Russia’s legislative and cultural oppression of gays and lesbians has drawn worldwide condemnation and cast a shadow over the Sochi Olympics. There are difficult, and some say impossible, lines to be drawn: between supporting Russia and the Olympics, between supporting the Games and individual athletes—some of whom, of course, are lesbian or gay, and many of whom have been vocal queer allies.
There was no widespread move to boycott the Games, and so a number of athletes from our own backyard, who have trained for years for a chance to complete, are now in Sochi. Here are eight Toronto Olympians to follow and root for, even if you’re not rooting for the country that’s hosting them:
Patrick Chan: This is the Olympian that your grandmother loves, and that is because your grandma has excellent judgement. Chan is a strong medal contender in figure skating, having won the past three world championships. Chan was born in Ottawa but moved to Toronto at an early age. In case you need another reason why this 23-year-old is better than you: he also speaks French and Cantonese fluently. He graduated from North York’s École secondaire Étienne-Brûlé. You can follow him on Twitter @PChiddy.
Mayor Rob Ford says he's done everything he can to get a rainbow flag supporting gay rights taken down from Toronto's City Hall.
"The bottom line is, again, this is about the Olympics, this is about supporting our athletes," said Ford outside his office on Tuesday.
"I've done everything I can to get the Canadian flag back up," he said.
The rainbow flag was raised to coincide with the Opening Ceremony at the Olympics in Sochi, Russia. It is a protest of the anti-gay laws in that country, and a show of support LGBT Russians.
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There is currently a Canadian flag flying at Toronto City Hall, as is required by the city's flag protocols. The rainbow flag is flying to the east of the clamshell-like building, where an auxiliary Canadian flag usually flies. Community groups can request to have flags raised on that pole from time-to-time.
Ford said he has written to the city manager to get the flag removed, but there is nothing he can do because it is a matter of protocol. The 519 Church Street Community Centre made a request to fly the flag outside city hall for the duration of the Olympics. The mayor has no authority to remove it.
A group of a half dozen women and middle school kids spent the morning at City Hall, holding signs proclaiming "We are more than just taxpayers" and "Respect Diversity." They said they were there to send the message that Ford's bad behaviour is setting a poor example for the young people of the city.
The mayor was not at his office but his brother, Councillor Doug Ford, popped by late in the morning and was confronted by the group.
[. . .]
Doug told the media he didn't know where his brother was Tuesday morning. When a reporter asked why the mayor still refuses to make his schedule public, the councillor told her, "I don't think you have the moral authority to ask what the mayor's doing."
After he left, protester Jay MacGillivray said he had been "disrespectful" by refusing to speak directly to the children. She rejected the Fords' plea - recently made on their new Youtube channel - to judge the mayor on his fiscal record instead of his well-documented substance abuse issues.
[. . .]
The mayor arrived at his office around 12:30 p.m., but by that time the protesters had already left. His spokesperson said he had spent the morning touring a Toronto Community Housing building in the Victoria Park and St. Clair neighbourhood.
When a reporter from Britain pointed out that were Quebec a country, it would be second in the medal count, [Alexandre] Bilodeau swerved around the sovereignty debate. “We’re both proud to be Quebeckers,” he said pointing to silver medalist and fellow Quebec native Mikaël Kingsbury. “But we’re very proud to be Canadians … yes, we do a lot of good things in Quebec
The medals won by Mr. Kingsbury and Mr. Bilodeau were the sixth and seventh Canada has captured at the Sochi Games. As of Tuesday morning, six of Canada's nine medals have been captured by Quebec athletes, including three golds.
Short-track speed skater Charles Hamelin, who also won gold on Monday, was the only Canadian double-gold medalist at the 2010 Olympics; overall, Quebec-based competitors won eight of the 15 individual medals awarded to Canadians in Vancouver.
In Sochi, Quebec-based athletes have posted the top Canadian result in all but five of the 18 competitions held so far in which Canadian athletes are represented.
The obvious question is: Why? Poet and singer Gilles Vigneault surely provided part of the answer with his iconic Quebecois hymn Mon pays c’est l’hiver, but that’s not an especially comprehensive explanation. There are many facets to the answer, from Quebec’s geography, to bigger and better funding for Quebec athletes that has led to nearly 40 per cent of Canada’s Sochi delegation hailing from the province.
But there are more ephemeral elements, too – the small gesture of a sporting idol autographing a ski jacket, and years later, an athlete stepping onto an Olympic podium. That’s precisely what happened this week in Sochi when 41-year-old former Olympic champion moguls skier Jean-Luc Brassard (the signer) was on hand to watch 19-year-old Justine Dufour-Lapointe (the signee) win the women’s moguls event.
You can draw a straight line between what Brassard did in Lillehammer 20 years ago and an event involving an athlete who wasn’t even around to see it, the story of the success of Quebec athletes at this Games is at least partly one of athletes building dreams for subsequent generations.
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