CHILL OUT DUDE, YOU'RE A HERO

Leave it to the indefatigable Don Cherry to cut through this week's
frenzied debate over the plight of Canada's newest Olympian.

By my reckoning Cherry arrived in Japan Friday in the nick of time to save
his employer, the CBC, from going completely over the cliff in its coverage
of Ross Rebagliati, the Olympic snowboard gold medalist from B.C. who was
briefly stripped of his medal after failing a drug test that discovered
traces of marijuana.

Now, there's no doubt the two-day drama was the biggest Canadian angle of
an otherwise disappointing Games so far and, as host broadcaster, the CBC
was going wall-to-wall in its coverage.

But anyone who witnessed CBC host Brian Williams' fawning interview with
Rebagliati in the aftermath of the brouhaha would think the kid had just
won the Nobel peace prize and not just finished a seven-hour interrogation
with Japanese police on a suspicion he'd been cutting the grass a little
too close to the Olympic snowboard hill.

Breathlessly, Williams begged Rebagliati to recount every step in the drama
while constantly reminding him that an entire country was behind him.

Enter Don Cherry.

"I feel sorry for the kid and I'm glad he got (the gold medal) back and
everything," Cherry mused in his debut Coach's Corner segment between
periods of Canada's first hockey game. "But I've been watching this here
and you guys have been treating him like a hero."

Bravo, Don Cherry.

You summed up the feelings of millions of bewildered Canadian parents who
both cheered and lamented the message being transmitted to their sons and
daughters in the wake of the sensational scandal. At the very least,
Cherry's words were a welcome splash of cold water into the face of a story
that had grown out of all proportion.

In fact, at the rate things were going, I'd half expected that Rebagliati
would be asked to carry Canada's flag in the closing ceremonies by the time
the CBC had completed the job of elevating the kid from self-confessed pot
smoking snowboarder to full sainthood. (Hey, it may happen yet.)

But, admittedly, the CBC was not alone in this. No less than the Prime
Minister of Canada called Rebagliati to express the entire country's
admiration for having survived the trauma of being caught with traces of an
illegal substance in his urine. Surely, a visit to 24 Sussex is next.

Maybe things would have been different had Rebagliati been caught with
marijuana in his suitcase rather than in his bladder, but I'm not so sure
anymore.

The point is that somehow Rebagliati accomplished something far beyond
capturing an Olympic Gold medal, in itself an amazing feat. Somehow, he
also turned the entire country on its head, triggering a renewed debate on
the issue of legalizing marijuana.

Only days ago it would have seemed ludicrous to believe that the prime
minister, solicitor general, leader of the official opposition and just
about anyone else near a microphone would suddenly be rooting for a young
man who'd just professed to a worldwide audience that he'd committed an act
that's still considered illegal on this side of the ocean. This by someone
we'd never heard of a scant few days ago.

I suspect part of the explanation for this remarkable response is found in
the demeanor of the man at the centre of the firestorm. Ross Rebagliati is
a smooth, articulate, good looking young man with a good head on his
shoulders and a mop of blonde curly hair to top it off. It isn't exactly
the typical face that we're accustomed to linking to the drug trade in
Canada, is it.

The nightly news can tell us the drug industry in Canada is largely
organized and controlled by criminal bike gangs and Colombian drug
kingpins. But make a good-looking boy next store the poster child for
illegal marijuana use and public opinion shifts rather dramatically.

There are now renewed calls for a review of Canada's outdated drug laws, at
least as they apply to marijuana use. And given the craziness of the past
few days, don't rule out that changes will result.

Little wonder Rebagliati's pot-smoking buddies in Whistler, B.C. are
planning a big welcoming home party. As for getting an invitation, just
watch for the first puff of smoke.

Copyright (c) 1998, Canoe Limited Partnership.