CKNW Editorial
for January 6, 2000

My oh my and a great big gracious me thrown in. I mean how horrible can it get. Patrice Brisebois, as the name might tell you, is of the French Canadian persuasion. He is a hockey player for the once so powerful, now so awful Montreal Canadiens. Vaclav Prospoal, who I judge is not French Canadian, plays for the Ottawa Senators. The other night Mr Prospoal was cross checked rather vigorously by Mr Brisebois which in itself is unique given the otherwise notable absence of any checking by the floundering Canadiens. Mr Prospoal then did the unthinkable - he called Mr Brisebois a bleeping frog. Can you imagine that? Calling a French Canadian a frog!

Now the NHL is investigating and I think it worth noting that Mr Prospoal is not being criticized for the "bleeping" part ... no it's the frog bit that's got their nickers in a knot.

Now Mr Brisebois is on a crusade. This frog bit is an insult that has, in his mind, gone on too long. The National Hockey League which seems quite content to see all the Canadian teams go down the tube, is taking this matter very seriously says Colin Campbell, NHL vice president.

Now let's look for some other examples of things we should be eradicating.

The New Zealand All-Blacks come to mind. Shouldn't it be the New Zealand All Folks Are Welcome Rugby Club. And then there are the Cleveland Indians and the Atlanta Braves both of whom have, as their logos, what might best be described as amusing parodies of the old cigar store Indian. And what about the Washington Redskins who have the dubious honour of being the last NFL team to permit a black to play with them? Out with them all. The Cleveland Indians could be renamed the Cleveland Chokers and the Atlanta franchise moved to the Philippines where they would become the Manila Folders. And, of course there's the Edmonton Eskimos ... why the word Eskimo has been excised from the politically correct lexicon for years. Even though they play football thousands of miles from where they live, there ought to be a movement afoot to change their name to the Edmonton Inuit.

The French, both of the Paris and Quebec variety are called frogs because, so it's said, they find frogs legs a delicacy. I'm surprised that one can find them at all. But it seems to me this is pretty pallid stuff. In fact it might be even closer to a term of endearment than an insult. But suppose it is an insult. So what? What's the matter with a good insult once in while?

A racial epithet? Hardly. French people, Canadian or otherwise, are white people and there is no anti white sentiment in "frog". The art of the insult is an ancient one and my complaint is not that Mr Prospoal insulted Mr Brisebois but that he couldn't think of a better one. His insult's sin is that it's so common. There have been brilliant insults in the past - Churchill's calling Baldwin the "boneless wonder" ands Attlee "a sheep in sheep's clothing" are examples and many accomplished insulters like Dorothy Parker and Alice Roosevelt Longworth uttered insults that are still much admired today.

I admit, however, that you can't expect hockey players who barely can handle 100 unadorned English words to come up to the standards of Churchill & Co but surely they can improve on "bleeping Frog" if only by adding a few more bleepings to the front and back.

But haven't we missed something here? This is a game where the object is to maim - not the stated object of course but it's a game where if a team has a high scoring tabby cat on the roster, goons are hired to "protect" him. It's a game where thugs are paid a million dollars a year, two million if they can score a hat full of goals while they're at it. And the National Hockey League is worried about a "Bleeping frog" here and there?

If the League does persist putting naughty words ahead of mayhem on their list of proscribed habits ought they not look at the Vancouver Canucks – not to watch them play, of course, that would be cruel and unusual punishment.

No, it's the name. Canuck is a New England slur upon French Canadians who have migrated there. Perhaps Brian Burke, whose brilliant moves have rocketed our team to the bottom of the standings would consider changing the team name to the Vancouver Mediocrity which removes the slur and replaces it with bang on accuracy.