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With Tokyo Games Delayed, Ottawa Olympian Pamphinette Buisa Turned To Activism And Community Service. By Liam Fox
Many Canadian athletes were put in limbo by the delay of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. There will be no chanting crowds, no fiery competition, no medals won or lost this summer. The world has been too busy trying to control the Coronavirus pandemic for luxuries such as athletics. The time off affords those with a public platform, however, the opportunity to focus on impacting Canadians beyond what they would see during an Olympic event. For Ottawa’s Pamphinette Buisa, that has manifested in different ways as she has spent her time giving back to her community. Buisa is a 23-year-old Rugby Sevens player from Gatineau who is a member of Canada’s national team. She helped Canada to the gold medal in the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru and had her sights set on competing for the podium in Tokyo this summer. When she isn’t suiting up for Canada, she plays for the Ottawa Irish Rugby Club and splits her time largely between Ottawa and Victoria, where she attended school. In June, Buisa organized a well-attended ‘Peace Rally For Black Lives’ in Victoria, B.C. According to Buisa, over 9,000 people were there in person to support the movement and 10,000 tuned into the live stream of the event.
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“With the Olympics being postponed, I have looked at it as an opportunity to reflect, to recalibrate, and to refocus. I feel like I have put things into perspective, and it has made me appreciate this journey so much more. This experience has only strengthened my drive towards excellence, made me so grateful for my support systems, and also highlights the importance of not taking things for granted. People are so busy in their day-to-day lives, so being in such uncertain times, I am choosing to look at the positives and the opportunities that this time has granted me,” said Buisa. “We have a lot of allies and a lot of people that want to learn. That is a testament of progress. I remember on Monday there was a guy who
Photo by Marcia Fernandes
was yelling profanities about what we were doing and then I saw him on Sunday at the front [of the gathering] quiet and crying. Because he saw change. If I can be a part of helping someone realize that change within a week, then I can only imagine what we can do in the months and years from now on.” The idea for the event sprang from a text received early Monday morning from Vanessa Simone, a friend and track athlete at the University of Victoria, about hosting a peaceful rally to protest the ongoing treatment of Black and Brown Canadians. It is part of a larger international movement for equality prompted by the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.
