Changing On The Fly

A History of Le Smashy-Smash

There have been at least 8 recorded hockey riots in Canadian history. While often dismissed as simply drunken hooliganism, these events actually reveal important social & class tensions, and we can learn a lot from them. On today's episode of Changing on the Fly, we walk you through a brief history of hockey riots, starting with the Maurice Richard Riot in Montreal on March 17, 1955, and ending with the most recent, the Vancouver Stanley Cup Riot of June, 2011.

Our guests on the program today are Dr. Jenny Ellison, Curator of Sports and Leisure with the Canadian Museum of History, and co-editor of the anthology "Hockey: Challenging Canada's National Game", as well as Franklin Lopez, independent journalist and founder of the anarchist video collective Submedia.

If you like this podcast, then support us! You can chip in as little as $1/month at www.patreon.com/changingonthefly.

Music on this episode is by Rancid, Delhi Sultanate, The United Steelworkers of Montreal, and our theme music is by Tshizimba!

Today on the podcast, we go to Alberta.

The Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers are sworn enemies on the ice, their rivalry known as the 'Battle of Alberta'. And off the ice, the way these cities approach their hockey infrastructure couldn't be any more different. Calgary residents recently voted in a referendum to refuse the city's bid to host the 2026 Winter Olympics, and the city is also adamantly refusing to pour public money into building a new arena for the Flames. Meanwhile 3 hours up the road in Edmonton, the Oilers moved into their shiny new digs at Roger's Place in 2016, at a cost of $313 million to local taxpayers. And to top it off, the new arena is contributing to the forced displacement of an urban Indigenous community just down the street.

On today's episode, we're joined by Rylan Kafara and Jay Scherer from the University of Alberta, who have both been studying the impacts of Roger's Place on their city. Rylan gives us a tour of the surrounding area, and they both break it all down for us.

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**Come see us live in Kingston, Ontario on March 30th for the Rountable on Racism in Hockey!

On this episode of the podcast, we bring you an exclusive and candid conversation with Jessica Platt of the Toronto Furies! On January 10, 2018, Jessica made history when she came out as the first trans pro hockey player in Canada. And she did so in a beautiful message posted to Instagram, encouraging other young trans athletes to be their true selves, and follow their dreams. In our interview, Jessica tells us her story about growing up, falling in love with hockey, her struggles that forced her to leave the game, and then coming back to the very top. 

If you like Changing On The Fly, then support us on Patreon! Our Patreon page is www.patreon.com/changingonthefly. Every little bit helps.

Our theme music is by Tshizimba!

Changing On The Fly is a proud member of the Upford Network of podcasts

On this episode of Changing On The Fly, we kick it with Tomas Jirousek, an Indigenous student athlete at McGill University in Montreal. He's a rower & former hockey player hailing from the Kainai First Nation in Alberta, and he's been leading the charge to get McGill to change their racist varsity team name - The Redmen. The McGill admin is poised to make their final decision on the matter in January, so shit is about to get historic.

Then we take you to a recent demonstration held at McGill on this issue. We'll hear from Nakuset of the Montreal Native Women's Shelter, and Denzel Sutherland-Wilson, another Indigenous athlete at McGill (from the Gitxan nation).

We also talk about the RCMP attack against the Unist'ot'en Camp on Wet'suwet'en territory in northern BC. For more updates and info on that, check out www.unistoten.camp. 

Want to sign the petition to change the Redmen name? Check out https://www.change.org/p/mcgill-university-change-the-redmen-name

Want to support this podcast? Check out our Patreon page! www.patreon.com/changingonthefly

Changing On The Fly is a proud member of the Upford Network. Find your new favorite podcast at www.upfordnetwork.com!