That’s the question so many Canadians are asking about the “lone wolf tenor”, Remigio Pereira, who made a decision to hijack the singing of the Canadian national anthem at the Major League Baseball All Star Game the other night.
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The singing group The Tenors, apologized on Twitter after the performance, calling it “a disrespectful and misguided lack of judgement by one member of the group acting as a ‘lone wolf'”.
A controversial rendition of O Canada sung by a member of The Tenors was an attempt to undermine the rallying cry of Black Lives Matter, a co-founder of the Toronto chapter said Wednesday.
With the recent tension going on around America, the racist phrase “All Lives Matter”, often used to try to refute “Black Lives Matter” activists, has unfortunately popped back up in the public sphere.
The Tenors, a group based in British Columbia, caused a stir at Petco Park with Remigio Pereira’s actions while singing “O Canada”. The Boston native who grew up in Gatineau, Que., also held up a sign reading “All Lives Matter”. “No disrespect what so ever to Black Lives Matter, because black lives do matter, they most definitely do”.
Pereira has since tried to explain his actions on Twitter and even went so far as to post a message on SoundCloud, titled Black Lives Do Matter, where he clearly sounds distraught by the barbed criticisms.
The top-selling group received a severe lashing on social media after group member Remigio Pereira, on his own, changed the words when they sang O Canada before the MLB All-Star Game in San Diego Tuesday. And that is why everybody’s life matters. “One love”, he said.
Major League Baseball also had no idea Pereira meant to make a political statement, spokesman Matt Bourne said.
Even though the sound wasn’t flawlessly audible, fans were very surprised when the sign appeared on the ballpark video scoreboard. The FOX stations in the US did not air that part of the broadcast, but it was shown in Canada and mostly meant with criticism.
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The award-winning group has previously performed at the 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremonies, the Queen’s Jubilee in England in 2012 and the 2014 Stanley Cup Finals.
