Random Thoughts - Bill Sutherland, NHL Playoffs, Old Country Justice and More
April 15, 2017
1. Though I didn’t know him personally, I was saddened to learn of the death of former Jets player and coach Bill Sutherland. He had two years as a player and many more as an assistant coach, even filling in as the head coach on a couple of occasions, and was one of the longest-tenured members in the 24-year history of the franchise.
Oddly enough, what I remember most about Sutherland was how he was always the standby intermission guest during radio broadcasts I listened to in the 1980s in case the scheduled invitee failed to show.
1a. Despite his stature with the Jets, the news of his death apparently didn’t warrant any ink in Socialism Illustrated, a publication that purports itself as the leader in local news. And they have the nerve to chastise me. But I guess they’re just too busy bashing Brian Pallister and anyone else with political leanings anywhere to the right of Lenin.
1b. In today’s funeral announcement, the family asked for donations to Mark Chipman’s youth foundation. I had thought of making a donation in Sutherland’s memory, but I would sooner take a stack of $20 bills and light them on fire rather than give even more of my money to any entity connected with Chipman.
2. Speaking of Socialism Illustrated, I read their article this past week on the senior who was sentenced to nine months in jail for a hit-and-run incident involving the death of a pedestrian who walked out into traffic on a busy, poorly-lit roadway in the middle of the night. The family’s grief is absolutely understandable, but it was sad to see them still wrongly blaming the driver, who was correctly not charged for the death, only for leaving the scene of the accident. In that part of the world, nine out of every ten times when a car hits a pedestrian, it’s the pedestrian’s fault. This case was no exception.
2a. According the severely twisted logic of Manitoba’s justice system, you get nine months for leaving the scene when a pedestrian makes a successful attempt at a Darwin Award in front of your car in the middle of the night, but you can run down a flag person at a construction scene in broad daylight and walk out of court a free man. I don’t get it.
3. Within a day of my last post, our mayor congratulated a small business in St. Catharines on their accomplishments. You don’t think . . . Nah.
3a. Our mayor posted something else the other day about a show he was recording on social justice. When’s that next municipal election again?
3b. Sadly, I’m not expecting Mayor Sendzik to have any serious challengers next year. But he certainly needs them.
4. If there is so little crime going on in our part of the world that the Niagara Regional Police has the time, energy and resources to launch a campaign against the use of the R-word, we should instead be talking about trimming their budget. A lot.
5. Now that the Edmonton Oilers have won a playoff game, there remains only one Western Conference team without a postseason victory since 2011 when Manitoba taxpayers were forced to purchase the Atlanta Thrashers for Mark Chipman. In the words of a former high school classmate, three guesses. But you’ll only need one. Trust me.
5a. With said playoff victory by the Oil, I couldn’t help but reflect back to the summer of 2011 when my inbox was filling up with messages from media types eager to find out how excited I was to have an NHL team back in Winnipeg. Not surprisingly, they dropped me like a hot potato after getting some thoughts and opinions they didn’t expect, but you have to wonder if they might be looking back today and thinking that I might have been on to something. Not that I'm thrilled to have been right.
6. One of those media types was Sheila North Wilson, who was then with CBC. Today, she’s a grand chief of a northern reserve and was in the news recently desperately trying to making a prima facie case for racism based solely on the deplorable conditions in her reserve. She also challenged people to come and live on the reserve to find out how bad things are for themselves.
One Socialism Illustrated reader said it best: “Mr. Pallister should take her up on the offer. Very good chance Mr. Pallister would clean the place, take care of it as if it's his own and maintain the property. Could be a good lesson for everyone.”
In other words, the state provides. Most generously. Yes, for the benefit of the uninformed, people do choose to live that way.
6a. When you keep playing the race card, you become like the boy who cried wolf. No one takes you seriously anymore.
7. Is it just me or do the Minnesota Wild’s uniforms get progressively worse every time they change them? Rather than firing their coach, they need to fire their uniform designers.
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