Another Canada Day, another successful Pride Parade along the streets of downtown Toronto. As in previous years one of the largest parades of its kind saw hundreds of thousands of people lining the streets. The Parade itself covers less than a mile or two of Toronto's streets but the geography is far less important than the message it sends. It was only 30 years ago this February that Toronto Police raided the city's gay bathhouses, arresting more than 300 innocent men.
With a few games left in the season the heartbreak is back. The question we have to wonder about now is, will we, the Leaf fans, and the 30-man roster of Leaf's players recapture the mutual respect we once had, or will the beast emerge again sentencing us to another year of scraped knees crawling around in the bushes of hockey despair?
Toronto Maple Leafs GM/bully Brian Burke is part of an anti-homophobia public service announcement entitled, "You Can Play." The debut of the spot comes on the heels of a very brutal few weeks for Burke. It's abundantly clear that the first step toward remaking one's image as Mr. Nice Guy is reinventing oneself as an advocate for gay causes.
Recently Don Cherry noted how Brian Burke, the general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, went behind his back to complain about him to the CBC to deflect attention away from his team's losing ways. The real story of Brian Burke is what a despicable human being this man is when he doesn't get his way or he takes offence to fair criticism.