"Four French referees in Montreal, Cuje, figure it out."

Canada's House of Commons has set a new standard for fraudulent political grandstanding.

A parliamentary committee has summoned Hockey Canada officials to explain their choice of Shane Doan as captain of the national team at the World Hockey Championship. At issue is an alleged derogatory remark by Doan toward a French-Canadian referee during a game in 2005.

The Phoenix Coyotes forward has denied making a slur and was cleared by the NHL — but almost two years later a referee still insists that Doan called him a “blank Frenchman.”

Some have been quick to call out the politicians and their "salacious quest for headlines." Now the player himself has elaborated on what he said during the 2005 game between Phoenix and Montreal:

Doan says he was trying to calm down goaltender Curtis Joseph, who was upset that a penalty hadn't been called in a game against the Canadiens, when linesmen Michel Cormier though he heard the Phoenix Coyotes captain utter a slur against Francophones.

As an enraged Joseph hovered around centre ice, Doan says he skated over to him and yelled: "Four French referees in Montreal, Cuje, figure it out."

All four officials were French-Canadian that night.

"I would have done the same thing if we were in Los Angeles and it was four officials from California," explained Doan. "Or if we were in Calgary and it was four Westerners."

Whether that disqualifies him as captain of a national team will presumably be at issue when Hockey Canada appears before the parliamentary committee.

But however you feel about Doan's remarks, it's worth asking whether any of this comes under the mandate of a national team. When it sends a team to an international event, is Hockey Canada in the business of good hockey or good citizenship? Who else should be excluded? The guy who cheated on his wife? The one who is rude to children? The worst driver?

Update, May 3 -

Hockey Canada goes to Ottawa:

Hockey officials' impassioned defence of Team Canada's captain left an unimpressed Bloc Quebecois leader comparing Shane Doan to a bank robber and accusing him of racial profiling.