A pre-game ceremony aimed at bringing awareness to racism in hockey took place at the Soo Pee Wee Arena Thursday night.
Players for the Community First Flyers and McDougall Energy Marlies wore Garden River First Nation and Batchewana First Nation hockey jerseys during warmups and the pre-game ceremony, while a youth drum group from Garden River performed an Anishinaabe honour song.
“They’re stuck on the same team together throughout the year - they need to learn how to get along,” said Community First Flyers Coach Adam Dunseath. “Sault Ste. Marie is a multicultural city and [has been] growing within the last few years, so I think it’s important for them to learn there’s different races, and everybody needs to be treated the same way.”
Former NHL player and Soo Greyhounds coach Denny Lambert spoke during Thursday’s pre-game ceremony, along with Garden River First Nation Chief Andy Rickard and Batchewana First Nation Chief Dean Sayers.
A number of pee wee hockey players were also spotted with red tape on their hockey sticks - a visual nod to 16-year-old Logan Prosper, a Mi’kmaq hockey player from Waycobah First Nation on Cape Breton who was recently subjected to racist taunts from players from an opposing team during a game in Cheticamp, N.S. earlier this month.
The ‘red tape movement’ is now being adopted by hockey teams across Canada, including Dunseath’s Community First Flyers squad here in Sault Ste. Marie, as a way of decrying racism in hockey.
“We’re also passing on our red tape that we’re taping our sticks with in hopes that it’s a ripple effect, and it passes on to the next team and just to create awareness that racism is still happening and it needs to stop,” Dunseath said.
Rickard, who relayed a message from former NHL coach Ted Nolan during Thursday’s pre-game ceremony, tells SooToday that he’s had his own brushes with racism while growing up playing hockey at Soo Pee Wee Arena.
“I wouldn’t say every year, but there were some times that there were some pretty harsh things that were said to me,” said Rickard. “At one point my mom got involved, and we took it up to the next level with the governing body.”
“I still hear that it’s alive and well in sports, not just hockey - any sport, actually. I know that it still exists, and what we’re trying to do is bring awareness, and hopefully challenge the Pee Wee [Arena] to put measures in place so our kids can just come and enjoy the game the way they’re supposed to, without having to worry about that other stuff they’re maybe faced with.”