Calms you ! | The Press

A young referee was attacked Sunday in Dollard-des-Ormeaux. He was punched in the face by a grandfather who was watching a soccer game between two teams of teenagers. A parent in the audience intervened to subdue the attacker.

The scene was filmed, it circulated in the media and social networks and twenty-four hours later, the grandfather publicly apologized, which was the least of things in the circumstances.

This is not an isolated event. The world of amateur sports is regularly the scene of such incidents.

In fact, the aggressiveness and violence to which referees are subjected in amateur sports are so widespread that a team from the physical education department of Université Laval has documented this scourge. In a report titled Experiences of young Quebec officials, made public last year, the authors interviewed 27 young referees to ask them questions about their work. Basically, the research concludes that aggression is “part of the job” and that young people have built a shell to deal with the problematic behaviors of coaches and parents who attend the game. There is even talk of the “normalization of violence”.

The phenomenon is also addressed in the report Hockey, our passion of the Quebec Committee on Hockey Development made public last week. It was pointed out that a high proportion of referees drop out because of the aggressiveness and stress they have suffered.

Among the recommendations, the authors of the report propose the installation of cameras in arenas, the dissemination of awareness campaigns and the promotion of sportsmanship.

The Minister for Education and responsible for the Status of Women, Isabelle Charest, recognizes the problem. She suggests updating the Sportsmanship Charterwhich dates from the 1980s. It is a good idea, but the awareness campaign should be extended to society as a whole.

Because aggressiveness and verbal abuse go beyond the limits of the sports field, as the comments from our readers illustrate (see screen 3). Talk about it to all those whose work involves customer service: restaurants, retail, health… Last year, on his Facebook page, Premier François Legault challenged Quebecers on this subject, mentioning that he received many testimonials from workers grappling with the frustration and aggressiveness of the population.

The Joint Association for Occupational Health and Safety (APSAPP) even warned its members during the pandemic: “with the current context, it is possible that employees will deal more with aggressive customers…”. The many posters urging people to keep calm in medical waiting rooms as well as in certain businesses or government services are there to bear witness to the extent of the problem.

And we are not even talking about the aggressiveness on social networks which has become a real scourge. Health experts had predicted it: the COVID-19 pandemic will be accompanied by another pandemic, that of mental health. Here we are. Last March, the World Health Organization (WHO) noted an increase of more than 25% in cases of anxiety and depression worldwide. Behind the outbursts of aggression and anger hide a very great fatigue linked to the context of the past two years. And the financial stress caused by inflation does not help matters.

People are on edge. The population is obviously not sufficiently equipped to deal with this silent epidemic.

Yes, the federal and provincial governments offer different resources to refer to when things go wrong. But before even talking about resources or access to services, which remains a problem, we still have to be able to recognize that things are not going well.

This is a great file for Public Health which confirmed the end of health measures this week. It is high time to launch a national awareness campaign that would encourage people to pay more attention to their mental health, reminding them that there are ways to take care of it on a daily basis. And by explaining to them the links between stress, fatigue and aggressiveness.

There is still a lot of education to be done in this area.

A necessary education if we want to avoid slippages that force us to apologize in the public square the next day. Until then, are we breathing through our noses?