More than 500 penalties for discrimination at Hockey Canada in 2021-2022

UPDATE DAY

Hockey Canada released its first-ever report on discrimination in hockey on Friday, which found that 512 penalties for “incidents involving name calling, insults or bullying of a discriminatory nature” were recorded in 2021-2022. 

This is the first time that the federation has compiled this kind of data, thus warning that the data may not be complete. Hockey Canada had to collaborate with the various provincial and regional organizations by going there from “training, awareness efforts and discussions to make improvements throughout the season”, he let know by way of a press release. .

Thus, 512 punishments were imposed by officials and 415 allegations of discrimination were reported. In all, 75 suspensions were issued.

In 61% of cases, it was insults related to sexual orientation or gender identity that led to penalties. The other most represented types of discrimination are those of ethnic origin (18%) and disabilities (11%).

At Hockey Quebec, 51 incidents were recorded for the 79,481 players registered in the within the federation. This is 0.06% of young athletes who have been targeted by odious comments, slightly below the national average of 0.10%.

The majority of cases of discrimination were observed at under-18 (U18) level, at 55%, followed by U15 (27%) and junior hockey (10%).

Other data from Hockey Canada shows that the vast majority of penalties were imposed on men (99%) and in a competitive (76%) rather than recreational setting.

In the case of allegations of discrimination, which primarily targets ethnic origin and sexual orientation and gender identity, 37% were unfounded complaints, while 58% led to suspensions, written warnings, training or other forms of sanction.

“Hockey Canada and its members intend to gradually increase their efforts to ensure the reporting and follow-up of all cases of abuse, mistreatment and harassment beginning in the 2023-2024 season. To accomplish this, the organization is working with its members to increase resources and capacity to use consistent approaches across Canadian hockey to abuse cases,” the organization said in a statement.

These reports will be published annually.