Justin Bieber, who performed at last week’s Grey Cup half time show, is no stranger to haters. The teen sensation has encountered opposition from many fronts as he has catapulted to being one of the most famous people on the planet. When the mention of his name prompted booing at last weekend’s Grey Cup half time show, many went unfazed. “Of course,” we thought to ourselves. In typical Canadian fashion, some of us felt sorry for the Biebs, silently apologized, and went on with our lives. However, CBC’s Peter Mansbridge has spoken out about the Bieber-hating phenomenon in Bieber’s own Ontario. He writes:
I’m all for having the right to express opinion. But really, what was that all about? Envy? That old Canadian thing about eating your own? Whatever you do, don’t stick your head up above the rest? Or was it even worse than that? This may be extreme, but think about it for a moment. The people who were booing were to me, just bullying. Like those kids at school who used to target the smart and successful, last Sunday they were doing just the same – from a distance and anonymously. But it didn’t end there because these weren’t kids booing Bieber. These were, certainly from my vantage point, adults booing Bieber. Adult bullying. And that’s brutal.
Mansbridge concludes by drawing out the lack of pride many of us have in Bieber’s Canadian roots, saying: As much as his critics would love to say he’s gone “all LA,” it’s only partly true. Yes, he wears fancy clothes and he’s focused on capitalizing as best he can, but he’s still Justin Bieber from Stratford, and he deserves, if not our love for his music, at least our respect for his success.
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Claudia McNeilly writes for the Toronto Standard. You can follow her on twitter at @claudiamcneilly
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