This is precisely what all this is about!

Big was my surprise after reading a comment made by one of my wife's friends on MSN regarding the incidents between the Toronto's police and the Chilean Soccer Team last Thursday: 'Would you please change that nickname of yours...the one that says "Racist Canada" because I'm canadian but I am not racist'. My surprise was big because this is precisely what all this is about!

After reading an uncountable number of reactions in Canada about the incidents, I can't blame Chileans for thinking that not only Toronto's people or even Toronto's police but all Canadian are racist. They've seen how many Canadians make no difference among Chileans because they should all be the same. As far as they are concerned, players are the ones to be blamed for Thursday's incidents just because they come from a South American country, which is pretty much reason enough to justify the acting of Toronto's police. But, have you ever considered the possibility that 'third-world' countries may also have 'good' people? Couldn't be possible that there are honest people in these countries as well? Sure not every single chilean is a pure and white pigeon, but this does not give you the right to treat every one as a criminal or to judge them based solely on our race, color or cultural background. Thus, under the assumption that I buy this reasoning for a moment, why would you expect us not to think of every single Canadian as a racist if, after all, Toronto's policemen are canadians just like everyone else?

I would like to end this post with a quote from Mr. Harper, "President Bachelet, on behalf of our government, I would like to thank you and the people of Chile for your warm welcome and hospitality. I look forward to seeing you in Canada in the near future". (Statement by Prime Minister Harper on his visit to Chile following meetings with President Bachelet, 17 July 2007, Santiago, Chile. http://www.pm.gc.ca/eng/media.asp?category=3&id=1757. Accesed on July 22nd, 2007). Ironic, isn't it?

What a perfect....country

Although I'd like to say 'On behalf of my connationals (chileans)..' I can't. So, I'll only say on behalf of myself, I am truly sorry for disrupting the peace in such a perfect country like Canada. I've been reading all the canadian news related to the incident after the match Chile-Argentina yesterday in Toronto. I've put particular care on reading the people's comments about it. And I have to say that I am truly shocked to see how people (perhaps most of them canadians) reacted. Though not everyone (but pretty much all of them), people seem to think everything is due to the fact that Chileans (and south americans in general, who are used to this sort of behaviors according to their words) do not know or dimension the fact that they are now in a law abiding country. Some of them (the most offensive) even dared to say that we (chileans) have no word to say about human rights or police brutality because we are a country too used to it (because of Pinochet). I can;t described the feeling of being insulted in such a way just because some Canadias think they are superior to people like 'those'. Words like 'pathetics', 'animals', 'delincuents' just confirm the fact that, to the eyes of many Canadians (up to my knowledge, North America is comprised of three countries: Canada, USA and Mexico; so, if someone says he or she is northamerican I am not quite sure what he/she means), people coming from south american countries (or african as some of them clearly say) are third class people and so, they deserve to be treated like that. One quote to wrap up all what I've said. Someone wrote: 'If you behave like animals, you deserve to be treated as such'. Nice, isn't it?

So, it seems I was partly right when I wrote (in my previous post) that something of racisms was in all this. But I never thought that racism in Canada, a country in which 99% of the population are IMMIGRANT, was so strong. Taking aside the incident itself, I can't help feeling insulted by people who think they are superior in every single aspect to 'out-of-north america people'. It feels like when the middle brother takes off his frustration by brutalazing the small brother just because the oldest one treated him badly (that Canada has been treated as 'puppies' or 'mupets' of some other countries is not new and certainly wasn't created by me)....anyways, I stil want to think that these guys are not the majority in a country that, so far, has been great for me and my family.

Toronto's Police: What a Shame!!!

I've received with horror the news that the Chilean U-20 team was involved in a argument with the Toronto's Police in which the team got, by far, the worst part. According to the media (which was also badly treated by the Police and the Security of the stadium), everything started because a couple of Chilean players, who attempted to give some authographs to some fans located near the exit of the stadium, were badly beaten by Police who used electrics canes and peper gas to 'reduce' them. This is just U N B E L I E V A B L E. I can't think of a rational (or even irrational) justification for such Police's behavior. For me, it is unthinkable that two soccer players representing an OFFICIAL DELEGATION of a foreing country be treated this way. I've seen protests and marchs while in Montreal where protesters were far more aggressive than Chilean players (if player were aggressive at all) and they did not receive a treatmemt that even remotely resembles what these players suffered in Toronto. They were treated as criminals, if criminals in Canada were treated this way.

But things did not stop there. No later than 10 min after this incident, the Police went on the bus (yes, the rest of the players were on the bus waiting to go to the hotel) and took with HANDCUFS 7 players to the dressing room to be interrogated. Can someone give me an explanation of why Chilean soccer players were treated as delincuents? For more that I try, I can't find a reasonable explanation for this; the only explanation I find is that they were treated that way precisely because they were Chileans. I don't want to sound politically CORRECT (and I will not) but I can't help thinking that Toronto's police behaves that way because they chilean players were, in police's eyes, just a bunch of delincuents coming from a third world country....for Toronto's police these kids had in mind, all the time, the idea of disturbing the peace and security of the stadium (perhaps even the city) because they do not know other thing to do but to be delincuents.

I do want to be wrong, really wrong, in my appreciation of the facts. I do not want to believe that everything was caused because policemen involved in the argument are people who think that someone coming from the the south part of the world has to be either a drug-dealer or a delincuent. It is already frustrating to see when this happens to innocent people just because they were born in the wrong part of the world. But it is even more frustrating to see that this happens to a bunch of people who is officially representing a country that Canada claims to be a friend of. This behaviour resembles too much the behaviour that other countries, who claim to be friends of Canada, have had with some canadian citizens in the past. I just thought (until now) that Canada was not getting infected with the same virus, the virus of intolerance and arrogance.

I am glad that the Chilean Government already took part on the incident (the Chilean Foreing Affairs Ministry has already required a full investigation of the facts) because this means that Canadian authorities will have to give at least an explanation. The least Canadian could do is to destitute those policeman that were involved in the issue proviso the official investigation proves them guilty. It is the minimun thing someone would expect from a country that calls itself a developed one. After all, these guys are just soccer players (for anyone who doesn't know yet, they all have been playing soccer for almost a month here, so they ARE soccer players) and not delincuents and they deserve to be treated as such. Shame on the Toronto's police and on all those who still judge people for their color, religion or place where they were born...sadly, I am starting to realize that I have people like those closer to me than what I like to.