When it was recently announced that Kanye West had been hired to perform at the closing ceremony of the PanAm games in Toronto, many expressed surprise.
That surprise quickly turned sour as opposition to his presence started, and is growing.
Many say they are upset that the games organizers are using taxpayers money to hire Americans to perform in the place of so many talented Canadians. They say this should be an occasion to showcase Canadian performers.
Many others are angered by the particular hiring of Kanye and his own extremely high opinion of himself and his music.
In fact a petition has been started to get the PanAm organizers to replace him at the closing ceremonies.
At 9am this morning, there were 35,000 signatures, by 1100 am there were well over 37,000 demanding that Kanye be replaced.
In response to the backlash the CEO of the PanAm games, Saad Rafi, has said that West and another American rapped called Pitbull, are “international stars” and as such are “quite appropriate” for the international event.
A poll on the CBC website shows over 68 percent of responses disagree with that.
The mayor of Toronto, John Tory, recently became the butt of jokes when he told reporters shortly after the announcement of Kanye West’s appearance, “And I’m smart enough to know that he’s a proud product of our music industry here, as are a number of others.”
Later it was pointed out to him that Kanye West is an American.
UK- Telegraph article and BBC video interview with kanye west
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