The Adventures of Diva Rachel: The Habs and the Have-Nots: Why Subban Should Leave Canada

Published in the HuffPo here.

There was a time when Montrealers could overlook superficial and linguistic differences to rally around a groundbreaking sporting prodigy. Despite being Black, Anglophone and a foreigner, Jackie Robinson was, by all accounts, welcomed in Canada’s then-largest city in 1946. Robinson played a single season with the Brooklyn Dodgers‘ farm team in La Métropole. He led The Montreal Royals to the Little World Series. More importantly, Robinson proved that there could be a willing white audience for a racially integrated baseball team. It was a stepping stone towards the MLB, where Robinson would break the colour line. The first African-American MLB player faced angry, intolerant crowds and colleagues alike.

But not in Canada.

In fact, it was quite the opposite. “I experienced no racism here. […] The French-Canadian people welcomed us with open arms,” said Robinson.

It’s been documented that the Montreal fans would pay close attention to any ear-to-the-ground or press reports of racism or mistreatment Robinson and the Royals received when playing on the road. Fans of the Royals would voice their displeasure when that city’s team visited Delorimier Stadium. [source: CBC]


That was then. This is now.

There’s another Black, Anglophone sports prodigy in Montreal these days. P.K. Subban has electrified audiences, opened up a new stream of hockey fans, and brought the Montreal Canadians to contention in the playoffs.
But the Habs aren’t bending over backwards to sign a Norris-trophy alum. In a familiar refrain, the Subbanator has the talent on which a winning team can be built for years to come, but, as Quebec sport writer Jeremy Filosa put it in 2013, there’s a physical trait that can’t be overlooked:

“Voilà que le Tricolore se retrouve aujourd’hui avec, dans ses rangs, peut-être le meilleur défenseur de la planète et il est noir. Pas un peu noir, il est très noir…”


Liberal translation:

“Now the Habs find themselves with, in their ranks, perhaps the best defenceman in the planet and he is black. Not just a little bit black, he is very dark-skinned black…”


And PK’s pigmentation has drawn the ire of many, though most, like Don Cherry, are apt at masking their racial anxiety behind Tea Party-like euphemisms and innuendo.

PK Subban has been chided and disrespected throughout his professional career: from the blackface-donning fans, to bigot dismissive coaches, and even teammates have called him out in public. The graceful player has suffered in silence, thus co-opting the NHL’s steadfast refusal to take any meaningful action on the league’s interminable racial inquietude.



Broadcaster and Hockey Night In Canada co-host Kevin Weekes took to twitter to express his frustration on Subban’s dragging contract negotiations.

The mere fact that a player/person of his calibre has to be in this contract with the @CanadiensMTL when he’s proven so much is despicable.
— Kevin Weekes (@KevinWeekes) July 30, 2014


Weekes, who was a professional hockey player and shares Subban’s Caribbean extraction, believes there is trickery behind the scenes.

@BostonBruins28 Point being.In spite of the accomplishments,they keep moving the goal line.Not to mention icetime,PP,benchings,etc.
— Kevin Weekes (@KevinWeekes) July 30, 2014

FACING THE FACTS
Montreal is not the place where an ebony player like Subban can thrive. In a town where blackface is still considered acceptableeven on the public broadcaster’s airwaves, a dark-skinned prodigy in the “white man’s game” just can’t get the respect nor the remuneration he’s earned.


Subban has the pedigree, the poise, and the personality to be a transcending figure à la Michael Jordan. He speaks proper English. He comes from a picture-perfect traditional family. He’s never been in trouble with the law. A marketing dream… in the U.S.A. If the NHL played its cards right, Subban’s forthcoming success could cement hockey’s popularity among its least-represented groups, thus springboard towards a new generation of diverse players and fans.

FLYING THE COOP
The social experiment of a hockey prodigy with dark chocolate skin in Canada has lasted long enough. Montreal is no longer the bastion on racial progress it once was. PK Subban should thank the Habs for the stepping stone years and move on to more culturally mature and inclusive locales.

Los Angeles was the first city to welcome a black NFL player in 1946. California’s franchises have taken pride in seeking out talent from non-traditional sources, shoring up support from both the Asians and Latino communities. New York hosted the first black NBA player in the 50s and the city continues to set the trend for the rest of the nation. 


