VANCOUVER — A Quebec politician says Instagram insults against Canadian world junior hockey team captain Maxime Comtois are “anti-francophone racism.”
Parti Quebecois interim leader Pascal Berube used Twitter to share his feelings after Comtois was hit hard with criticism after missing on a penalty shot during overtime in a 2-1 loss to Finland in the world junior championship quarterfinals Wednesday.
Several comments pointed out that the 19-year-old Comtois, a native of Longueuil, Que., is French.
Commenting was disabled on recent pictures overnight, but some comments still remained Thursday morning.
Instagram user @snacc_hyman wrote “The captain of the Canadian hockey team shouldn’t dive like an Italian soccer player and come up with such a pathetic attempt on an overtime penalty shot.”
After the barrage of criticism, several users posted messages of support for Comtois.
User @lordstanleypff wrote “He doesn’t deserve the hate or anything negative. He’s a junior for God’s sake. He did everything to represent HIS country.”
The loss for Canada means the country will not play for a world junior medal for only the second time in 21 years.
The Canadian Press
