive developments.
  3. Lemieux is not interested in Matt Cooke playing on his team anymore. I’ve appreciated Cooke’s feistiness as a player, but he seems to be out of control now. While he will likely be fired from the Penguins, I suspect 24 other teams will consider hiring him.
  4. I loved the original Rollerball [Norman Jewison directed it!] and I haven’t seen the remake. The movie helps us understand a number of things: the psychology of fame, sport, team ownership, violence as entertainment, slavery, dignity, humanity, individuality. The NHL is becoming a parody of itself. It is approaching Rollerball through ownership negligence.
  5. Air Canada and VIA Rail have already expressed concern over their own financial support of a league that is becoming degrading.
  6. Other corporate sponsors have the capacity to influence the NHL owners’ love of money.
  7. If we boycott the corporations who sponsor the NHL, and tell them why, they may let the owners know that it is time to improve. We know unfortunate public figures like Don Cherry will not stand up for player safety.

It is a new era of activism when corporations, themselves often morality sleazebags, want to protect the perceived legitimacy of their brand by not associating it with depravity like NHL owner-sanctioned headshots.

There may be little response from the NHL from a modest corporate backlash, but there’s always a chance we can make a difference.

I have a hard time condoning children watching the NHL if I have to attempt to justify things like headshots, especially the gratuitous hit on Canuck Chris Tanev in last night’s game, of which even the LA coach said, “In the environment that we have today it’s a play where you’ve got to let up. There’s no question the Vancouver defenseman saw him from the top of the hash mark in … but you do have to let up. That’s just the way the environment is.”

It’s time to take a stand for dignity, sanity and a game that won’t sink to Rollerball’s level.

A Better World is Needed, Activism, Canada, CanWest, Corporations, Family, Gender Issues, Journalism, Media, Morality, Postmedia, Psychology

Terrorism + Child Abuse Joke = National Post

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What do obsessive coverage of terrorism and a joke about how to beat children have in common?

As it turns out, it’s today’s National Post.

Firstly, everything in the first 5 pages was devoted to the terror suspect arrests, except for one article stoking the idea of staying in Afghanistan, so that’s related.

5 pages.

Everything.

Obsess much, National Post? Yes, is the answer, in case you didn’t know.

Secondly, this Twitter “cleverness” on page B2:

@NPsteve: Never strike a child! Wait patiently until they’re 18 and then give them the beating of their life.

Once upon a time, an insensitive relative forwarded to me one of those annoying chain emails that longed for the good old days. It was full of cliches and goofy things as well as some bits from the past that lots of people have happily not carried forward.

Some memories in that email were benign:

Remember “when a quarter was a decent allowance?” and “laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes and towels hidden inside the box?”

Some things were to leave in the past:

Remember when “All your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had their hair done every day and wore high heels?”

Then it continued:

When being sent to the principal’s office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited the student at home?

Then it had an iconic 1950s photo of a dad spanking his son spread over his knees.

Basically we were in fear for our lives, but it wasn’t because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc. Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat!

Nice.

But we survived because their love was greater than the threat.

Whatever that means.

Didn’t that feel good, just to go back and say, ‘Yeah, I remember that’?

Not really, no.

So then today we got to read Steve Murray’s Twitter post included in the print edition of the National Post about not beating children, I suppose because maybe that’s bad?, but waiting until they’re adults so you can give them the beating of their lives.

I have a really good sense of humour. Honestly. But what kind of person finds that funny?

I see that there is “humour” in that, but it is not acceptable humour. The legions of children who grew up with mild to severe beatings probably don’t find that funny. But maybe their parents do, which is maybe why it’s in the paper.

But really, it’s right down there with “Did you hear the one about the female circumcision patient?”

But one thing I learned is that the people who run the National Post believe their readership will find that joke funny. They might be right or wrong about that. Who knows.

But if they’re right, I’m not happy about it.

And now that the CanWest papers are now Postmedia, I’m looking for examples of corporate branding and marketing posture that make the new owners different from the Aspers’ biases and idiosyncrasies.

So far, the National Post continues to be sad.

And the pattern of 5 front pages on terrorism with a “joke” later on about how to beat kids seems to fit a disturbing pattern.