Former CFL players Arjei Franklin and Shawn Gallant both became Constables after hanging up their cleats. Now, they're both struggling with the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd. (By ArashMadani)
LATER SUNDAY AFTERNOON there was finally quiet time inside a home that is so often chaotic. That’s what happens when you have two young boys, only three years apart, running around at full speed from morning to night. And in this brief moment where it was silent and still, Arjei Franklin had his oldest son sitting on his lap. The two made eye contact and dad’s mind began to race.
Like the rest of the world, they have watched and followed what has happened in Minneapolis and across America in the aftermath of the senseless death of George Floyd.Winnipeg Blue Bombers Arjei Franklin tries to break a tackle during 2009 CFL pre-season action. Often after an incident, let alone a death, the public plea made from law enforcement is to wait for the investigation to be completed, for all of the information to be obtained.“This is so clear cut, none of that matters. Nothing that happened a minute before the video started rolling matters,” said Franklin. “The police officer doesn’t seem to be too worried about what he’s doing to another man. I’m infuriated about it as a human being.”“I was wondering how the police community would respond.
In their line of work — just like in their first job out of school — both Gallant and Franklin speak of the importance of understanding and respect. Gallant clearly remembers a summer night in 2008 — an evening out with defensive backs in Montreal to relax and bond. They were on a downtown sidewalk sharing a laugh when police approached the black members of the Alouettes secondary, asking if they had started a fight.Franklin openly speaks of how inherent biases in society can affect police work.
WHEN IT CAME TO FOOTBALL, race was rarely an issue for either of them. Gallant grew up in Windsor in a single-parent family in a lower-income neighbourhood. His mother, Linda, would send him outside to play with the kids in the neighbourhood. “You name the background – black, white, brown, Asian, whatever – we were in that community. We played together, we hung out with everybody,” he says. In high school, it was more of the same.
“There wasn’t any of that racial tension. We somehow made it work right away,” said Franklin. “So if that’s how it was there, I know it’s possible out there in the real world today. There’s something about working toward the same goal.” “Once people have to acknowledge the problem of racism exists, that can be the beginning of the healing,” said Franklin. “But what’s so upsetting is that it took a tragedy, and an explicit level of hate, for the dialogue to begin.”
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