CFCF executive producer Barry Wilson is convinced that last night was not a bunch of hockey fans out of control. In his own words, “I do not believe for one minute that true hockey fans had anything to do with this mess.” He talks at length about the pathetic lives of some agents provocateurs, and then suggests that police and the courts need to use every tool at their disposal to punish those responsible and prevent any further riots from happening as the Habs move into the semi-finals.

Now, I’ve never been a hockey fan. I am one of the folks who impatiently waits until the end of the playoffs every year, for Coronation Street to return to its regular weekday evening slot. All the cars driving around with Canadiens flags sticking out the windows seem tacky to me. To be frank, I think hockey should be long over when the temperature is consistently in the double digits. Ice hockey in late April, in May & June? Now if anything is pathetic, that is.

I’m not naive enough to think that the rioting was completely unplanned. Looting liquor stores, cell phone suppliers, and sporting goods shops sounds like an easy cash grab while the police are busy trying to maintain order in a gang of over-excited sports fans who have already shown their tendency to get out of control too many times. But to say that no “true” hockey fan was involved in the rioting & looting? That seems quite naive, if you ask me. What is it that hockey fans value these days? I’m not so sure it’s really about sport anymore.

I believe there was a time when Montreal had something to be proud of when it came to hockey, but these days professional hockey seems to be about two things: money & violence. If the players aren’t being traded to the highest bidder so they can earn millions of dollars a year, the ticket prices are climbing so high that it’s pretty much impossible for Joe Untel to take his kids down to the forum - excuse me, the Bell Centre - to see a game.

When it’s not the money it’s the violence we have to be concerned about, and even in the minor leagues and the kids’ hockey teams this is becoming a significant problem. We’ve got bad coaching, parents getting physical with coaches and officials, players putting each other into hospital. Want to talk about pathetic? Let’s talk about the people who make excuses and say that hockey isn’t a tea party: of course kids are going to get hurt, players are going to get into it a bit at a game. It’s a real man’s sport. It’s not for sissies.

It’s odd, martial arts aren’t for sissies either, but the kind of violence we routinely see in hockey would get a person kicked out of any good dojo - probably the first time it happened.

I grew up with the legacy of Rocket Richard, of Boom Boom Geoffrion, the fond remembrances of hockey’s true heyday exemplified by the NFB film The Sweater. Heck, as a teenager I lived just blocks away from Guy Lafleur (who himself isn’t these days the shining example of humanity.)

It seems to me that in the “good old days” hockey in Quebec was a way out for a francophone who didn’t have many options available, especially if he didn’t speak English. Kids were put on skates here almost before they could walk, and every boy played hockey from the time he was coordinated enough to make the stick connect with the puck. If he got good enough, it meant fame and a good living, and not having to be stuck with the same old blue collar jobs his father had to choose from. Options for a French speaking kid were limited before the Quiet Revolution, especially in Montreal where English businessmen controlled the job market.

But we’re not living in those good old days anymore. Anyone who’s ever had to worry about getting that little piece of paper so their kids have the right to an education in English knows that. Whether or not I agree in principle with the model in which the pendulum needs to swing all the way in the opposite direction to repair the damage of an injustice, that pendulum has indeed swung a long way in that direction. If anything, a francophone kid in Montreal has access to more options than an anglophone. And as the English education aspect of the current curriculum reform rolls through the French schools we can only hope there will be decent English instruction in the elementary schools - please, let it be better than the French education in the English schools!

Hockey isn’t the only hope anymore, and as professional hockey becomes more & more commercialized it probably isn’t even an option for the kids who need a way out. All that equipment and the fancy skates - it’s too expensive for a lot of families. Between the ticket prices and the fact that municipal employees often can’t put up or maintain public ice rinks, the closest those kids get to a rink is to watch hockey on TV when it’s not blacked out.

So when people like Mr Wilson talk about “true hockey fans” I have to wonder exactly what it is that fans are supposed to appreciate. Is it the merchandise and the huge salaries the big players bring in? The star players who encourage their kids to start fights during junior league games or help their kids break bail conditions and then threaten to sue because they get caught doing it? Is it the fights on the ice, or the riots in the streets after the games? What exactly is it about winning a quarter-final game that makes people loot stores and set police cars on fire?

I’m not saying we should pull out of the semi-finals, or that we should not have hockey in Montreal anymore. Of course, if that put the regular programming back on the air it would be nice! But I think we need to put things into perspective. Hockey players aren’t gods, they’re just human beings. And hockey is a sport among many, many others. It may be popular here in Canada, and especially in Quebec. But realistically, not all of us even care to watch it. Let’s see a season that ends more or less when the cold weather does (and yes, I mean finals and all!) Let’s see ticket prices come down to a reasonable amount, and players who can take a few bumps and bruises (or verbal insults or calls they don’t agree with) and not end up picking a childish fist fight. Are you playing hockey, or do you want to be boxers?

