Music

Matthew Good speaks out on the Vancouver riots

by Nicole Villeneuve

It probably comes as no surprise that singer/songwriter Matthew Good fired off about the riots in Vancouver last night following the Canucks’ Stanley Cup defeat—he’s long derived much of his identity and inspiration for the city he called home for over twenty years and even summarized much of it on his 2009 album Vancouver.

Last night, as his former city (Good now lives in a BC suburb with his family) went up in flames, he naturally took to his Twitter and this morning, the Guardian UK printed an article in which Good lamented the effect the riots would have on the city’s reputation.

“What do you think the national media is going to be saying? Or, for that matter, foreign media? That it was just a small group of rabble-rousers? Or that, once again, Vancouver rioted after a Stanley Cup loss as if it’s tradition…To put it in the clearest context possible, if the people of Egypt were able to gather in much larger numbers and force the Mubarak regime out of power without acting like idiots, then what does that say about a city in the land of milk and honey in which people riot because of the loss of a sporting event?”

You can read Good’s full take on the events here.