My Little Corner of Canada

JOHN AMAGOALIK

So far, it has been pretty hard to get too excited or involved with the Olympics in Nagano, Japan. The reason for that is that they are so far away and there is such a big time difference. If one wants to watch events as they happen, one has to stay up all night.

The controversy over Ross Rebagliati’s gold medal got things off to a bad start. It was flashbacks to Ben Johnson. Fortunately, it didn’t turn out as badly as it did in Seoul.

It was again disappointing that Elvis Stojko didn’t win the gold. It seems that we have a lot of world champions in figure skating which are never translated into gold medals in Olympic games. The questionable judging in this sport doesn’t help.

The biggest downer so far is that the women’s hockey team didn’t win the gold. You can bet that they will be better prepared for 2002.

The men’s hockey team is doing okay so far. They could have very easily lost to the Americans in the round-robin had it not been for Patrick Roy. Canada’s biggest strength in international competition has always been goaltending. Canada will probably be playing for the gold medal this coming weekend. Whoever they face, it will be a great game. A good omen is that Gretzky seems to have that certain look in his eyes.

Medal wise, Canada is doing better than any past winter games. Here’s hoping that the best is yet to come. Here’s hoping that Patrick Roy stays “in the zone”.
Square is Round

Lucien Bouchard is again telling the world that white is black and that square pegs fit into round holes.

It was not long ago that Bouchard was telling the world that independence for Quebec was going to go smoothly because the separatists had the rule of law on their side. Now that the government of Canada is asking the Supreme Court what Canadian and international law says about separation, Bouchard is saying that independence has nothing to do with the rule of law.

Mr. Bouchard says the separatists have all the good laws on their side. He also says that the only laws that applies to Aboriginals are the ones designed to suppress them.