On the evening of June 15, 2011 in the downtown core of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, a riot broke out almost immediately after the conclusion of the Boston Bruins' victory over the Vancouver Canucks in game seven of the Final of the National Hockey League to win the Stanley Cup.
Nearly 150 people were injured during the incident, including four by stabbing. On the night of the riot, nearly 100 arrests were made by the Vancouver police, including 85 for breach of peace, eight for public intoxication and eight for criminal code offenses such as assault and theft. In 2015, four years after the riot, police completed their investigation and recommended final charges against two suspects, bringing the total to 887 charges against 301 people. The riot caused an estimated $4 million in damage with an extra $5 million being spent on additional staffing costs for prosecuting the rioters.
Before the riot Previous riots
Violence has occasionally occurred in the wake of sporting events in North America and Europe, including multiple riots in Canada since the 1980s. Edmonton Oilers fans set fires and looted in the Whyte Avenue ("Blue Mile") area of Edmonton when the team qualified for the 2006 Final, Montreal was vandalized by Montreal Canadiens fans after the 1986 and 1993 titles and during the 2008 and 2010 playoffs, and Vancouver itself had riots following the Canucks' defeat in 1994.
The 1994 riot occurred after Game 7 of the 1994 Stanley Cup Final, when the Canucks lost to the New York Rangers in an away game. A watch party hosted at the Canucks' then-home stadium, Pacific Coliseum, attracted over 8,300 people, while many more congregated downtown. After the Canucks lost 3–2, a crowd of between 40,000 and 70,000 people gathered downtown. Fighting and looting ensued, with police using tear gas to clear the area. The riot led to over 190 injuries, $1.1 million in damages, and charges being brought against over 100 people.
In response to these riots, investigations were examined by the Vancouver Police Department, the City of Vancouver, the Vancouver Fire Department, and other organizations. These reports found concerns including the lack of a sufficient traffic plan, issues with the communication equipment used by first responders, limited police visibility during the early stages of the gathering, lack of training in crowd control, and the availability of alcohol purchases from privately owned stores. An independent review of the 2011 riot found that the recommendations from 1994 were largely followed.
In Boston, there was no viewing party at TD Garden for the game. This was because of concern by the police that the additional people could lead to increased crime. Previous championships by the Boston Celtics, Boston Red Sox, and New England Patriots had led to widespread vandalism and three fatalities.
Fan zone City organizers had set up a two-block long fan zone on six-lane Georgia Street near the Rogers Arena. Two big screen TVs were set up for fans to watch the game. Temporary fences and gates were set up to provide checkpoints where police could control access to the area and check for alcohol (which police generally poured out when found). Following recommendations stemming from the 1994 riot, all liquor stores in the area were closed earlier in the day. Crowds had been generally well-behaved in the fan zone for the previous six games, with roughly 70,000 attending each event. Similar though smaller events had been very successful during the 2010 Winter Olympics. For the final game, an estimated 100,000 people crowded into the area, and people found ways to enter the zone without being checked for alcohol. Planned corridors to allow movement of emergency vehicles became impassable.
Game
The Vancouver Canucks and the Boston Bruins participated in the 2011 Stanley Cup Final, which was the culmination of the 2011 Stanley Cup playoffs. The series was played over seven matches, with the winner being the team that won four games. After the conclusion of the sixth game on June 13, 2011, the series was tied 3–3. The seventh game was played at the Canucks' home arena, Rogers Arena, as they had the better regular season record.
The game was played on Wednesday, June 15, 2011, and the puck dropped just after 5 pm PDT. Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas made 37 saves as Boston shut out Vancouver, 4–0, to win the Stanley Cup. Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand each scored two goals for Boston. Bergeron scored first at 14:37 in the first period, then had a shorthanded goal at 17:35 in the second. Marchand's first goal came at 12:13 of the second period; he then scored on an empty net late in the third. The Bruins outscored the Canucks 23–8 over the series. The win marked Boston's first championship since 1972. The series also marked both the Canucks' third appearance and loss in the Stanley Cup Final.
Riot
Trouble at the watch party began before the game had started. One of the entrances to the fan zone was removed, as the barricades were being breached. At 5:55, a five-man fight occurred in the fan zone. Thirty-five young people climbed onto the roof of a Budget Rent a Car building. These individuals started throwing bottles after Marchand's second goal for the Bruins, at which point the police department decided to remove them.
Around 7:18 pm, a fight with over 30 people took place. By 7:30, there was an increase in 911 calls about rioting, with disturbances including broken windows, 100 people on the roof of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre (which was showing the musical Wicked to a 1,900-person crowd), and looting of a Gucci store.
