Hockey Canada reported more than 900 cases of discrimination in its sanctioned leagues, alarming but not surprising experts and advocates.
Hockey Canada released national data for “all incidents of verbal taunts, insults or intimidation based on discriminatory grounds” during the 2021-22 season.
The report, published on Hockey Canada’s website, looked at witnessed and alleged incidents of racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism and discrimination based on other restricted grounds.
The results show 512 penalties assessed by officials under Hockey Canada’s Rule 11.4 related to discrimination and another 415 reported allegations of discrimination.
Hockey Canada’s sanctioned leagues include youth hockey, women’s hockey, seniors’ hockey and junior leagues.
The report highlights what many already knew – that hockey has systemic issues and action is needed to drive change, according to MacIntosh Ross, an assistant professor at Western University.
“I think it simply underscores how incredibly important it is to push for change in the sport,” Ross said in a message. “At the moment, hockey isn’t ‘for everyone.’ It’s a bastion of intolerance. I’m hoping this report helps people come to terms with that and commit themselves to efforts toward inclusion.”
Hockey Canada reported 61 percent of the witnessed and penalized acts targeted sexual orientation and gender identity. Forty percent of the reported incidents requiring investigation were also associated with gender and sexuality.
The results were disheartening but not shocking to Brock McGillis, hockey’s leading advocate and educator related to LGBTQ+ issues and inclusion.
“I’m not surprised that over 60 percent were toward sexuality or gender identity,” McGillis said.
“I’m surprised there weren’t more incidents, but ultimately, there are more.”
“There’s a whole section of folks who don’t get caught saying it and also players who don’t report it. There is also a level of protection given to some players out of fear it might impact their career if they’re elite players, and of course, this doesn’t take into account all of the language used in terms of locker room culture and team group chats that is likely more extreme than what is being said on the ice.”
Aidan Cleary, the founder of Team Trans, called the number of reported sex and gender-based slurs “horrifying” and “heartbreaking” saying the findings “exemplify a crisis of misogyny and violence in the hockey community.”
Of the penalized issues, 18 percent were deemed racist, while 47 percent of the reported allegations were related to race.
The report follows Hockey Canada’s Action Plan and Thomas Cromwell’s review on governance amidst the ongoing scandals related to sexual assault and toxic behavior in hockey.
While the report acknowledges “the inherent importance of data collection in this area,” some issues in the application of Hockey Canada’s anti-discrimination Rule 11.4 were also noted. “There were inconsistencies in the rule application at times,” the report said.
Dr. Courtney Szto, an assistant professor at Queen’s University who penned a policy paper on anti-racism in hockey, echoed the importance of this data but also questioned the mechanisms to deal with allegations not witnessed by an official.
“It is ultimately an imperfect system,” Szto said in a message.
The “baseline data is really important because it legitimizes all of the anecdotal evidence that is often dismissed under the ‘few bad apples’ theory,” Szto added. “These numbers show a pattern of problematic behaviors across the country in boys’ hockey.”
The report recognized Szto’s portrayal of the issues being primarily in men’s hockey. It showed that men and boys perpetrated 99 percent of the discriminatory acts witnessed by officials.
Cleary echoed the importance of Hockey Canada aiming to address issues in the sport related to masculinity and misogyny.
“It’s so simple and beneficial for all of us to invest in developing good men, but Hockey Canada needs to put itself fully behind that mission to eradicate the epidemic of misogyny currently present in its ranks,” Cleary said in a message.
“The good news is that we can fix this problem if our leadership and our community dedicate itself to making changes,” Cleary added. “In order to stamp out the rampant misogyny and the resulting homo/transphobia in our community, we need to invest in developing players’ identities and their relationship to masculinity.”
While this was the first report of its kind from Hockey Canada, the organization says it will not be the last.
“Hockey Canada commits to continuing to make national reports on maltreatment publicly available and accessible on an annual basis as part of its overall sport safety framework,” it said.
Hockey Canada is set to elect a new board of directors later this month.
