The sport has had a bad press for a few months. More recently, we are talking about the initiation activities that took place for several years in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
These degrading, humiliating and unacceptable acts ceased several years ago, we are told. But is silence still relevant?
For many young people and their parents, involvement in sport, all the more so when it is a team sport, is a means of surpassing oneself, of excelling and of developing both in the sporting aspect and in that of psychological development. What better than team sport to learn to trust and be trustworthy? What better than hockey to learn how to win and lose as a group?
Humiliate to initiate
What we have learned recently is the opposite of what sport should be. Humiliating a comrade to welcome him? Assault a newcomer to “celebrate” him?
It’s even more astonishing when you learn that coaches and senior figures within the QMJHL were not only aware, but that some even participated in these degrading activities.
Humiliation and aggression as weapons of initiation to sport are things of the past, we are told. We want to believe them, but can we still shed light on this unhealthy subculture that plagues sport, and hockey in particular?
Qs is right
The idea of Quebec solidaire to hold a parliamentary commission and to convene the leaders of the QMJHL is not meaningless. It’s not about finding blame or pointing fingers, but rather understanding the codes and norms of this culture, which has led leaders to curb these actions and efforts to ensure that it doesn’t come back.
We shout from the rooftops that bullying in schools and workplaces is unacceptable, why would we tolerate it being normal in the sports world?