Beer cans and racial slurs: the problem with Toronto Blue Jays fans
The q sports panel debates the fan behaviour at Blue Jays games and Olympian Shawn Barber's cocaine controversy
q's sports culture panel thinks beyond the play-by-play to weigh in on the societal impact of sports stories. Not a fan? Not a problem. Our panel watches much more than the scoreboard.
Candy checks in with sports journalists Morgan Campbell, Stacey May Fowles and Dave Zirin. Today:
- Bad fan behaviour at Tuesday's Toronto Blue Jays game. A man has been charged for tossing a beer can at Baltimore Orioles outfielder Hyun Soo Kim during this week's wild-card game at the Rogers Centre. The panel discusses safety and pervasive racism in ballparks. They also predict how far the Blue Jays will go in the playoff season.
- Olympic pole vaulter Shawn Barber tested positive for cocaine before Rio Olympics. The athlete claims the substance was transferred to him during a Craigslist tryst with a woman. Although the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport proposed a four-year ban on Barber, the case was appealed in time for him to compete at this year's Olympics. Barber's lawyer, Paul Greene, use the "no fault" rule to argue this case stating that Barber couldn't have reasonably known that he was at risk of ingesting drugs during this encounter.