TACKLING THE EVIL THAT IS RACISM
‘THIS IS ABOUT CHOOSING HATE OR LOVE’
He’s educated, married and an assistant football coach with the UBC T-Birds, but C.Y. says if he’s out for a walk he still has to give enough space to white women so they know ‘I’m not trying to do anything’
Cyril Iwanegbe wasn’t planning on speaking at Sunday’s anti-racism rally in downtown Vancouver.
The UBC Thunderbirds’ defensive backs coach only heard about the local protest stemming from George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis just before it was scheduled to begin.
Iwanegbe knew he had to be there, and hustled to arrive at the Art Gallery just in time to hear the opening remarks.
Once there, Iwanegbe was adamant he had something he wanted to get across to the assembled group. He worked his way through the crowd, approached the organizers, and talked his way into a chance to address the 1,000 or so people in attendance.
His push to “stand up” and to believe that “enough is enough,” was both off the cuff and straight from the heart. You can find it on his Instagram page.
Iwanegbe was born in Nigeria. His family moved to Brooks, Alta., in search of a better life when he was 14. He says he has regularly experienced racism.
If you think it doesn’t exist in Canada, he asserts, you’re kidding yourself. He wanted to make that clear in his speech on Sunday.
“I understood I needed to be direct, I needed to be quick, and I needed to get what I wanted to say across,” said Iwanegbe, who goes by C.Y. in his day-to-day proceedings.
“I knew I needed to speak on the topic of ‘standing up.’ It’s not in the sense of creating this violence. It’s in the sense of creating awareness. The problem is that racism isn’t an act. It’s systemic. It’s the way the system has defined things. This colour is considered dangerous, ugly, not good enough.
“When you see that cop’s knee on George Floyd’s neck, it wasn’t just a cop killing a man or just a white man killing a black man. That was a sign of pure evil. He showed no remorse.
“My thing is that we’re facing something bigger than black or white. This is hate or love. This is good or evil. For change to happen, it’s going to take everybody understanding.”
Iwanegbe, 26, played defensive back for the University of Calgary when current UBC head coach Blake Nill was the man in charge there. Iwanegbe moved to Vancouver with his wife Stephanie a little over a year ago, reconnected with Nill, and joined the T-Birds staff as a part-time assistant coach.
Iwanegbe holds a degree in economics from Calgary, where he was a U Sports academic all-Canadian.
He’s currently the director of training at the Studeo Vancouver gym. And he says there are times that he feels like people are making assumptions about him.
“As a black man with dreads, I can’t go down the street mean mugging people. When I walk, I have to express some level of smile, just to let you know, ‘Don’t get on guard, I’m good,’” Iwanegbe said.
“I go into a corner store or a grocery store, I have to let the guy at the cash register know, ‘I see you see me. I’m not going to touch what I’m not going to buy.’
“It’s a stigma I’ve dealt with my whole life. I know if I’m out for a walk at night, just listening to my music, I can’t come close to a white lady. I don’t want her to feel afraid. I have to create space. I have to speed past, just so she knows that I’m not trying to do anything.”
Floyd was taken into custody over allegations that he tried to pay a bill at a local deli with a counterfeit $20 bill.
Iwanegbe contends that a white woman being arrested for murder wouldn’t have been treated the same way as Floyd. Think about that for a second.
“If he had his knee on a white woman’s neck, every cop around him would have stopped him,” Iwanegbe said.
He admits these conversations can be difficult to start and equally hard to continue. He says they also need to keep happening.
There’s another anti-racism rally planned for Friday at Canada Place. Iwanegbe isn’t scheduled to speak, but “if the opportunity presents itself I will definitely say something.”
“This is trending right now. At some point, it’s going to trend away. That’s the reality. The question is: While it’s trending, how many people can we get to change their thinking?” said Iwanegbe. “There’s an opportunity right now to speak up, to learn, to teach, to rally, to hear other stories.
“So many people want to help now. So many people want to do better and be better. With that, I believe that we also need mercy.
“When I say that, I’m a believer in God. I believe that we need grace. We need to give people grace in how they express their involvement.
“I have white colleagues who say, ‘I’m trying to find the right words. I’m trying to find the right picture. Is this OK? Is that OK?’ We need to free people from that fear.
