Brandon Montour to be welcomed home to Six Nations today with Stanley Cup parade
CBC
Brandon Montour was welcomed home as a hero when the defenceman returned to Six Nations last summer even after Florida Panthers' NHL finals loss to the Vegas Golden Knights.
Today, he'll also be welcome as a champion in the Brantford, Ont.-area community, bringing the Stanley Cup with him.
Montour and his Panthers teammates beat the Edmonton Oilers 2-1 in Game 7 on June 24 in Florida. As is tradition, members of the winning team get a day with the Cup.
Montour, who's of Mohawk descent and was born in Ohsweken, a community within Six Nations of the Grand River, is bringing the coveted trophy home.
For its part, Six Nations is hosting a Stanley Cup parade, which runs from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET, on Wednesday. It starts at Oshweken Speedway and will end up at the Six Nations Sports and Culture Memorial Arena.
"Please be mindful that time is limited and we anticipate thousands of fans," the Six Nations elected council said in a news release this month. The council also asks parade guests not to park on the side of the road, a two-kilometre route to the arena.
"We are very proud of Brandon and his accomplishments," Chief Sherri-Lyn Hill told CBC Hamilton in mid-July. "This celebration is historic and we're glad Brandon is sharing his day with Six Nations."
During his NHl career, Montour, 30, has also been with the Anaheim Ducks and the Buffalo Sabres. He joined Florida in 2021 and will start the new NHL season with the Seattle Kraken, after the team announced on July 1 that it had signed him to a seven-year deal.
in an interview with the CBC's Metro Morning in June, Montour's aunt, Jaime Lynne Montour, said she "choked" when she saw her nephew hoist the Stanley Cup.
"Brandon, you have no idea the impact that he is doing for First Nations people, no clue how big it is for them — to inspire a community, not just this community, but other communities in Canada," she said.
After the Cup-clinching game, a post on the Six Nations elected council's Facebook page read: "For the first time in the modern era of the National Hockey League, a member of Six Nations of the Grand River has won hockey's greatest prize. Congrats #62, #WelcometoSixNayStanley."
Montour and fellow NHL player Adam Henrique, a member of the Oilers, hold an annual golf tournament that raises money for several charities in the region that help children stay active through sports. This year's fourth annual tournament took place July 19 at the MontHill Golf & Country Club in Caledonia.
"When I was a kid — I don't really know the last person from Six Nations to make it to the NHL," Montour told the CBC after the 2023 season. "I didn't really have that, but to become neighbours or see me at a lacrosse game, things of that nature, it gives them that hope, I hope, that they could get there one day as well."
According to polling by the Environics Institute, 70 per cent of Canadians are either very or somewhat satisfied with "the way democracy works in Canada."
A plan to partially demolish a 139-year-old church has set off an uproar in a Cabbagetown neighbourhood.
A 33-year-old man has died after being shot by police in Brantford, Ont., Friday morning, the province's police watchdog says.
A Whitehorse resident says gaps in the hospital system are affecting continuity of care – and he has 2,000 pages of documentation to prove it.
A Newfoundland and Labrador judge postponed a decision Friday about whether a man charged with three attempted murders is fit to stand trial, in a case where the accused's family says the health-care system failed him and his alleged victims.
A doctor in Nova Scotia's Pictou County has been handed a professional reprimand for the way he treated a 30-year-old woman who died after being admitted to the Aberdeen Regional Hospital in New Glasgow, N.S., in August 2023.
Some New Brunswick fishermen are breathing a sigh of relief in the wake of a trade deal announced Friday between Canada and China.
A person infected with measles landed at Montreal-Trudeau International Airport on Jan. 8 after flying with Air Canada, Quebec’s Health Ministry announced in a news release Friday.
A junior officer arrested alongside a now-disgraced Winnipeg police constable after the pair stole cash and other items they believed to be evidence during a 2024 "integrity test" has pleaded guilty.
The woman whose car was used to take Taya Sinclair to the Saskatoon house where she was killed says she was trying to help Sinclair.
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe had a front-row seat to a trade deal with China that he says marks a "positive day" for Canadian agriculture.
WARNING: This story contains graphic details of a homicide.
Prince Edward Island's lobster industry is breathing a sigh of relief after the federal government announced Canada’s new deal with China, which is expected to eliminate tariffs on lobsters and crab products exported from this country, as well as lower tariffs on Canadian canola.