Toronto Maple Leafs’ forward Nazem Kadri has been fined U.S. $5,000 for making a throat-slashing gesture after taking a hit in a game in Calgary last Tuesday. The fine, for making “inappropriate gestures” in the direction of Flames defenceman Mark Giordano, was the maximum allowable under the collective bargaining agreement. Kadri was rocked by a big open-ice hit from Giordano and was slow to get up off the ice. Once he staggered back to the bench, he started yelling in Giordano’s general direction and then made a throat-slashing gesture. A cursory Google search of media coverage has found no mention of Kadri’s Muslim religion, which provides the relevant cultural context for understanding this gesture.  This is doubly odd, since Kadri’s arrival in the NHL had been widely hailed, and his denunciation of Donald Trump’s proposed ban on Muslim immigration received wide publicity on both sides of the border. Robert...(Read Full Post)