The Alouettes will always be there to defend the French cause within the CFL, promises Mark Weightman.
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The Moineaux’s president and CEO confirmed to the Journal yesterday during the club’s end-of-season report that he has already had discussions on the issue with commissioner Randy Ambrosie and his team and that there will be further discussions.
“We want to remedy the situation and ensure that something like this never happens again. Historically, the Canadian Football League has been very good at ensuring that its events and everything it does are bilingual. You just have to bring back those good habits,” Weightman wisely pointed out.
The latter doesn’t know why Molière’s language has been neglected in recent years, but one thing is certain: he didn’t like the fact that the national anthem at the East to Toronto finale was only sung in English. This affront was not repeated at the Gray Cup; However, posters in French were very rare in Hamilton.
“There are players from Quebec on all the teams, there are French-speaking fans in all the cities and all the provinces,” recalls Weightman.
“All other events surrounding the Gray Cup were largely bilingual,” he continued. There were disruptions in the stadium, which is a very unfortunate situation. One thing is certain: we will work with the league whether we are there or not [en finale]so it doesn’t happen again.”
The kings of the mountain
And as a reminder of the extent to which Quebec is a football province, the University of Montreal Carabins were crowned Canadian champions last weekend.
This is the first time in 43 years that a city has won the Gray and Vanier Cups in the same year. In 1980, the University of Alberta and the Edmonton Eskimos achieved this feat.
“Montreal is on top of the mountain and it is very special! “Quebec is the Texas of Canada when it comes to the breeding ground for football players,” Weightman proudly remarked.
“It shows how healthy football is in Quebec. “Of the 21 Canadians we dressed this season, 10 were Quebecers,” added Alouettes general manager Danny Maciocia, who led the Carabins to great honors as head coach in 2014. Can we have 12, 13 or 14 in the next few years? Probably. With the same talent, we want to keep our best people in Quebec.”