Both U.S. coasts would serve as ideal launch pads for the second phase of Subban’s career. They can promise something Montreal can
‘t —  unencumbered race-transcending support.
The adventures of a Franco Ontarian Viz Min Woman in Ottawa.
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The Adventures of Diva Rachel: The Home of the Habs: For Whites Only?

This blogpost was published in the HuffPost under the title:

This Canadian Stood Up to Racism Before Rosa Parks

The Hobby Lobby case rules that Corporations can impose their restrictive values on others. What if the corporation is racist?

As a Verdun resident, Fred Christie follows the Habs, as do a legion of other Quebeckers. The Montrealer is even a proud season-ticket holder.

Accompanied by two friends, Mr. Christie enters the tavern at the Canadiens‘ hockey area, plunks down some cash and orders a few beers. The bartender refuses to serve him. The assistant manager then explains to his would-be customers that the establishment extends no courtesy to Negroes.

It is 1936. July 11th 1936.

The protagonist had resided in the Métropole for over 20 years. Mr. Christie converted to the cult of ice hockey even if the NHL then bars all coloured players. Although Mr. Christie, a Jamaican immigrant, integrated himself into Canadian culture and acclimatized himself to his adopted country, he was not treated like other customers.

2014-07-11-We_serve_whites_only

Long before Canada’s “multiculturalism mantra,” this was an everyday scenario played out in Toronto, Calgary, Nova Scotia… just about everywhere in the Great “White” North. Aboriginals, Asians and Africans-descendants suffered overt discrimination at will.

During the hostility at le Forum de Montréal‘s tavern, Mr. Christie tried to explain to the Manager that this race-based rule was unfair. His pleas fell on deaf ears. Mr. Christie then called the police. They only served to add insult to injury. Humiliated, Fred and his friends left the tavern thirst unquenched and empty-handed. Like most Afro-Canadians in Montreal, Mr. Christie knew which shops and theatres avoid, which jobs were denied to him, and which neighbourhoods were forbidden to “Negroes”. After all, the city was then a sanctum of segregation. But, for the man who felt at home in the Temple du Hockey, the tavern’s racist rule was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Fred Christie filed a discrimination case against the York corporation to court. Despite registering multiple setbacks, Christie’s case went all the way to the Supreme Court.

On December 9 1939, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) rendered its final decision.

It ruled that the general principle of the law in Québec is complete freedom of business. As long as a merchant did not break the law, he or she was free to refuse any member of the public on any grounds.

2014-07-11-WhiteTradeOnlyLancasterOhio.jpg

The Court proceeded to blame Christie for his own misfortune:

«The respondent was merely protecting its business interests.

It appears from the evidence that, in refusing to sell beer to the appellant [Mr. Christie], the respondent’s employees did so quietly, politely and without causing any scene or commotion whatever. If any notice was attracted to the appellant on the occasion in question, it arose out of the fact that the appellant persisted in demanding beer after he had been so refused and went to the length of calling the police, which was entirely unwarranted by the circumstances.» ~Justice Rinfret

Decidedly, the SCC ratified the “no service for coloureds” doctrine as being in line with the moral standards of the day.

In the social context of Canada before the Quiet Revolution (1950’s), before Viola Desmond’s act of defiance (1946), before Rosa Parks triggered the United States’ Civil Rights Movement (1955), Fred Christie stood up to institutional discrimination.

A decade before the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1947), Fred Christie exhibited unimaginable courage and perseverance in asserting his civil rights. Though the judicial process did not deliver the desired result, Fred Christie remains a key instigator in Canada’s journey towards the establishment of universal rights. As Aboriginals, Francophones and elderly people of colour know, the Canadian justice has not always been kind to minorities. Fred Christie paved the way for us all.

Four years after the SCC’s shameful ruling, Ontario heralded a new anti-discrimination era with its 1944 “Racial Discrimination Act”. And sometimes anti-racism laws were even enforced! The jurisprudence would spread from coast to coast.

Fred Christie died enclosed in obscurity. He received no honours befitting of his buoyant bravery — in life or in death.

It’s about time, is not it?

This blog originally appeared in French on the Huffington Post Québec.
The adventures of a Franco Ontarian Viz Min Woman in Ottawa.
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