SETHBLOGS UPDATE: Against my better preference, I must admit that this 2011 Sethblogs’ reaction to the Vancouver riots (in response to my Vancouver Canucks losing the Stanley Cup) was grounded much more in my biased suspicions than in evidence. SethBlogs argued in the post that the behaviour of anarchistic hockey players may have assisted in spawning the anarchistic behaviours of rioters. After all, I grew up assuming that violent video games and movies promoted violence amongst youth, so why wouldn’t bad on-ice behaviours in turn provoke bad fan behaviours?

Sadly, I’m now led to understand that scientific research does not substantiate a causal relationship between violent video games/movies and societal violence. In my meagre defence, sports may be distinct from those fictional productions because athletes are real people, and so young viewers may see them as role models, and so may be more likely to be tempted to model themselves after such elite public figures. However, I now recognize that my confidence in such a possibility was biased by my dislike for the bad behaviours of certain hockey players, which provoked me to infer a link where there may not be one.

As one of the commenters on the post brilliantly put it, maybe the bad behaviour “is something the hockey players symbolize, perhaps rather than causing.”

Nevertheless, I’m not deleting the post (A) because it’s a rare historical artifact of me being wrong ;), and (B) because I still agree with both my mocking of poor hockey player behaviour and poor hockey fan behaviour (I’m just no longer so confident that there’s a link between them).

—SethBlogs, April 2021

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Now that it’s been nearly a month since Vancouver hosted the Stanley Cup Final with a riot for dessert, I think it’s time I finally let everyone know why the mayhem happened. Well, truth be acknowledged, I did share this opinion with more than one newspaper op-ed department, but none saw fit to publish it (I like to think that’s because I hit a nerve of Canadian truth that was too dangerous to print on their pages, but you have my permission to consider other reasons). Luckily, I have an “in” with the SethBlogs op-ed department.

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In the week since the Vancouver riots, the consensus seems to be that a compilation of insidious factors (anarchists mixed with alcohol-infused crowds, along with insufficient police numbers) made Vancouver the perfect target for this storm. Few seem willing to consider the possibility that the hockey, itself, may have aided the proliferation of rage.

The civilized majority of us, of course, did not riot, and so—like a collective parent—have been left shame-faced as we tell the international community:

“This isn’t who we are!”

Hundreds of locals came downtown the day after the mayhem to help clean up. Wooden walls—put in place of the smashed windows of brutalized businesses—look like children’s casts covered with notes from people expressing post-riot depression.

Phrases such as “This wasn’t us” and “This isn’t hockey” provoke passersby to smile, but what makes us so confident that hockey violence didn’t contribute to the riot mentality?

During the playoffs, fans of all ages seemed to cheer every Canuck whether they played with sportsmanship or not. I was in the downtown crowd that watched the infamous between-play-scrum in which Alex Burrows appeared to bite his opponent. Many fans applauded the would-be cannibal like a hero. I suspect the anarchists were cheering, too.

Pleas for vandal accountability, meanwhile, dominate Vancouver radio. Concerned citizens set up websites for witnesses to post their pictures for others to “tag” with names of villains. A 17-year-old boy “turned himself in” after evidence of him assaulting a Louis Vuitton store was published. His tears of regret reminded me of the sorrow that Todd Bertuzzi expressed after his infamous on-ice neck-breaking attack of hated rival, Steve Moore.

This notion that consequences beget responsibility could be right, but we may have difficulty explaining to our misguided youth why there aren’t always similar consequences for their favourite hockey players’ misdeeds.

Many blame the youths’ action on a sense of entitlement, which they apparently acquired from a lack of disciplined parenting. Indeed, it’s difficult to refute that kids who grow up in luxury sometimes expect so much for themselves that they’re willing to trample on the very civilization that has pampered them merely to secure some bonus stimulation. But is entitlement worse in Vancouver than in non-riotous North American cities that have also suffered the indignity of defeat?

Throughout the playoffs, various on-ice “rats”—as they’re affectionately dubbed by announcers—have attempted to agitate and intimidate their opponents with assorted cheap shots. Only in hockey are such characters lauded as “key ingredients” to winning. No other popular North American sport celebrates its athletes for physically antagonizing each other between plays and outside the rules of the game.

Given that such wild behaviour is sanctioned by the hockey culture, should we be surprised—after the intense competition of game 7—that passionate young Canucks enthusiasts, spurred on by increased testosterone and alcohol, might feel justified in bullying Bruins’ fans?

Mayor Robertson says the riot was a carefully crafted collection of chaos courtesy of anarchists, who brought Molotov cocktails to the event. Once they lit the match, the alcohol-soaked crowd provided the fuel that rapidly fostered a mob mentality. Robertson may be right that the riot was premeditated by a small group of chaos seekers, but the instigators were only so successful because they exploited the tools available to them, one of which was the ready-aggression of young people—which perhaps was ramped up and normalized by two months of watching angry competition.

In most cultures, young people are a combustible substance. Vancouver probably doesn’t have a greater percentage of hooligans than other cities, so—as we rightly question the parenting skills and security levels that could have contained our youths’ unearned rage—we might also ponder the sort of role models we are placing on a pedestal in front of them. The Canuck players have said they are disappointed in the actions of these “false” fans: maybe they should ask themselves why their own names are on the backs of the jerseys of the criminals.