“Guess what? There’s no perfect way of putting it. The reality is that it’s going to take courage to stand up. We need to give all people that chance.”
We’re facing something bigger than black or white. This is hate or love. This is good or evil.”
C.Y. Iwanegbe
Micheal Ferland was built for this.
He knows it. His coach knows it. And so does the
NHL.
The revved-up, testosteronetesting post-season is unlike any other professional sport. The regular season is about speed and skill and no-hitters, but the second season is a gut check. Touch the puck and you pay a price. Put a stick into somebody and expect to man up. Under normal circumstances, that would be music to Ferland’s ears. But this has not been a normal season, even one paused March 12 by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The Vancouver Canucks’ left-winger was limited to 14 NHL games by two concussions — one in an
Oct. 30 fight and another when he delivered a jarring hit on Dec. 10. He then lasted one period on Feb. 14 after suffering concussion-like symptoms in a conditioning assignment outing with the AHL affiliate Utica Comets.
As the Canucks await their best-of-five, qualifying-round matchup with the Minnesota Wild in late July, they also have to wonder how Ferland could possibly be part of their mix.
There is encouraging news. The 28-year-old Swan River, Man., native is skating and training in the Winnipeg area and will be ready for training camp in mid-July.
“I talked to him three weeks ago and he said he was feeling well,” Canucks’ general manager Jim Benning said Thursday. “If he’s healthy, he’s the type of player you need. He can get in on the forecheck, knock a guy off the puck and make a play.
“The playoffs are about trying to get out of your own end fast and putting on the pressure with a strong forecheck. That’s the strength of his game. He could be a big help.”
Ferland was acquired July 10 in free agency and signed a four-year, US$14-million freeagent deal. The Canucks were banking on the 6-1, 217-pound winger chasing the 40 points (17-23) he had with the Carolina Hurricanes in 201819 and the 41 points (21-20) with the Calgary Flames in 2017-18.
And if he still had that nasty streak from driving the Canucks crazy in the 2015 playoffs, all the better.
Ferland initially was projected to provide time, space and protection for Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser. The newly-acquired J.T. Miller was going to align with Bo Horvat and Tanner Pearson and there was reason for topsix optimism.
However, Ferland managed but one goal and three points in his first 10 games. Then came the concussions. Then along came winger Tyler
Toffoli in a Feb. 17 trade.
Toffoli quickly found footing with Miller and Pettersson and had 10 points (6-4) in his first 10 games. Boeser joined Horvat and Pearson to get his game going, but didn’t score in his final 12 games despite a pair of five-shot outings.
Adam Gaudette between Antoine Roussel and Jake Virtanen made alignment sense and Jay Beagle centring Tyler Motte and Brandon Sutter would be a shutdown line.
Ferland, Loui Eriksson,
Zack MacEwen and a number of AHL recalls would be extras, but Ferland might warrant a look. He could replace Roussel, who endured 12- and 11-game goal droughts from Jan. 7 to March 4.
Roussel still could help drag the Canucks into the fight, if he doesn’t take bad penalties. But a healthy Ferland would give the line a heavier look and better forechecking.
Ferland declined an interview request Thursday and will wait until camp before commenting on his challenges. It’s somewhat understandable.
Five days before his season ended in Utica, he spoke of how educated he had become of the complex vestibular sensory system.
It provides the brain with information about motion, head position and orientation. It also affects motor functions for balance and stability of the head and body.
Ferland was buoyed by how well he was competing in contact practices and had reason to believe he could be relieved of concussion concerns.
“I’m not really worried about it,” he said. “Once I fix this, I think I can go back to being the player I was in junior and not having little things like this that bump my system off. l’ll be able to hit guys and play my style and not worry about being hurt. I think I’m close.”
Fast-forward and what are we to think?
Will five months from his latest concussion-related episode be sufficient time to heal? Several concussions, whether by a blow to the head or whiplash effect, make you more susceptible to the next big one that could be career threatening.
And there’s no such thing as a mild or medium concussion.
A concussion is a concussion and there’s no definitive timeline for a brain bruise to heal.
Yet there is always hope. Patrice Bergeron of the Boston Bruins has had four career concussions, all of the whiplash variety.
The last one occurred on April 2, 2013 when the centre took an elbow to the head in a puck pursuit.
He came back the following season, played 80 games and scored 30 goals.