Long-time Toronto Sun columnist Steve Simmons has stirred up fairly a couple of controversies over time. Those come with false sizzling canine tales, photographs at Raptors’ gamers over on line casino visits, calling combined doubles curling “an Olympic sham,” and asking Toronto Raptors’ president Masai Ujiri why Ujiri has spoken out about racism and no longer crime in Toronto. Simmons’ newest controversy began Sunday with a tossed-off shot in a notes column. That column noticed Simmons blast former NHL participant and present Hockey Diversity Alliance chair Akim Aliu, negatively evaluating him to present Leafs’ participant Wayne Simmonds and pronouncing Aliu’s stories can’t were on account of race:
No one needs to mention this on account of the politically right kind police and all, however those that coached Akim Aliu should draw back each and every time they see him in a information record or a industrial speaking about what’s flawed with hockey. Like he would know. By my depend, Aliu performed for 23 groups in 9 other leagues in 12 skilled seasons and hardly completed any season with the similar staff he began with. If that used to be colour-related, how is it that Wayne Simmonds spent as regards to the similar 12 seasons enjoying within the NHL?
On Sunday night time, each Aliu and Simmonds (noticed at left and proper above respectively) took exception to these remarks from Simmons (noticed within the center above in a picture from a Keith Olbermann roasting in 2015). Here’s what Simmonds tweeted:
Just a handy guide a rough msg to the hockey global. I in most cases don’t have time for this however this night I do! I truly don’t recognize what your seeking to do (Steve Simmons) your article used to be asinine and certainly not displays the actual plight that my self, Akim and different gamers of color undergo.
— Wayne Simmonds (@Simmonds17) October 10, 2022
make your level. We will now not sit down through quietly as our characters are assassinated Steve! This will best make us more potent and discuss out in opposition to ppl of your nature! If you have been seeking to be cool or humorous, you neglected your mark. YOUVE BEEN WARNED!!! Ps that is me being great!
— Wayne Simmonds (@Simmonds17) October 10, 2022
Aliu posted a video to Twitter:
Hate won’t ever win percent.twitter.com/gZDiaNgJVH
— Akim Aliu (@Dreamer_Aliu78) October 9, 2022
A complete transcription of that:
“Hi everyone, Akim Aliu here, and happy Thanksgiving to you all. Just wanted to make a quick video to address the comments made by Steve Simmons in The Toronto Sun earlier today. Obviously, being in this space, there are times that people say negative things about you, but you learn to let it go. But this one got me good. This one got me at my core.”
“The only reason I’m addressing this is because it’s all over the internet. I’ve seen Steve talk negatively about me for some time now and the funny thing is I’ve never spoken to him, or met him in my life. I actually found out what he said through other members of the Hockey Diversity Alliance.”
“People like Steve are what’s wrong with society. This is the first time in history the crucial conversation of race is prevalent in hockey, and I believe my story and what the HDA is doing is a major reason for that.”
“You have absolutely no clue, Steve, what I and my family have been through both physically and emotionally since I’ve started playing hockey, and the scars it has left. When I showed this to my dad, he literally broke out in tears. This is a man who didn’t own a pair of shoes until he was 16 years old, growing up in Africa, and a man who delivered pizzas as my mom cleaned hotel rooms to get me by in this game. My dad who was with me literally an hour ago at a HDA grassroots event trying to promote diversity in the game in underserved communities. He’s still giving back after all these years trying to navigate a sport he didn’t fit into. It’s so clear what you’re trying to do, and that is to divide us. But what you don’t realize is that this unites us and makes us stronger.”
“The real question here is are you saying there’s no racism in the game with everything that’s gone on? What are you actually trying to do by comparing myself to Wayne, who is actually an incredible leader in this space and is promoting the same message as I? What coaches are you referring to? Guys like Bill Peters? Are you saying I didn’t get called a n— and get sent down to the [ECHL] when I was actually leading my AHL team in scoring in my first professional season?”
“Are you saying I wasn’t hazed in my rookie year in the OHL, made to strip naked in a bathroom with five other men, and afterwards got my teeth cross-checked out for not wanting to do it again, and then subsequently getting blackballed by Hockey Canada as I watched my stock drop? Are you saying I didn’t have a trainer walk into my team party with a jersey and blackface, and then afterwards I asked for a trade? Are all those instances my doing? Because that is how the hockey establishment made it to be.”
“If you actually did some real journalism, you would know that the Chicago Blackhawks’ management team that did everything in their power to bury me, out of that organization came five National Hockey League champs. That’s close to 20 percent of the league at time. Countless others went on to scout and to other management positions.”
“You are a racist, and you are arrogant. You have zero credibility and respect from even your own peers in the media space and athletes alike. And if The Toronto Sun had any integrity whatsoever, you’d never write another column again. Once again I’m going to tell you, you will never divide us. We’re just going to be stronger together.”
Those are robust phrases from Aliu, and they’re a just right reaction to Simmons’ tossed-off complaint right here. As Aliu notes, Simmons made no point out of any of the instances that ended in Aliu being despatched from staff to staff. But the much more notable reaction could also be from Simmonds. Simmons attempted the previous tactic of the usage of a “good minority player, bad minority player” comparability to check out and proclaim that race isn’t an element, however that wasn’t regarded on fondly through even the one that used to be the “good” facet of it. And Simmonds’ “We will no longer sit quietly as our characters are assassinated” is fairly a formidable reaction.
[Yahoo Sports Canada: photo of Aliu in 2012 from Resolute on Wikipedia, photo of Simmons from a screengrab on Pension Plan Puppets, photo of Simmonds in an April game from Nick Turchiaro/USA Today Sports]