Hockey Canada says penalties called for discriminations rose in 2023-24

There was an increase in the number of penalties called by referees in Hockey Canada-sanctioned games during the 2023-24 season for discrimination-related offences, including slurs related to race, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity, disabilities, and marital or family status, the federation wrote in its annual report on maltreatment.

Referees called 1,291 penalties during the 2023-24 season for verbal discrimination that contravened Hockey Canada’s Rule 11.4, according to Hockey Canada’s Maltreatment in Sanctioned Hockey Report, which was released Wednesday. The number of penalties rose from 913 in 2022-23 and 512 in 2021-22.

“Hockey Canada recognizes that for all the good the sport brings to individuals and communities, maltreatment does occur in hockey,” the report said. “In collaboration with our members, we need to gain a better understanding of the types of maltreatment present in hockey in order for the hockey community to address it in tangible and meaningful ways.”

Of the 1,291 penalties for verbal discrimination documented in Wednesday’s report, 343 were called by referees in the Ontario Hockey Federation (OHF), most among provincial and territorial federations (PTSOs), followed by 243 in Hockey Quebec, and 188 in Hockey Alberta. Hockey Canada said it had 502,490 registered players in 2023-24. The OHF accounted for 173,761, or 35 per cent, of all registered players.

When the number of registered players within a PTSO was factored into consideration, Hockey Manitoba had 3.47 verbal discrimination penalties per 1,000 players, most among PTSOs. Hockey Nova Scotia had 3.42, and Hockey Saskatchewan had 3.11.

Players at the U18 level accounted for 652 of the 1,291 Rule 11.4 penalties in 2023-24, the most among the age groups, followed by U15 (328) and Junior (165).

The report did not include statistics from Canadian Hockey League games, Hockey Canada said.

Hockey Canada’s independent third party (ITP), an arms-length agency run by Ottawa-area lawyers Brian Ward and Jahmiah Ferdinand that receives and investigates complaints of abuse, will publish its own annual report in coming days that is expected to detail the number of complaints it received and investigated during its second year of operations.

In its first year, the ITP received 1,872 complaints, accepting and processing 187 of them.

The Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner (OSIC), a federal agency that investigates allegations of misconduct mostly involving national team-level athletes, coaches, and officials, received 18 hockey-related complaints from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, but said it did not have jurisdiction to look at 15 of them, Hockey Canada wrote in its report. It has not yet been determined whether the OSIC has jurisdiction to investigate the other three of those complaints.

Hockey Canada said another 636 complaints were made during the season about alleged discrimination that a referee or other on-ice official did not hear. That was down from 711 in 2022-23 and 415 in 2021-22.