Racism is not new, it's always been around unfortunately. It's everywhere including in professional sports world wide. Remember when the Habs beat Boston in 7 games in 2014 and PK Subban got the game-winning goal? The N word was trending in Boston after legions of Bs fans took to Twitter to hurl abuse at the Habs player... If you watch some international football, you might remember that Barcelona's Dani Alves was thrown a banana on the pitch in Spain and that the same happened to Arsenal's Aubameyang in England in 2018... Don't say that such things wouldn't happen in Canada as it did to Wayne Simmonds when Philly took on Detroit in London, Ontario. Those incidents were all decried when they happened but clearly, the world still has a lot to learn and if Hockey is for Everyone, so should Life be...

You've probably all seen the footage by now, on May 25th George Floyd died of asphyxia has he was being restrained by a police officer and since then, it's been riots after riots in the USA and there have been many demonstrations worldwide as well. Floyd is only the last in a long list of names who died or suffered police brutality. Remember Rodney King? His arrest and beating by the LA police happened in 1991 and 30 years later, we are still witnessing this kind of unbelievable events. You can also add the names of Michael Brown and Eric Garner to that list, both died within a month of each other in 2014 and the later actually passed after being held in a chokehold by a police officer...Fast forward 2 years and the Orange is the New Black writers inspired by his passing decided to put the spotlight on it when Poussey Washington died in the popular series as a guard had his knee on her effectively preventing her from breathing:



4 years later, it happened for real, a black man, George Floyd lost his live as a police officer prevented him from breathing with his knee... It's no wonder that the black community has had enough and is speaking out. Shark player Evander Kane said that he was happy to see NHL players speaking up about this and the Sharks owner leading the way. Since then, most NHL teams have issued a statement and several players have as well with Jonathan Toews' statement hitting the mark particularly well:

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A lot of people may claim these riots and acts of destruction are a terrible response. I’ll be the first to admit that as a white male that was also my first reaction. But who am I to tell someone that their pain is not real? Especially when it is at a boiling point and impossible to hold in anymore. It’s obviously coming from a place of truth. This reaction isn’t coming out of thin air. I’m not condoning or approving the looting, but are we really going to sit here and say that peaceful protesting is the only answer? There has been plenty of time for that, and if it was the answer we would’ve given it our full attention long ago. Listen to these two men debate. They are lost, they are in pain. They strived for a better future but as they get older they realize their efforts may be futile. They don’t know the answer of how to solve this problem for the next generation of black women and men. This breaks my heart. I can’t pretend for a second that I know what it feels like to walk in a black man’s shoes. However, seeing the video of George Floyd’s death and the violent reaction across the country moved me to tears. It has pushed me to think, how much pain are black people and other minorities really feeling? What have Native American people dealt with in both Canada and US? What is it really like to grow up in their world? Where am I ignorant about the privileges that I may have that others don’t? Compassion to me is at least trying to FEEL and UNDERSTAND what someone else is going through. For just a moment maybe I can try to see the world through their eyes. Covid has been rough but it has given us the opportunity to be much less preoccupied with our busy lives. We can no longer distract ourselves from the truth of what is going on. My message isn’t for black people and what they should do going forward. My message is to white people to open our eyes and our hearts. That’s the only choice we have, otherwise this will continue. Let’s choose to fight hate and fear with love and awareness. Ask not what can you do for me, but what can I do for you? Be the one to make the first move. In the end, love conquers all. #blacklivesmatter

A post shared by Jonathan Toews (@jonathantoews) on Jun 1, 2020 at 12:40pm PDT

As for our Canadiens, well the team issued a statement yesterday but today, the Habs 2nd round pick and 46th overall in 2019 issued his own urging people to join in and not be silent:

Being silent doesn’t ignite change✊🏾 pic.twitter.com/aA2c9e1X0O

— Jayden Struble (@jaydenstruble) June 2, 2020

Racism is a problem that concerns us all, we need to join in and make it stop. What can we do? We can listen, we can learn and we can spread the word: this needs to stop. We need to be better and respect one another...If we all decide to make a difference, things can and will change but we all need to get on board as Struble puts it.

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