Kimiya Shokoohi
Reprinted from Metro Vancouver
There’s no place for war in sports, said a group of hockey fans who plan to campaign outside of Rogers Arena Saturday.
The new Vancouver-based group, Hockey Fans For Peace, stemmed from the war talk of Don Cherry, a hockey-broadcasting icon known for his forthright style, during Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts.
“As a sports fan, I’m deeply offended,” said Kimball Cariou, the group’s spokesman, of Cherry using HNIC as a platform to express his support of the troops in Afghanistan.
And Cherry says he’s just that: Pro-troops. Not pro-war.
“You don’t see me saying war is good and people getting killed is good,” Cherry told Bill Good during his CKNW radio show on Thursday.
“But while the troops are there you have to support them — that’s the way I see it.”
The group, however, views it otherwise.
“The best way to support those troops is to bring them home,” Cariou said.
Sports culture doesn’t have to mean rough-and-tough and firing guns, he said.
Wearing T-shirts with crossed hockey sticks and a “peace puck” on the front, the group plans to gather outside of Rogers Arena Saturday during the Canucks game with the Detroit Red Wings.
The game will be broadcast on Hockey Night in Canada.
“Our intent,” Cariou said, “is to tell people it’s OK to be against the war if you like hockey.”
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