A Response to Camille

Addition: Camille edited her post from early today or last night. It must have been edited at some point during the day. I wrote this around 5 am in the morning, Vancouver time, when she still  had her original post up. I guess Camille realized how condescending and know-it-all'ish her post came out and decided to delete more than half of it. What you see presently is where she should have ended her original post, but let it be known she deleted what angered many of us in the first place.

Dear Camille:


I just finished reading your apology blog and I have a few things to say in response of your actions during the riots the night of the Game 7 Stanley Cup final.  I'm not sure how I was originally going to respond at first, I left a comment on your blog, but I am not sure if it was going to be published. So I decided to blog a response to your 'apology'.


First off, what were you thinking?  I understand that you're young, a university student who was looking for some kicks. As a former university student, I remember getting my 'kicks' and 'fun' from seeing if we can get the new students to buy us pitchers of beer at the campus pub, or putting a body of a Volkswagen Beetle on a building roof.

Yes, we're all human and make mistakes, and you somehow got 'caught up in the moment' of it all and decided to loot Black and Lee for some apparel. I also get that you're a young girl who was going with the flow, but if someone told you to jump onto incoming traffic, would you? Even if you were drunk? I'm guessing you would not, but if the mob was doing it, you just might? Is that what you're saying? If that's the case, what a weak-minded individual you've turned out to be. Such a shame, really.

I get all about being in the moment of things, you see, I was there in 1994 when the Canucks yet again lost a Game 7 of the Stanley Cup as a 19 year old girl.  I walked the streets of downtown Vancouver, seeing people enjoy the weather, their fellows fans and the accomplishment of their team. The biggest difference between you and I was, when it got crazy downtown and the riots started, I found the quickest way out and just like you I was very intoxicated.  Perhaps I was just more mature at 19 than you are at your current age or managed my liquor more, but who knows. All I know is I didn't do what you did.

My hats go off the those that tried to prevent it, to stop it, to try to make it better that night. You, on the other hand, are now whining about your consequences. You should have thought of that before you decided to partake in all the chaos.

I guess it's up to the rest of the wonderful people to clean up after you idiots, and then pay extra in taxes due to your one incident of 'fun'.  Wow, thanks. I appreciate myself and other citizens of the Lower Mainland to foot your bill of a night of 'fun'.

Your attempted apology is rather pathetic, and pretty much makes you come off as a whiner. No, dear, you're not the centre of my world, and please stop making yourself more important than you really are. I would like to know if you're going to pay for the damages you did to Black and Lee, and repay them for whatever piece of merchandise you stole?  Regardless if you broke the glass to get in the store, the second your decided to partake in looting, you became like anyone who decided to participate, an embarrassment and criminal.

I was mad at the game as well. I even paid good money to be a fan in the arena that night, so yes, I was downtown. But unlike you, I:

1) took my frustrations out on a few drinks
2) didn't watch sports channels for two days
3) didn't pick up after myself around my home moping about the loss
4) didn't partake in a riot that defaced our city, hurt a good number of people and stole from local businesses.

I am not perfect, in fact, I am far from it. I also had a run-in with the law in my day, and I paid my debt to society, but I didn't go blaming external influences. I took it like woman and did my sentence. Also, unlike you, the run-in I had with the law, was to protect my family to the best of my abilities, not to steal a pair of pants from a store that was vandalized and looted.

You're not a hero, you're not a martyr, you're just a selfish girl, who thought it would be 'fun' to loot a store during a chaotic night in her city. You're human, I get it, but you're wrong, so deal with the backlash. It's because of people like you,  that all of us Lower Mainlanders are defending our reputations world wide and hoping that we're not painted with the same wide brush along with those of you that participated in such display of idiocy in front of the whole world.

Next time you want to participate in a riot, think twice before you write an apology, because if you were sincerely apologetic, you would do more to rectify the situation than write an online letter to the public and then telling them to 'leave you alone'.  If you want sympathy, show some empathy.

Justine Galo