Thursday, April 3, 2003

A busload of American "PeeWee" hockey players got a taste of the rabid anti-Americanism that is festering in Canada: They were hooted at, our National Anthem was booed, and people in the street gave them the finger or displayed other rude gestures.

The Massachusetts kids were in Montreal for a PeeWee tournament when residents of this French-speaking city treated them the way one would expect an enemy to be treated: with scorn and hostility.

According to the Toronto Globe & Mail, the 11- and 12-year-old boys from Brockton had been looking forward to the hockey tournament in Montreal. But parents who accompanied them said they were unprepared for the depth of anti-American hatred over the U.S.-led war against Iraq.

During their four-day visit, the young Americans were horrified to see the Stars and Stripes burned and hear the National Anthem booed. When traveling in their bus emblazoned with a red, white and blue "Coach USA" logo, they saw people on the street make angry gestures at them.

Even worse, while playing hockey their Canadian opponents told their American guests that "the U.S. sucks" and shouted other anti-American insults, the boys recalled.

"It was a shock to go to a tournament and have kids saying this to us. These are our friends that are doing this," Brockton Boxers coach Ernest Nadeau told the Globe & Mail. "We didn't expect Canadian players - especially young boys - would take things to that extreme."

Why Spend Your Money in Quebec?

One parent, Bill Carpenter, was so upset he canceled his family's vacation to Quebec this summer. "We were very offended by the whole thing," Carpenter, who accompanied two sons on the trip, told the newspaper.

"I understand the opposition to the war. But we were made to feel unwelcome just about anywhere we went. Montreal is a 5½-hour drive for us. It's not like we were traveling to Syria or France or Germany," he said. "As Americans, we felt in the past that Canada was our closest ally and friend. No one told us we were heading into unfriendly territory."

According to the Globe & Mail, the trip took a turn for the worse almost as soon as the children reached Montreal when their bus entered the city's downtown just as hundreds of college and university students were marching through the streets in an appeasement demonstration. Police cruisers spotted the U.S. bus and escorted it to its hotel on Sherbrooke Street as a safety precaution. A police officer even urged the visitors to remain in the bus until the protest passed.

The children watched in shock as demonstrators made obscene gestures toward the bus. An American flag was dragged through the street.

"We felt horrible," Nadeau told the paper. "How would you feel if the Canadian flag was dragged down the streets in the U.S.A.? This is a country that's supposed to be our ally."

That night at a game between the Montreal Canadiens and New York Islanders game, the U.S. national anthem was widely booed by the crowd, further upsetting the boys.

"The kids were just questioning, 'Why are they doing this?'" said David Cruise, who was there with his 12-year-old son. "It's hard for them to realize we weren't in America any more; we were in a different country. I said, 'They're booing our national anthem because they don't like us.'

"Whether you're for or against the war, we have guys over there dying," Cruise said. "The next time, we'll stay in the States. I'm not going back there again."

The boys recalled that during a game against the Beverly Bandits, a team from Beverly, Ont., anti-American comments continued when the Canadians hurled insults during face-offs and at other times.

"They told us we sucked, gave us the finger and said 'Down with the U.S.A.' or 'The U.S.A. sucks," Nadeau said. At one point, a Canadian player made a disparaging remark about the United States "and the referee turned around and said, 'I agree with you.' "What stunned us was that the referee, who is supposed to be unbiased, is agreeing with the boys on the ice."

His players "wanted to retaliate" against the Canadians, but Nadeau said he urged them "not to do anything foolish."

Fanatics Cheer Iraqi Flag, Burn U.S. Flag

During a walk downtown with his two children Saturday, Carpenter watched another anti-war demonstration when he saw the crowd cheering a man atop a traffic light waving an Iraqi flag and a U.S. flag. The crowd cheered the Iraqi flag and booed the Iraqi flag. The man then soaked U.S. flag in kerosene.

"It went up in a puff of smoke and flames, and the crowd went wild. They were all cheering," said Carpenter, whose 24-year-old son, a U.S. Marine, was sent to retrieve bodies of Americans killed in the 2001 terrorist bombing of USS Cole in Yemen.

On the way back home, as the bus crossed the border into the United States, cheers went up in the bus. "We were very, very happy to get back home," Nadeau said.