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Dans les coulisses

Cédric Paquette: future Russian citizen (and I’m happy for him)

Can you please tell me what’s going on with “the people”?

Social networks have become veritable garbage cans where human beings demonstrate their lack of good manners…

Often believing they’re acting in the right cause (defending a left-wing opinion you consider valid shouldn’t/mustn ‘t give you the right to personally insult someone whose opinion is the opposite of your own), or hiding behind an anonymous identity to pour out their venom. Or both!

On Friday evening, I expressed my disgust with Montreal, its infrastructure, its services, its desire to control everything, its difficulty in adapting, its amateurism and its inability to deal with today’s reality. I did so without insulting anyone, but as a father worried about seeing his daughter wait for hours in the rain before being able to get into an inadequate metro, surrounded by people pissing all around her and mumbling I don’t know what.

Why was this? Because Pitbull had cancelled his performance at Parc Jean-Drapeau… but evenko had waited over an hour before announcing that the show wasn’t going ahead, all the while selling beer and food to the fans on site. We had to wait until the Grand Prix site had emptied (the STM was already overloaded at Jean-Drapeau, two or three hours after the end of qualifying) and the riot police (busy with a demonstration heading towards Peel and Crescent streets) could arrive on the island.

Theindirect result: I had to mask and block dozens and dozens of people who were having fun insulting me personally… and calling my daughter names because she didn’t dare walk on the Jacques-Cartier Bridge, was apparently badly dressed or had anxiety while waiting for the metro. I repeat: she’s 16.

I even had to block someone from the sports world with whom I occasionally collaborate on the Kan FC Podcast… someone who spends his days saying that people on the right are disrespectful (or just stupid) and don’t know how to live.

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Seriously, I’m discouraged. As I often tell my close friends: people who constantly pretend to be good, virtuous people are often the worst of us.

But hey, I’m not going to start defending the indefensible just yet. At worst, you’ ll cancel me, people of virtue, like the church used to cancel people who dared to question it. #NewCult #Dogme

The fact remains…

Why personally attack those who raise the debate, who ask the real questions, who are indignant about things that don’t add up? Why do you want to muzzle them instead of arguing and proving to the public that you’re right (and they’re wrong)? Maybe because, in the end, you’re wrong?

Paul Arcand is a luminary in the world of radio and TV… he’s constantly revered by everyone. And yet, he dares to ask the real questions. He dares to be indignant when the moment presents itself. Why does he have the right to do so, but not everyone else?

A strange society…

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Where am I going with this?
It was announced yesterday by Tass(Russian News Agency) that Cédric Paquette has applied for Russian citizenship.

Paquette, a former Canadiens player, has been playing in the KHL for the past two years. He played for Minsk Dynamo in 2022-23 and then Moscow Dynamo (2023-24). The GM of Paquette’s most recent club spoke to Tass…

I invite you to type in Cédric Paquette’s name on social networks this morning…

“What a foolish foolish man”

“Rat”

Even people in some of the private chat groups I participate in thought he was “not a smart guy to do that”.

But you know what? Who are we to judge his move to settle more permanently in Russia? My boyfriend Mitch Giguère went to work in Russia and he’s one of the best people I know.

Bob Hartley (still) sometimes delivers his much-appreciated columns on BPM Sports… from Russia. And that doesn’t stop me from loving his segments.

If Paquette has found a way to extend his career in Russia, if he’s making hundreds of thousands of dollars there, if he’s happy there with his family and if he sees it as an advantage to apply for Russian citizenship, I don’t care. Good for him!

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I won’t judge him for that, without knowing his reality.

He won’t go to the front against the West or take up arms against your half-brother.

If Ovechkin, Romanov, Panarin and company are playing in North America right now, can’t we c*li*er peace to a Quebecer who’s gone to play there?

Note that Paquette isn’t the only former Canadian to enjoy his new life in Russia. Nigel Dawes, Darren Dietz… there are many others. Good for them!

Should we spit on all the Canadians who live in Russia, China, Israel or wherever, just because from our basement living rooms and telecommuting days, we think they shouldn’t take that risk, or that they should move to Taiwan, Palestine or Ukraine instead, even if, in theory, it doesn’t directly affect us in Quebec? No, that would be too easy…

Especially since the people who are outraged by Paquette’s decision are often people willing to change jobs or sell their mother for a few hundred dollars! I’m so fed up…

I’ve hidden several people and blocked a few on Twitter/X, but the day I retire, I think I’ll let myself go. Either I’ll use Elon Musk’s platform and really choose who I want to exchange with, or I’ll just not use it anymore. We’ll see, I’ve still got a few decades left to be active…

Finally, Paquette signed a two-year contract extension with Moscow Dynamo last month. I wish him two great years.

And for those of you a little closed-minded this morning, I suggest you listen to this excellent interview with Cédric Paquette last month:

In gusto

– Very happy to have taken part last Friday in the most-watched live online show in the history of BPM Sports/91.9 Sports.

– Suggestion for Apple TV/MLS Season Pass:

– Glad to be part of your show, Frank!

– Beautiful photo (and collaboration).