Last Tuesday at The Edge, Ryerson guys and gals packed (and I mean packed) The Edge to witness THE VERDICT. The O.J. Simpson Trial had reached its climax and the decision was moments away. To my surprise I was actually nervous. I had been saturated with headlines and TV screens of the trial on a daily basis for eight months, but it had finally come down to this. What disturbed me even more is I was one of the calmest people there.
“Oh my Gaaahhhd, I can’t wait anymore,” the girl beside me whispered to an anxious friend. Another guy yelled “Free O.J.!” intermittently before the announcement. People were lined up outside The Edge, pushing their way in to be part of the “action.”
Makes one wonder why this sort of interest doesn’t come around every four year, during the federal elections. After all, the feds affect your life a bit more than the Juice, free or jailed. Canadians didn’t stand on Yonge St. cheering or sobbing when Chrétien came to power. This guy’s only running your country — making programs, laws and decisions. Its not like he set football records or was accused of killing someone.
Canadians are known as pacifists and conservatives. Go ahead, raise taxes, slash welfare, shut down hospitals. All we’ll give you is a little scuffle at Queen’s Park. We can’t be bothered to protest, come together, and make our presence known. Unless we’re spoon-fed by the American trash media. This is America – the big time, you backwards Northerner. YWhy bother with your own boring country when you can have your bigger American sister’s hand-me-downs? Who cares if the news isn’t relevant or if it’s miles away, about someone you never met who couldn’t give a damn about Canada? Why bother with our realities of taxes and national identity, when the sugar-coated world of the O.J. trial is only an ‘on’ button away? Hey, Chrétien was never on A Current Affair, the cat just ain’t got it.
The verdict doesn’t bother me. Regardless of O.J.’s guilt or innocence, the media circus around the trial made a just decision impossible. What bothers me is that Jean Chrétien would have to be accused of murder to get Canadian to give a rat’s ass about the very country they live in.
– Tom Gierasimczuk
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