Georges Laraque delivers a powerful message about Logan Mailloux
Here is the message in question from Georges Laraque:
"Here is my detailed opinion of the Mailloux Dossier.''
In my opinion, we need to look at the manipulative strategy that Mailloux himself, commentators on social media, and the MTL Canadiens are currently using to defend the decision to draft Mailloux, which can be called the acronym DARVO: deny, attack, and reverse the victim and the offender.
Read that again. Manipulative strategy.
If you don't remember anything else about this, you need only realize that MTL's public relations team had prepared this entire strategy and orchestrated the direction it would take, long before the draft happened.
If you identify with anyone other than the victim, know that you have been manipulated into thinking this way by a highly educated and expensive PR team that has coordinated its strategy well.
Logan Mailloux is a sex offender. And, despite the fact that Mailloux would certainly have difficulty getting a minimum wage job that required a criminal record check, the MTL Canadiens drafted him and managed to perpetuate the notion that professional athletes are above the law; that people perceived to have status, because of what they do for a living, are above the rules and consequences that usually apply to the rest of society.
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Denial: this is not a "serious mistake", say many people, including spokespeople for MTL Canadians.
In fact, what happened was criminal in nature, as judged by a court of law. The mentality that a pornographic, non-consensual photo taken and distributed publicly, online, with the victim's profile and identity, is currently considered a "mistake" trivializes Mailloux's actions and the impact on the victim.
Attack: "She shouldn't have put herself in that situation", "she said she wanted to ruin her life", "we all deserve second chances", "field hockey players are like that, she should have known better".
These are just a few of the many attack statements found in a quick Google search.
Attack is used to distract from the wrongdoing of the offender and to deny the reality experienced by the victim, as in "it could have happened, but it's not as bad as you say it is".
Finally, there is the inversion of the victim and the offender.
This is where the offender (or in this case, the PR team) will change things around to make it seem not only that they are not guilty of doing something terrible, but that they are in fact being treated badly; they are a victim. At this stage, the offender presents his or her own trauma as an excuse or distraction, so that the person being singled out becomes the victim.
Mailloux's officer stating that he wants to add context before the "cancel culture" comes after Mailloux, or Mailloux stating that he was just trying to "impress the guys" are some examples of reversing the roles of victim and offender, in this case.
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So one might ask: if a player is good enough at field hockey, will the MTL Canadiens "work with" anyone to win, versus going to the trouble of working to improve the culture of field hockey?
I'm aware that this version to consider can hit hard. What prompts me to write it is that I know for far too many individuals, this hits home!
Only by facing reality and ensuring fairness and justice for ALL, not DARVO, can we improve our field hockey culture and society."