The riot began to take shape as the game came to a close at 7:45 p.m., with some spectators throwing bottles and other objects at the large screens in the viewing area. Boston Bruins flags and Canucks jerseys were set afire, and soon some rioters overturned a GMC Pickup in front of the main post office. Some porta-potties collapsed after people stood on top of them. People began jumping on the car that had been overturned, and sometime before 8:00, the car was on fire.
At 8:26, the police read the riot act and began to play a pre-recorded message which alerted the rioters that they were partaking in an illegal activity, and ordered them to leave the area. The police began using smoke bombs at 8:48. The SkyTrain system began displaying messages on electronic screens reading: "Due to the unstable situation in downtown Vancouver, we strongly advise customers NOT to travel downtown until further notice." Various stores began to be looted, including The Bay, London Drugs, Sears, and Sport Chek. At 10:30, the performance of Wicked ended, and patrons were asked to stay inside the theatre to avoid the riot. The riot ended around midnight, with the police using a helicopter to confirm that there were no outstanding areas of activity.
By the end of the night, around 100 arrests were made by the Vancouver police, including 85 for breach of peace, eight for public intoxication, and only eight for criminal code offenses such as assault and theft. Nearly 150 people were treated by hospitals for injuries sustained in the riot. By the next day, four people were still in serious condition. Dozens of people were treated for tear gas and pepper spray exposure. Vancouver General Hospital said they treated two major traumas, three stabbing victims, and one person with a head injury. St. Paul's Hospital treated more than 50 people for riot-related injuries. Of these, most had been exposed to tear gas and were released. Others had broken bones or cuts from broken glass. The hospital operated under "Code Orange", which was their mass casualty protocol. Their head doctor, Eric Grafstein, said that there were few injuries caused by police, especially compared to the 1994 riot, in which there were numerous baton strikes and dog bites. The BC Ambulance Service reported that they had transported a man who had jumped or fallen off of the Dunsmuir Viaduct, and that this man was in critical condition in the hospital.
Aftermath
Response In the immediate aftermath, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson initially attributed the situation to "a small group of troublemakers". Vancouver Police Department Chief Jim Chu said that instigators appeared to be some of the same individuals involved in a protest on the opening day of the 2010 Winter Olympics, and that they came equipped with eye protection, gasoline and other tools. He called them "criminals and anarchists" who disguised themselves as fans. The idea that anarchists were involved in the violence was rejected by UBC political science professor Glen Coulthard and others in a Vancouver Sun article on June 24. "That this gets tagged as anarchist activity is just more of an assumption or bias that has been around for a long time," said Coulthard. "[A]narchists are a convenient scapegoat for the police to deflect responsibility for what happened," said another commentator. One critic indicated that authorities had made several mistakes in the planning for the crowd—among them allowing parked cars near the screens and leaving newspaper boxes nearby which could be used as projectiles. On June 20, Chu said "While we are still standing by that observation about the instigators, we are learning that most of the people that joined in the riot and that have now been charged represent a wider spectrum of young people, many of whom do not have criminal records."
Canucks general manager Mike Gillis claimed that the people responsible for rioting weren't their fans, saying "I think that would have happened whether we won or lost... When you're faced with thugs like that and people who are just prepared to punch other people in the face and think they're getting away with it, it's pretty hard to stop that. They're there for that purpose." Goaltender Roberto Luongo expressed a similar sentiment, stating that "those were not the real Vancouver fans that were doing that... I think it was isolated groups. It was tough to watch that something like that happened to the city." Captain Henrik Sedin showed appreciation for the people who cleaned up the city afterwards: "What happened with all the volunteers that came out, I think that shows more of what Vancouver is about than the night before."
Singer Michael Bublé, who attended the game, launched an ad campaign which encouraged people to identify guilty parties and to make their photographic evidence public. "They're trash, basically," he said, describing the rioters. "It was gutless and disgusting behaviour. And I'm grateful for the police and firemen and paramedics who put their lives on the line, because there were people who were so scared. And that mob mentality could have killed somebody."
An Angus Reid poll soon after the riot showed that 90% of British Columbia residents were disgusted by the events of the riot. In the same poll, two-thirds of respondents indicated that they were satisfied with how the police handled the riot. Over half of the respondents answered that they didn't want to see a ban on street parties in response to the riot.
Cleanup
After the riot, an estimated 15,000 volunteers organized to clean up graffiti and other damage. Many volunteers organized via texting and social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and the Vancouver Police Department endorsed the efforts to help clean up. Streets were reportedly clean by 10 am, with volunteers having shown up with brooms and dustpans to clean the city. Boarded up windows were covered in apologies and defences of the city's reputation. In response, the Hudson's Bay Company, a major retailer in the area, hosted a free pancake breakfast in thanks.