I am not Liberal, but I am going to take a rare side of defending Justin Trudeau for accepting money for speaking engagements for charities. If a charity has the money to pay a speaker, then I don't see why Trudeau shouldn't accept it. Where do you draw the line? Does Trudeau have to travel all over the country and speak for free? If service groups are willing to pay for it, then so be it. The Canadian public pays Trudeau to represent them in the House of Commons, not to be a nationwide speaker. I think he's well within his rights to take money for it. This is a lot different than Conservative Senators trying to claim expenses in a way that is, clearly, fraudulent. Furthermore, I am offended that the Conservatives would throw mud at Trudeau while their own backyard is littered with so much debris you can't find the mud. This is, merely, a diversion tactic and I hope the general population sees it as that. Nobody forced these groups to pay Trudeau. They did it voluntarily.
I think some things need to be cleared up concerning Matt Dominguez's stolen Grey Cup ring. Matt took some heat on Twitter over the weekend for leaving his ring in his vehicle and having it stolen. Know-it-alls say 'hey if you leave something like that in a vehicle, you are asking for it to be stolen'. This is no more appropriate than saying a woman who dresses provocatively is asking to be raped. However, the real story here is that Matt took the ring off earlier in the day because he was at a golf tournament and when he retired for the night, he forgot to take the ring inside with him. I don't think there is a person reading who hasn't left something of value, mistakenly, in his/her vehicle over night. The real story here is that, unfortunately, we live in a world where possessions are not safe in your own personal vehicle. Sad.
I haven't watched a ton of NHL hockey over the last year or so, but I've watched enough to know what it takes to win in the National Hockey League, and it's not what the Pittsburgh Penguins do. The Penguins had the most talent in the league and tried to play that way. The shortest direction to winning in the NHL is loading up on skill like the Los Angeles Kings and Boston Bruins and then playing like you have absolutely no skill at all. If Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, and Jarome Iginla played without creativity, they would have had more success.
The NHL is also the one professional sports league where they reward lesser skill. How many infractions have you seen go uncalled in these playoffs? Penalties are, usually, the result of someone making a mistake because he can't keep up with a better or smarter player. Yet, there are penalties that could be called on almost every shift that go by the wayside. It's funny really. A guy flips a puck over the glass and it's an automatic two minutes. A guy is hauled down on a breakaway and it's a judgment call.
I heard a radio announcer talk about what defines excitement in a sports series is whether or not there are interesting storylines that draw in someone other than the fans in each centre the games are taking place. The NBA finals has no such storyline and it's too bad because the Miami-San Antonio series has been a marvel.
Winnipeg played host to UFC161 over the weekend and the biggest story I could gather came from a fan who was knocked out cold for fifteen minutes before paramedics carried him away. I won't say this is the norm for UFC events, but I certainly don't think having fans duke it out in the stands is uncommon. People like to drink and think they are as tough as the fighters. They find out, quickly, they are not (intelligence on the other hand is quite comparable between fighter and fan).
I've never really understood why the concussion and sports violence police have gone so hard after football and hockey but ignore Mixed Martial Arts. The latter is, clearly, far more violent than the other two.
This isn't usually a place to advertise for local businesses, but Boston Pizza supports Camp Easter Seal by donating 10% of all sales to Camp Easter Seal on June 26. You can also buy a $2 card all month long at the restaurant. Speaking of charities, Joe Beeverz is organizing a golf tournament with proceeds towards KidSport. KidSport is a big one for me because there wasn't such a thing when I was a youngster and the cost of playing hockey forced me out of the game at a very, very early age.
Nice person mentions this week to Darrel Schindel, Lori Hall, Tom Courville, Vaughan Fleger, and Jill Kirk.
