[News] Brandon Univ. issues statement condemning honorary doctorate recipient Theo Fleury

[King Theo]

He was always my favorite player growing up, and then even more so when I learned as an adult of all of the crap that he had to go through. And I do think that he has done a lot of good, with starting the talk about abuse in hockey. However I did follow him on twitter and about a month ago I had to unfollow him, he was just getting to be too much.

I do think it may be time to change my name here..

[Northendzone]

while i don't agree with his tweets, he tweets under his own name so i will give him some props for doing that as i sure don't.

[undercoverbrother]

Theo vs Sheldon

One is a great Canadian

[Sofa GM]

How do people get like this, ridiculous. He should be utterly embarrassed that BU has to issue a narrative about his statements and distancing themselves from him since they issued him an honorary degree…… complete embarrassment

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

Theo vs Sheldon

One is a great Canadian

Garbage post. While I disagree with the things Theo believes in politically and his tweeting about that, the man has done a lot for the abuse community.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

Garbage post. While I disagree with the things Theo believes in politically and his tweeting about that, the man has done a lot for the abuse community.

Congrats.

But that doesn't give him a pass on his ongoing stupidity.

Sheldon is far and away a better example for resilience than Theo will ever be.

[Erick Estrada]

I find his situation incredibly unfortunate. He had a horrible early life and I don't know if carrying around that chip on his shoulder after hockey has led him to where he is with his misguided beliefs but I'm going to take the high road here and not pile on and call him names.

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

Congrats.

But that doesn't give him a pass on his ongoing stupidity.

Sheldon is far and away a better example for resilience than Theo will ever be.

Though I disagree with his views, many people don't....sadly. Theo clearly has mental issues from the abuse he has suffered both through no fault of his own and his own doing. Do you always call victims of abuse who go off the rails bad people?

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

Though I disagree with his views, many people don't....sadly. Theo clearly has mental issues from the abuse he has suffered both through no fault of his own and his own doing. Do you always call victims of abuse who go off the rails bad people?

I didn't say Theo was "bad people".

I said Sheldon was a great Canadian.

Theo has been vocal about his healing, but perhaps he has relapsed (is that the right word).

Theo is using his position within society to push false and dangerous "ideas". He also comes across as self serving.

Sheldon has been nothing but a servant of the abused.

PS: you don't need to respond. I mean I get it that's your gig. But it's cool we have different views on this and I'm ok with that.

[Inglewood Jack]

Theo still deserves help for his ongoing personal issues, but he doesn't deserve a platform on which he can use his fame to spread lies. Misinformation is the great pandemic that preceded COVID, and in the long run will have more serious consequences for the world we live in.

[PepsiFree]

People are confusing being empathetic to Fleury’s situation with excusing Fleury’s situation.

He’s shown himself lately to be an idiot at least, and a complete ####### at worst. This is true, and there’s no excuse. We can be empathetic and understanding to the reasons he is who he is, but that doesn’t excuse any of it.

Being the victim of abuse does not mean you can’t also be a bad person.

[JBR]

If the Flames ever decide to retire his number, or add him to FAF... can you imagine the tension in the building in anticipation of what's going to come out of his mouth when he gets behind the microphone?

It could be great, but it could easily get ugly quick. Could this also be one of the reasons why the Flames are hesitating to do it?

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by JBR

If the Flames ever decide to retire his number, or add him to FAF... can you imagine the tension in the building in anticipation of what's going to come out of his mouth when he gets behind the microphone?

It could be great, but it could easily get ugly quick. Could this also be one of the reasons why the Flames are hesitating to do it?

100%. Remember that documentary when his book came out? He was a train wreck even back then. I'm sure the Flames knew about it well before that and things have only gotten worse since then.

It's quite sad that he has sunk to new lows.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by JBR

If the Flames ever decide to retire his number, or add him to FAF... can you imagine the tension in the building in anticipation of what's going to come out of his mouth when he gets behind the microphone?

It could be great, but it could easily get ugly quick. Could this also be one of the reasons why the Flames are hesitating to do it?

I think that ship sailed a while ago. The only way his number gets retired in Calgary will be posthumously, and after enough time for the madness in his legacy to have been forgotten.

Sent from my SM-G960W using Tapatalk

[Jiri Hrdina]

What you also don't want to have to do is put a guy's name up there and then take it down later. So even if nothing happened during the event itself, the club would need to have confidence that he wouldn't do anything that would warrant removal of the name in the future. The Jays recently had to do that with Robbie Alomar (not that I'm comparing the two people or what they did - just noting it as an example of an honor being removed)

[Strange Brew]

No one has worn 14 for what 22 years now? It seems the ceremony and future behavior is exactly what the team is scared of, understandably.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

No one has worn 14 for what 22 years now? It seems the ceremony and future behavior is exactly what the team is scared of, understandably.

That, plus Fleury’s always been a little hard up for cash, so he may have had some monetary demands for his participation which the Flames didn’t want to meet.

[Kipper_3434]

Theo Fleury is dangerous now? Settle down folks, anyone who believes what he is saying believed it already. Where I live the majority of people distrust nearly everything that has been said on covid from official sources. Not one of these many many people has cited Theo Fleury as a source when debating the validity of covid claims. They are much more likely to cite actually powerful people like American senators and doctors. No need for a witch hunt, just ignore the guy, even the people who share his views aren't acting like he has any insider info.

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Kipper_3434

Theo Fleury is dangerous now? Settle down folks, anyone who believes what he is saying believed it already. Where I live the majority of people distrust nearly everything that has been said on covid from official sources. Not one of these many many people has cited Theo Fleury as a source when debating the validity of covid claims. They are much more likely to cite actually powerful people like American senators and doctors. No need for a witch hunt, just ignore the guy, even the people who share his views aren't acting like he has any insider info.

I don’t know about “dangerous”. I do know he was touting his degrees as some sort of authority for his views.

[DeluxeMoustache]

^ yes, perpetuating disinformation is dangerous.

Society would be better served if people in positions of influence used their platform constructively, and acted as part of the solution rather than as part of the problem