From Ben To Nodar: Canada's Descent Into Shame

I recently wrote a slideshow article listing 10 bad moments that changed sports forever.

The slide that got the most comments was that of the death of Olympic Georgian luger, Nodar Kumaritashvili, at the 2010 Vancouver Games. Obviously recent history, which contemporaries experience, creates the most impact.

One of the other slides was about Ben Johnson and the start of the “steroid era” in sports.

It is interesting to compare the reaction of Canada in 1988 to an embarrassing sports incident and the reaction the now, 22 years later, and note what has happened in the interval.

In 1988, Johnson was Canada’s greatest Olympic hopeful at the summer games in Seoul, South Korea.  His “certain” victory in one of the most glamorous Olympic events, the 100 meters, would make the world stand up and take notice that Canada was now a world power to be reckoned with at the Olympics.

It would also justify all the taxpayer and private donations that had been made up to that time. A Johnson victory would ensure a continuous, and probably increased flow of funds, for athletes, officials, and new facilities.

In short, the sports bureaucracy of Canada was anticipating a rosy future.

However, after Johnson was caught cheating, Canada’s response was immediate and decisive.

An inquiry was set up to investigate all of Canada’s amateur athletics to make sure no similar incident would ever embarrass the country again. No attempt was made by sports officials to evade responsibility.

Later, Canada’s representative at the Olympics, Dick Pound, would become the leader in a world wide attempt to rid the Olympics of performance enhancing drugs.

So what did Johnson do? He merely doped himself. It may have caused Canada shame and embarrassment, but he hurt nobody but himself. Many of his past records were erased, and he lost a fortune in endorsements.

After making a determined effort to clean up its act, Canada could still hold its head high in the international sports world.

In 1988, the spirit in Canada was much different than today. Poverty was low. There were few food banks. Canada was one of the up and coming countries in the world.

By 2010, that spirit had completely gone, and it would show in the new reaction to Kumaritashvili’s death.

The two major events that caused that change were two recessions, and the development of an elite clique across Canada, particularly centered among the politicians and bureaucrats of every level of Canadian government.

The first event sped the development of the second.

The two recessions, the first beginning in 1990, and the second, with the meltdown of 2008, have caused a new wide split in Canadian society.

There was a phrase coined in Canadian literature, “two solitudes”, meaning new two branches of society pursuing separate paths of existence with little contact and little in common with each other.

Originally, that term was meant in reference to the two major language groups in Canada, French and English.

But in 2010, that term can be equally applied to the two major economic groups that now exist in Canadian society, the haves, or the ins, and the have-nots, or the outs.

Many people have never recovered from either recession. A few new facts tell the sad story.

Since 1988, Toronto has gone from a few temporary food banks, to a few permanent food banks, to many permanent food banks, to not enough food banks, to not being able to supply them all.

More than one million people, or one-fifth of the total population of the GTA, now have to use them. Toronto is now known as the “poverty capital of Canada”. 

Ontario has gone from being a “have” province to a “have-not” province.

At the same time a new ruling class has come into being. If you are a member of it, you have no worries. You get indexed pensions, you have a comfortable salary, you get huge buy-out packages and compensation if you screw up, nobody questions your authority. Political policies are made on your behalf.

In many cases, there is one law for you and one for everybody else.

There has been little done at any level of government to bridge the gap. There have been no Theodore or Franklin Roosevelt figures appear in Canada to change the growing elitism in society. Poverty still grows rapidly like a fungus.

The issue is not even discussed by politicians, who mostly represent the elite, during elections. 

In the last Ontario election, instead of discussing the alarming rise in poverty, the politicians, abetted by the media, focused on a minor issue, faith-based schools funding.

At the Toronto municipal level, the mayor and his councilors want “sleeping bag people” swept out of sight, out of the city hall square. Policies are frequently made in secret and implemented without consulting constituents. 

And if something goes wrong, no official will take responsibility for it. No Harry Truman will step forward and say “the buck stops here”.

The result has been a decline in democracy in Canada. Voter turnout for almost every level of government keeps declining.

Why should people vote? There is nothing to vote for. How can you vote for someone who promises to improve conditions, when those conditions aren’t even admitted to, or discussed during elections?

Why should anyone vote when all policies discussed favor an elite?

Why should they vote when no public official will take any responsibility?

Why should anyone vote when they know that everyone who is running won't keep their word to improve things?

Voter turn-out and democracy are declining because people don't believe any more.

People have more to fear from those who they are supposed to take their problems to, than the so-called bad people of society.

So when the handling of the Kumaritashvili tragedy embarrassed Canada like Johnson did, the reaction was completely different from 22 years before, and keeping entirely with the new spirit of Canada.

No one stepped forward to admit responsibility. No inquiry was set up to make sure this would never happen again.

After all, somebody was merely killed; they didn’t do something serious like doping oneself.

Instead, the sports bureaucrats now blamed Kumaritashvili for his own demise. He was stupid and inexperienced enough to think he could compete at a Canadian made luge track, they said.

In spite of all the comments by experienced lugers that the Whistler track was unsafe, no one will admit that an unsafe track was approved and built.

During World War II, before he became vice president of the United States, Harry Truman headed a committee that investigated war contracts.

Frequently, he found unsafe planes and other equipment that could cause accidents and fatalities. He immediately canceled such contracts.

Truman minced no words in his biography. He refers to such contractors as criminals and murderers.

In Canada, there are no criminals and murderers, just like there are no poor people using food banks here.

There are only stupid people like Kumaritashvili, who pretend to be athletes, who cause their own deaths.