Hockey Canada hopes uncomfortable conversations spur meaningful change

Hockey Canada hopes uncomfortable conversations and open dialogue can lead to meaningful change as it gets set to host its first Beyond The Boards Summit in Calgary on Friday and Saturday.

The two-day event includes guest speakers like former NHLer Sheldon Kennedy, now an advocate for safe sport and changing hockey culture, and Vancouver Canucks assistant general manager Émilie Castonguay.

The theme of the summit is toxic masculinity as a root problem at the sport’s elite levels and how eradicating that culture can lead to a healthier and more inclusive hockey community.

Several branches of the hockey world, including the NHL, PWHL and IIHF, along with all provincial and territorial hockey federations, will be represented. 

“We’re going to focus on the root cause of our culture,” said Pat McLaughlin, Hockey Canada’s chief operating officer. “Two days isn’t going to solve the problems, but what’s most important is we’re socializing, we are having dialogue around an area we know we need to get much, much better at and address…people are going to see an agenda that is going to make us very uncomfortable and an agenda to help us learn from those with lived experiences. That’s what we need…it’s human nature to gravitate to what we think is right, and what makes a really good team is varying opinions.”

McLaughlin said there will be future summits focused on other topics, but the organization first wants to see how Beyond The Boards goes before planning ahead.

Dr. Teresa Fowler, who teaches in the faculty of education at Concordia University of Edmonton, will present at the conference. She has done extensive research on masculinity and colonial mentalities in hockey. Toxic masculinity, she feels, is what leads to racism, sexism, homophobia and other forms of discrimination.

Examples of toxic masculinity include the locker room code (“what happens in the locker room stays in the locker room”), fighting and physical violence, and derogatory language about women and minority groups.

“The idea that to be a good, masculine hockey player means you have to adhere to this brand that’s been carved out over time – that’s what we’re looking at [during the conference],” Fowler said. “How did this brand of hockey player get to this point? It’s looking back at how hockey has grown alongside colonization and this idea of the pioneer spirit and, ‘You’ve got to get out and conquer and do your best and win.’”

As part of their research for an academic paper entitled, “Exposing Hockey Culture from Within: A Reckoning,” Fowler and her colleagues interviewed 21 professional and elite hockey players. Fowler said they were surprised by the “undeniable sexism” during those conversations, as well as what the players didn’t say.

“They never really talked about the smells of the arena or how it felt going out on the ice,” Fowler said. "The only times they talked about those [topics] was when they were revisiting a trauma moment.”

She recalled one player had a coach who constantly called him a “suitcase.”

“‘If you don’t do what you’re doing, your stuff is going to be in a garbage bag outside,’” Fowler said the player was told by the coach. “[Players] talked about this idea of having to conform to this identity in order to be a successful hockey player. Some of the ones who recognized this while they were playing started to feel gross and like, ‘This is not me.’ And they left the game. Some even had to go through counseling to get back to that person they were before they went into hockey.”

That perspective is valued by Hockey Canada as it tries to change the fabric of a sport that has had several scandals in recent years. The governing body wanted to have the conference last August, but felt that it wasn’t the right time, given the leadership transition taking place.

At the time, Hockey Canada was months away from replacing its CEO and entire board of directors after criticism over how it handled accusations of alleged sexual assault levied towards members of the 2018 World Junior team. The organization now has new leadership, led by new CEO Katherine Henderson, who will attend the summit. 

Bayne Pettinger, an NHLPA agent who worked for Hockey Canada in various departments for nearly 10 years, will also speak at the conference. In Nov. 2020, he came out in an article written by Pierre LeBrun for The Athletic. 

“It’s going to be uncomfortable conversations that need to be had in order for our game to push in the right direction,” he said, noting that men’s hockey has to catch up to women’s hockey.

“Male hockey especially is behind the times in terms of acceptance, tolerance, diversity. I think the women’s game is far ahead of where the men’s game is.”

The goal for after the summit concludes is to have the participating organizations implement the ideas and recommendations raised over the two days at various levels of the sport.

Fowler emphasized that it will take effort from everyone involved in hockey, not just players and administrators, in order for the sport to rewrite a culture that has been built over several decades.

“It truly takes everyone,” she said. “It’s not only the leaders who are going to be in the room tomorrow. It’s parents. It’s the fans. It’s the players. It’s folks saying that it’s not okay that kids who maybe are seven years old are told to not tell their parents what happens in the dressing room…we really need to question these old practices that keep the game insular and white. It’s really going to take all of us to ‘unlearn’ how we understand hockey and take a step back and say, ‘What are the benefits of hockey? Why did I put my child in hockey?’ If we think about those experiences, then we can start to change the game.”