It is infinitely more than an anecdote. And it was told yesterday morning on the radio by Luc Gélinas of RDS, one of the beat guys on the Canadian. Good.
Jean-Francois Chaumont from Newspaper traveled to New York last Friday to report on Alexis Lafrenière.
A good topic. Lafrenière is going stormy these days, he’s a first draft pick, the Rangers are doing well.
Obviously, we are in 2022, everything has been complicated. But Chaumont, a nice man like all, got to ask Lafrenière a few questions after Friday’s game.
Lucky 13 scored Rangers’ first goal and was one of three players brought before New York reporters. Always polite and courteous, Chaumont waited for Lafrenière to answer “New York” questions before addressing him. By asking a question in French. Lafrenière began to respond when the Rangers publicist shouted, “Stop! »
He demanded that Chaumont ask his questions in English and that Lafrenière answer in the language of Jeff Gorton. Chaumont froze instantly. He returned to French, but was interrupted another time: “English only. »
Our Chaumont therefore asked his question in French, but Lafrenière de Saint-Eustache, visibly embarrassed and embarrassed, answered in English.
However, when the Rangers drafted Alexis Lafrenière from the Rimouski Oceanic, they offered him the biggest poster possible on Times Square and Broadway. In French. Welcome Alexis.
When it’s to sell tickets, we speak French.
The Spanish of the Yankees
It’s intolerable. Discriminatory. Colonial. Do you think the Yankees are preventing a Santo Domingo reporter from speaking Spanish with Luis Severino? Or that the Tampa Bay Lightning forbade a journalist from Stockholm to speak Swedish with Victor Hedman?
Chaumont insisted and even went the next day to Rangers training one hour from New York to resume his interview. Again, he clashed with the Rangers publicist who however apologized for the decision the day before. It seems Rangers general manager Chris Drury is even more of a control freak than Marc Bergevin. He wants to understand everything that is said around the Rangers.
Yesterday, Chaumont spoke with two senior National League communications executives in New York to complain and ensure that such discrimination will never happen again. The two reassured him and made it clear that they were handling the case.
He does well. His colleagues need firmness. There are things in life that are non-negotiable. And speaking in their own language is one of them.
Quebec origins
And when it happens in Quebec, being spoken in your language is another right. Should remind Geoff Molson when he answers a question and that Jeff Gorton does not understand anything. Find him an interpreter or have him do like Michael Rousseau of Air Canada.
And Gary Bettman should be reminded that the headquarters of the National League since its founding at the Windsor Hotel in 1917 was located in the Sun Life building in Montreal until the departure of Clarence Campbell. That the Canadian is a founding member of the league.
And how would he react if he were told that a Jew or a black man had no right to ask a question in Madison Square Garden? Race, skin and language, same racism…