This is a column by Shireen Ahmed, who writes opinion for CBC Sports. For extra details about CBC’s Opinion part, please see the FAQ.
When I discovered Bobby Orr supported Donald Trump, I used to be fairly devastated. Although an ardent Montreal Canadiens fan raised me, I nonetheless knew that No. 4 was a legend. His contributions to hockey and his model of play made him somebody I knew regardless that his profession was over shortly after I used to be born.
But studying how a lot his post-career political preferences differed from my very own was jarring. I do not count on each athlete I like to share my views on social points. Case in level: Martina Navratilova. So, I’m not unfamiliar with having to be bitterly dissatisfied with realizing the views of some athletes who parlay their success from their sports activities careers into public service messaging to their giant audiences.
But ought to we care about what former athletes are as much as of their post-athletic careers?
Last week, Toronto Star reporter Alex Boyd wrote a narrative about determine skater Jamie Salé, and was criticized by a doctor for amplifying Salé’s views on vaccines.
Sorry to see <a href=”https://twitter.com/TorontoStar?ref_src=twsrcpercent5Etfw”>@TorontoStar</a> glorifying a rabid <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/antiVax?src=hash&ref_src=twsrcpercent5Etfw”>#antiVax</a> individual like Jamie Salé in its Sunday version. Her concepts on public well being put folks in danger.
—@NightShiftMD
Canada’s former figure-skating sweetheart, who together with former husband David Pelletier received an Olympic gold and a world championship within the early 2000s, has now turn into well-known for her polarizing anti-vaccine stance. (Her second husband, from whom she is separated, is former NHL participant Craig Simpson, who typically has to make the excellence on social media that Salé’s views are her personal.)
Her Twitter account provides details about how “freedom” has been beneath assault because the COVID-19 pandemic. Salé and former NHL participant Theo Fleury each entrance a corporation referred to as Canadians for Truth. According to its web site, it was based by Canadians looking for to unify people who find themselves deeply dedicated to “fact, freedom and justice” and have “shared values.” Those values embody vehemently rejecting requires vaccines as a result of these protocols violate private freedoms, or as Salé has carried out, arguing that placing masks on kids is tantamount to “baby abuse.”
As a part of his service to humanity, Fleury has appeared on FOX information — sure, the worldwide bastion of truth-telling and wonderful journalism (*learn with dripping sarcasm*) — to tell Americans concerning the revolution occurring in Canada, a.okay.a. final 12 months’s truck convoy.
Freedom of expression is vital
At the outset, it will appear as if these sports activities figures are utilizing their public personas and belief to disseminate info that has upset lots of of us, and that many specialists simply problem.
Salé has carried out interviews with far-right Rebel media to argue in opposition to what she thinks is censorship. Freedom of expression is vital to many Canadians and one may argue that Fleury and Salé are merely utilizing the freedoms which can be entrenched in our Charter.
So the criticism directed towards Boyd for her story on Salé is, for my part, misguided. I consider Boyd was not solely doing her job, however she was additionally providing Canadians extra info. With that info comes energy. I might be extra upset if an athlete I adored was taking an arguably harmful place and I knew nothing of it and saved them on a pedestal. I discovered Boyd’s piece to be informative and useful.
Furthermore, reporting is precisely what reporters do. Boyd’s story is how a celebrated and adored Canadian athlete whose Prairie appeal and pleasant smile captured the nations’ consideration turned so public and adamant a few virus that has killed greater than 37,000 Canadians since 2020 and affected the well being of hundreds of thousands of others. And virtually a 12 months after the truck convoy blockaded the U.S.-Canada border in Windsor, the inconvenience and disruption are what’s remembered.
While there have been many heated exchanges on social media relating to this story, award-winning journalist Michelle Shephard tweeted out the story and mentioned that Boyd introduced context and perception. She added, “Always higher to grasp than ignore IMO, no?”
Boyd took to Twitter to make clear just a few issues and provide a perspective from a journalistic lens.
As the reporter who wrote that story I obvs disagree that it glorifies Jamie Salé. But the query of why we thought this was price a narrative is a good one. A number of folks have requested! I’ve had many pre-pub convos and mulled it quite a bit. A number of of my ideas: <a href=”https://t.co/vEqai7wUfy”>https://t.co/vEqai7wUfy</a> <a href=”https://t.co/KkUT6aTOo3″>https://t.co/KkUT6aTOo3</a>
—@alex_n_boyd
I agree with Shephard on this and admire Boyd’s candour — not solely as a result of I consider in journalism however as a result of position fashions additionally form and shift. They’re human and never static beings.
Sports figures are a big a part of Canadian popular culture and we like them. Being apprised of their on-goings after they’ve retired is just not dangerous however useful, notably when their politics are a part of who they’re.
We are far past a time to say “sports activities should not be political,” notably if the (former) athletes are bellowing their very own politics into the world so boldly. I admire the reporting. Perhaps it does crush our ideally suited model of a favorite athlete, however that’s a part of the world.
If we would like idealism in sports activities, then we should always all be religious Jean Béliveau followers, or simply be enamoured with those that are excruciatingly non-public like Sidney Crosby, who my Penguins-loving-fan bestie Renee believes could be very intentional about his quiet maneuvring.
Perhaps we’d by no means actually know what energetic athletes consider till they retire after which get ambushed with opinions or views. But can we afford to be naive about athletes once we love them? We have the best to find out about them in a approach that’s nuanced and related. Particularly when their behaviour is now not sweetheart-worthy.
Perhaps we should always goal to by no means meet our heroes however all the time report on them.
