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Monday, April 28, 2008

I was the victim of a hate crime

I haven't blogged for awhile simply because I was in the hospital for 10 days.



On April 17th I drove up to Montreal with 3 friends for Game 5 of the Bruins-Montreal playoffs.



The Bruins played their best game of the series and stayed alive to force a Game 6 in Boston 2 days later...a game I never got to see.



After the game we went to a well known Montreal bar which is in the heart of 'centre-ville' called the Peel Pub. The Montreal fans were in a bad mood because their team had lost but little did we know how upset some fans were.



We are all older and kept to ourselves the entire evening but when the bar closed we were accosted by 5 or 6 skinheads who were screaming at us in French. We were not wearing any Bruins gear ( but a couple of us had Red Sox hats ). I guess I made the mistake of responding in French and I was told after the fact that my response was more vulgar than I intended. I was sucker punched by one, and then as I fell I was kicked in the face and also hit the back of my head on a fire hydrant. Everything went black and I did not wake up until Sunday morning.



The fine doctors at L'Hôpital général de Montréal (Montreal General) which is part of McGill University saved my life and I can not even begin to say how grateful I am.

Because of the way medical insurance works in Quebec I will have to battle for awhile to see if my health plan in Massachusetts will be able to cover the bill. Last Tuesday the hospital did arrange for an ambulance from Vermont to pick me up and take me on a 6 hour joy ride thru the mountains feeling every bump until I finally got to Mass General.

The Montreal Police said we were simply the victims of hate towards anglophones ( English speaking persons ) and sadly Montreal is overrun by French speaking young punks.

I still have a headache and my vision is blurry and I will be going to Mass Eye and Ear tomorrow but at least I am home.

I simply do not understand hate.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Anonymous, That is the most ridiculous post I have ever seen. First of all, unfortunately that stuff happens everywhere, and the Bruins are not a "crappy team". Hockey is a great game, don't knock it. Maybe you suck at life. you ever think of that? Dirty Water,
I have been to Montreal many times, and have never had any trouble. I do feel bad that this happened and wish you all the best.

Anonymous said...

As a French Canadian, I am sorry you had this experience with some of lowest low lives, but you perpetuate problems with your generalizations. A Canadiens fan in Boston was hospitalized after another game in the series after some of your charming neighbours told him "Die, Frenchie." The violence frankly probably has more to do with alcohol and stupidity and sports rivalry than ethnicity or language.