Nearly two years after complaining to Hockey Canada about bullying and sexual misconduct on a Hamilton youth hockey team, a family is relieved they don’t have to keep it secret anymore.
“The big win is we can now talk about it,” said the mother of one of the victims. “The public needs to know when maltreatment is taking place and what the sanctions are.”
It found the team had a “toxic” culture and that coaches breached dressing room policy by “failing to properly supervise the dressing rooms.”
The six players denied any involvement and the coaches denied any knowledge of the activities.
When I was in elementary school, all the boys in my classes were in the local hockey league and they all had a pretty shitty attitude. They were all bullies who were aggressive all the time. Fighting and violence was normalized because they saw hockey players fight on TV. Because I didn’t play, I was bullied a lot.
Meanwhile, at home I had a group of friends around the block and they didn’t play except for one. I had no trouble from them and they were my best friends.