Booing U.S. anthem gives Montreal a bad name (Montreal Gazette)

From The Montreal Gazette:

by PAT HICKEY
April 22, 2009


Montrealers like to think of themselves as fair, classy people but there’s nothing classy about the disgraceful conduct of the fans at the Bell Centre who booed the singing of the United States national anthem prior to Monday’s game between the Canadiens and the Boston Bruins.

It’s not the first time the U.S. anthem has been booed. I first time I heard boos during the anthem was earlier in this decade and, at that time, the jeers might have been motivated by a tragic incident in Afghanistan, where four Canadian soldiers were killed and several others injured when they were mistakenly fired on by a U.S. fighter plane.

When the Canadiens met the Bruins and the Carolina Hurricanes in 2004, there was a growing resentment over the way the U.S. military handled the incident and the boos in Montreal resulted in retaliatory boos for O Canada in the U.S. cities.

The Canadiens ran a taped message from Jean Béliveau, who urged fans to respect the anthems.

There is no excuse for the current booing. It is a simple matter of bad manners.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/Booing+anthem+gives+Montreal+name/1520006/story.html