By Cynthia Reyes
The Vancouver Olympics made all Canadians proud. Man, were we proud. No matter what colour or culture, no matter what language we speak, no matter what part of the country we live in – we were rightly proud of our athletes and our country.
I loved our Games. I shushed every naysayer who criticized the organizers for being too arrogant with their “Own the Podium” program. I wouldn’t allow a single criticism of our athletes. I got so caught up in their beauty and courage that I wept along with Joannie Rochette after her performance in the semi-finals and shouted encouragement to every Canadian athlete as if they could hear me through the TV set.
The only game my nerves wouldn’t allow me to watch was the final hockey face-off between the US and Canada. I had to settle for yelling down the hallway to my husband: “How’s it going? Are they winning? How’re they doing?”
At the closing event, Olympic organizer John Furlong notably praised “the Canada that now is”, compared to “the Canada that was”.
And right there is where Mr. Furlong and I fell out of step for the first time. For despite my fierce pride in these Olympics, I recognize that the country represented by our 2010 Winter Games was, in one obvious way, decades out of date. It was a Canada in which Aboriginal people showed up strongly at the start of the opening ceremonies, then magically disappeared. French Canadians were plentiful, (especially, it seemed, in speed skating) despite complaints that not enough French was actually spoken at the Games.
It was a Canada in which athletes of colour seemed like visitors from another planet — two bobsledders, one skater and one hockey player were the only ones I saw.
One in every five Canadians today is a person of colour. After watching these Olympics with such overwhelming pride and excitement, however, it occurred to me that there may be two Canada’s: one multicultural and racially diverse, the other essentially white. The Canada the world saw at the Games, the one we all celebrated, was remarkable on the one hand for its spirit, and on the other, for being out of step with reality.
Talk to neighbours, read our papers and magazines, watch TV, listen to radio, and revel in the pride we all justifiably feel after these glorious Olympics. But there’s something very important that’s simply not mentioned in public discussions, and especially is inter-racial conversations: the Canadians who weren’t there, the missing Canadians.
So – Can we talk?
Let us ask Canadian families of colour: Why aren’t your children part of Canada’s competitive winter sports like all the other kids? And ask young Canadian athletes of colour: Why don’t you take part in competitive winter sports?
Let’s ask the bodies that govern our winter sports: Are you content to keep these sports virtually all white? If not, what are you doing to encourage athletes from this “new Canada” to take part? And how may the rest of us help you in this quest?
There may not be one single answer to these questions. But, surely, to understand the opportunities for our whole Canadian nation, these questions should at least be considered?
If we ask these questions, and really listen to the answers with open-mindedness and respect for each other, we may find out why there’s such a chasm between our multicultural, diverse Canada and the one we saw at our Olympics. We may even end up learning something new and important about ourselves as Canadians.
Or will we simply close the door to shared understanding because we’re too afraid to start a conversation that could be complex and painful?
As I look forward to many more Winter Olympic Games, I want to see even more playing of ‘O Canada’. I want to feel that exhilarating pride evoked by our Winter Olympics of 2010. But I also want to see Canadians of all colours and ethnicities “Own The Podium”.
That would be my Canada — the Canada that reflects the now that is -- in all its endeavours -- not just the one that once was.