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6 - The Oakville Beaver, Sunday February 17, 2002 EDITORIALS AND LETTERS IAN OLIVER P ub lish e r THE OAKVILLE BEAVER 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5567 Classified Advertising: 845-2809 Circulation: 8459742 N H L OLIVER A ssociate P ub lish e r TERI CASAS O ffice M anager JILL DAVIS E d ito r in C h ie f MARK DILLS P roduction M anager KELLY MONTAGUE A dvertising D ire c to r RIZIERO VERTOLLI P hotography D ire c to r STEVE CROZIER C ircu la tio n D ire c to r ROD JERRED M anaging E d ito r THE O A K V llif BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: Metroland Prtnting. PubKsNng & Oetnbutng Ltd.. includes: Ajax/Pickering News ArVertiser, Alkston HerakVCourier, A rtu r Enterprise News. Bame Advance. Barry's Bay This Week. Bolton Enterprise, Brampton Guardian. Btrtngton Post Burlington Shopping News. City Parent. CoBngwood/Wasaga Connection. East Vtark Mkror. Erin Admcatofountry Routes. Etobicoke Guardian. Flamborough Post. 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Forever Young, City ol York Guardian Recognized for Excellence by Ontario Community I Newspapers Association Canadian Community Newspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America ra te C f c M f f r u t loaKvllle galleries I TV AUCTION 4 'f e s g j l ' Ice rage is disturbing trend Last weekend's 'ice rage' incident during an adult hockey game at the Appleby Ice Centre signals a disturb ing trend occurring in arenas from neighbourhoods right up to the NHL. Halton police have laid charges of aggravated assault against a man who allegedly swung his stick so hard at an opponent, it fractured his skull. Given the nature of the injury and the alleged act, police are obliged to take a good hard look at the case. While anyone who has played hockey knows physical contact and some risk of injury is associated with the game, what took place on Burlington ice Feb. 9 crossed the line - big time. Ice rage seems to be making headlines more and more of late, and not just for the actions of hockey players. Truck driver Thomas Junta was recently sent to prison for literally beating another hockey dad to death after their sons' hockey scrimmage in suburban Boston last summer. On Tuesday, a 37-year-old hockey coach from Mississauga was arrest ed for allegedly assaulting a referee as a Junior A playoff game ended. Marty McSorley's intentional clubbing of fellow NHL goon Donald Brashear m February 2000 warranted McSorley's one-year sus pension from the league and a subse quent finding of guilt for assault with a weapon - although McSorley never spent a day in jail for his crime. All this unacceptable on and off ice violence may be getting the media's attention, but what of the organizing bodies of hockey? Hockey is supposed to be an enjoyable pastime that lets us escape life's stresses - not vent them. When coaches, parents, adults and pros let their anger and frustra tion override common sense, where can our young players find role models? THEYkETRADING INSURANCE INFO ^C E L L P H O N E # WHY NOT? THEY WERE W TH ON THEM ANYWAY-. Taking a good ribbing over Olympic funny business This Olympic moment is brought to you by the makers of.... And here, in the spirit of Moses Znaimer-inspired interactive commentary, you can insert your own commercial sponsor, like Frumpy Bits Lingerie (motto: "Less Ain't Necessarily More!"), Total Grog Hard Liquor ("Like Olympic athletes, we give you 110%"), and Funny Business ("The official history of fig ure skating judging!").... So, there I was on Monday night reclined upon my bed -- either engrossed in the artistic beauty and athletic elegance of Canadians Jamie Sate and David Pelletier in the Olympic pairs fig ure skating competition, or fast asleep with my glasses still on --when the marks of the skating judges (herein referred to as "Those sneaky, under-handed, unconscionable twits who stole the gold medal from our Canadian skaters," or, sim ply, "those no-good boogers") were announced, and I felt the full impact of my wife's ire (or perhaps it was her elbow) upon my ribs. "What, what?" I said, groggily. "I let the dog out. I locked up. I brushed my KU 1 teeth. I'm not snoring. I'm not drooling... much. Leave me alone." "Did you see that?" my wife raged. "Of course I saw that!" I yelped, my ersatz anger nearly equaling her stoked fury. Honesdy, did she think that a patriotic sports nut such as me would fall into a deep sleep and have drool run ning down my chin before our (late-great) hopes for a gold medal had even graced the ice? "It's a disgrace," I barked, "an aberration, a violation of all that is free and just and... Oh, hell," I finally confessed, "what happened? I was sawing logs." During a commercial break, my wife impa tiently explained. A flawless performance by the Canadians in the long program. Then, inexplica bly, a gold medal awarded to the Russian pair of Anton Sikharulidze and Elena Berezhnaia (whose names, I've taken the time to determine, feature all but 11 letters of the alphabet, and every vowel -- and, who knows, maybe the judges took that into account when deciding a champion). Initially, I didn't think this was any big deal. Figure skating judging has been shady and sus pect for as long as I used to be able to remember before my memory went the way of the bobsled (downhill, that is). But I was wrong. By the next morning, the whole judging fiasco had become front-page news on an international scale. Suddenly this was bigger than Enron. Suddenly this was the 1919 World Series and the U.S. col legiate basketball point-shaving scandal of 1951 all over again, only instead of players throwing the games, judges had apparendy fixed it. For their part, Sal6 and Pelletier admirably maintained their poise and professionalism, even when egged on during appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and the Today Show, and innumerable other media interviews, to say something really nasty about those no good booger judges. Personally, I would have used the provided forums to call the judges "poopy, bum-heads," or something equally mature. As for the rest of Canadians, let's just say that days after the fact, maple-leaf knickers across the country are still in a knot. Talks shows are still inundated with calls, predominantly from people who wouldn't know a Toe Loop from a Froot Loop, or a Salchow from a milk cow. But never mind. The point is, we wuz robbed! And for one sleepy editorialist, who sometimes thinks that Canadians are lacking in both passion and patri otism, it's good to see compatriots wearing their hearts on their sleeves and their maple-leaf underwear (knotted or not) on their backsides. Andy Juniper can be reached at aju- Pud By STEVE NEASE