The president of Hockey P.E.I. said, “We don’t condone this type of behaviour.”
An impartial third party will investigate reports that a 16-year-old Nova Scotia goalie was subjected to racist insults during a game in Charlottetown, according to Hockey PEI.
When Mark Connors, who is Black, reported he was called the N-word many times by young kids in the stands two weeks ago, Al MacIsaac, the organization’s president, told CBC News: Compass he was “sickened.”
Following the game, members of a P.E.I. squad told him that hockey “was a white man’s sport,” according to the Halifax Hawks U-18 AA player.
“This type of behaviour is not tolerated,” MacIsaac stated. “In our organisation, we have a zero-tolerance policy for it, and frankly, we need a zero-tolerance policy in our society as a whole.”
In an earlier statement, the group stated that it has initiated an investigation into the situation.
Hockey P.E.I. spoke with national and Nova Scotia counterparts before deciding to entrust the probe to someone from outside the province, according to MacIsaac.
“We didn’t think we were qualified to deal with anything this complicated on our own,” he explained. “So we hired a third-party investigator.”
Because it isn’t his field of expertise, MacIsaac said he couldn’t say how long the probe would take.
Meanwhile, the Hawks have said that they will boycott games on the Island until the situation is resolved.
‘A long way to go’
Connors’ experience, according to Orlando Bowen, an ex-CFL player who runs the young leadership organisation One Voice, One Team, is proof of a larger problem outside of athletics.
Bowen stated, “We’ve got a long way to go.” “Some of the attitudes and beliefs that lead to this kind of behaviour, I believe, are still very much alive and strong. And I believe we’ve seen proof of it in the previous few years.”
Bowen stated that the community must do “all we can” to ensure that such incidents do not occur again.
He stated, “We need to legislate what we can legislate.” “We’ve got the Halifax Hawks boycotting competitions until something is done, and we’ve got individuals in the community willing to stand up and speak out.”
