The Carleton Ravens women’s rugby team should be recognized for their decision to kneel for the national anthem at the beginning of their Sept. 25 game against the McGill Martlets.
The team did so to honour Indigenous peoples and bring awareness to the horrific history of residential schools. Some players also wore orange tape on their wrists and legs and wrote “Every Child Matters” in Sharpie on their legs.
The game came five days before Canada’s first ever National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
Their decision took courage. It’s not easy to publicly take a stand on social justice, especially when kneeling for the anthem has been met with such fierce opposition in the past.
When former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick knelt for the U.S. national anthem in 2016 to protest police brutality, it created a media storm of criticism. Kaepernick would go on to opt out of his contract at the end of the 2016 season and never play another NFL game again, with some suspecting he’d been blackballed from the league.
Even though Kaepernick didn’t play in the 2017 season, other NFL players continued to kneel for the anthem. Former U.S. president Donald Trump said he wanted owners to “get that son of a bitch off the field right now” if anyone knelt, and kneeling for the anthem is still a controversial action all across the world.
The student-athletes’ decision to kneel took courage and strong moral principles. By taking a knee, the women’s rugby team took a commendable stand for what’s right.
Featured graphic from file.