Call me a bleeding heart or tell me I’m a woman & I wouldn’t understand it, but I just don’t see what there is about hockey to look up to these days. My son isn’t at a place where he can talk about the people he looks up to, but I can tell you that my girls don’t idolize hockey players. In our house the people we look up to are folks like our Kancho and Shihan who have put their hearts into teaching their art for years and are happy with a simple “Domo Arigatou” at the end of a class. They are Canada’s servicemen and servicewomen. They are the farmers who grow our food, and fight to make a decent living for their families. You won’t find a single sissy among those folks, and they do a darned sight better job of being role models for today’s young people than any spoiled prima donna on skates who thinks he’s too good to follow anybody’s rules. Nothing pathetic about that, Mr Wilson.

This work was created by Ruby of Freehold 2, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

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Arts education is often the first program cut in schools when funding becomes an issue. The so-called academic core takes precedence because educators and parents worry that students are not getting enough time for reading, writing, math and social studies activities. In cutting arts from the curriculum, schools are unwittingly cutting out opportunities for students to exercise the very skills in problem solving, critical thinking, sequencing, and historical inquiry we all want to encourage. Particularly in a society that is so concerned with tests and test scores, it is surprising that little attention is being paid to the fact that arts education has been shown to improve test scores.

Many of us bring our children home because things like arts education and computer access are limited in public schools, or because we have artistically inclined children whose intelligence is not recognized and whose creativity is stifled in a traditional classroom. Many more parents seek to supplement what their kids are getting in school because they feel it is just not enough. Here are some free and affordable arts education resources that will help parents and teachers to bring the art back into education.

1) Ambleside Online has an ongoing composer and artist study for students of all ages. The program is set up so that artists and composers studied concurrently are from the same historical trend. Several works per artists are suggested, and some biographical background is provided. Study the works in the manner of Charlotte Mason (just playing a composition or posting a copy of a painting where the children will view it on a regular basis throughout the day) or find an approach that suits your family.

2) In the Hands of a Child has an Art Appreciation Project Book to make over several days. It teaches vocabulary and discusses things like colour, shape, balance, etc. in art. It also introduces a handful of well known artists. At the moment it is available for download free from CurrClick.

3) In the Montreal area we are blessed with a very large number of museums, some of which regularly offer free activities.

• The Montreal Fine Arts Museum (Musée des Beaux Arts) offers free access to the permanent collection at all times, and kids under 12 also benefit from free admission to the exhibitions when accompanied by an adult family member. (Admission for adults from 17:00-20:30 on Wednesdays is half price, too!) Check out their Family Sundays activities as well, also free. Many of the films and lectures offered by the museum are similarly free of charge.
• The Canadian Centre for Architecture is presently offering (until 11 May 2008) free admission. Besides the opportunity to learn about architecture, you might want to look in on An Endangered Species which looks at the role of oil in daily life.
• Montreal’s Musée d’Art Contemporain (contemporary art) is free on Wednesday evenings from 18:00-21:00, and admission is always free for kids under 12. There’s also a new $10 “Wired to the MAC” card that seems to be offering free admission all year round. Films are offered during regular visiting hours, and once a month musical performances on Friday evenings are included in admission prices. School visits are a very affordable price ($3-$4.50/student) depending on the type of activity chosen. There are some workshops at the MAC too.
• The Château Ramezay is always free for children under 5, but prices are very good for students of all ages (under $5.) Access to the garden is always free. Watch for a number of cultural activities in the garden, including musical performances and demonstrations of spinning, weaving or dyeing natural fibres.
• Montreal’s archaeological museum, Pointe-à-Callière, is free to children under 5. They also offered free admission for women and girls on International Women’s Day. At one point in time they offered free admission one day a week for kids accompanied by a grandparent. I don’t know if this is still happening, but couldn’t find any mention of it on the site.
• The McCord Museum offers free admission to children under 5, and up to 12 years the admission is $4. There are special children’s activities offered on a regular basis, including a free hands-on workshop for babies once a month. For day camps and other groups meeting over the summer, the McCord has three activities especially for your group. Children pay $5.50 each, while organizers and chaperones benefit from free admission.
• The Biosphere in the old American pavilion of Expo67 is now free of charge for children under 18. Outdoor activities are free for everybody. Come and learn about water! Themes for activities include conservation and the Saint Lawrence Valley ecosystem, among others.
• McGill’s Redpath Museum is always free of charge, for everyone. While it is thought of more as a nature museum, there are displays that touch on art, culture and anthropology. Among others are the Egyptian mummy, the exhibit explaining foot binding in China, and the Samurai armour display. As the Redpath is a rather open, quiet place it’s also ideal for doing nature study during bad weather or for folks who want a look at animals they can’t locate near home. The Redpath also offers films and lectures, many of which are free of charge.

For even more savings at Montreal area museums, you can purchase the Montreal Museums Pass which offers free access to 32 museums (with or without a 3-day transit pass) for under $50. There is also Montreal Museums Day, the last Sunday of May each year - 25 May in 2008. On this day admission to all participating museums is free from 9:00-18:00. Be prepared for lines at some museums, though! (NB: This year the Botanical Gardens & Insectarium are not participating.)

This work was created by Ruby of Freehold 2, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

Excerpts copyright quoted authors. Please visit their sites to read more, and respect the terms of their copyrights. Thanks!