Dear Commons Community,
Fans at a Toronto Raptors game continued an emerging trend Sunday of booing the American national anthem at pro sporting events in Canada. (See video below).
Fans of the NBA’s lone Canadian franchise booed the anthem after similar reactions broke out Saturday night at NHL games in Ottawa, Ontario, and Calgary, Alberta, hours after U.S. President Donald Trump made his threat of import tariffs on America’s northern neighbor reality. As reported by the the Associated Press.
After initially cheering for the 15-year-old female singer, fans booed throughout “The Star-Spangled Banner” performance. At the end, mixed boos and cheers could be heard before the crowd erupted in applause for the Canadian anthem, “O Canada.”
Fans also booed Sunday night when Agasha Mutesasira began her performance of the American national anthem in Vancouver, British Columbia, when the NHL’s Canucks hosted the Detroit Red Wings. “I mean, it’s too bad, right? It is what it is,” Red Wings forward Patrick Kane, who was born in New York, said after Detroit’s win. “I guess you can maybe understand it from this side but seems like it’s a thing that’s going around the league right now.”
Trump declared an economic emergency Saturday in order to place taxes of 25% on imports from Canada and Mexico and 10% on imports from China. Energy imported from Canada, including oil, natural gas and electricity, would be taxed at a 10% rate.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexico’s president ordered retaliatory tariffs on goods from America in response.
Raptors forward Chris Boucher, a Canadian citizen, was asked after his team’s win over the Los Angeles Clippers whether he’d ever experienced something like that.
“No, no, no,” he said. “But have you ever seen us getting taxed like that?”
Joseph Chua, a Toronto resident who was at the Raptors game, said he’s going to be feeling the tariffs “pretty directly” in his work as an importer.
Still, he said he doesn’t think booing is “the right thing to do in this situation.” He chose to stay seated instead.
“I have a bunch of American family, friends that live in the states that are Americans, we travel to America all the time, but I thought chanting, ‘Canada,’ would be a more appropriate stance,” said Chua, who was deliberately wearing his red Canada Basketball cap. “Usually I will stand. I’ve always stood during both anthems. I’ve taken my hat off to show respect to the American national anthem, but today we’re feeling a little bitter about things.
I enjoy watching sports and I don’t remember our national anthem ever being booed. Thank you, Trump!
Tony
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