The recourse by former junior hockey players to a class action procedure against the main junior hockey leagues in Canada revealed to us yesterday more than questionable behaviors that have occurred among young players during improvised initiations.
Initiation, a rite of passage, has nothing condemnable in itself. For a very long time, if not always, it has been a recognition of belonging to a social group. Normally, it is not improvised and is supervised by the elders, who ensure its smooth running and ensure that traditions are respected. It is the sanction of belonging to the group.
What if it takes the form of a spontaneous, unsupervised response to the need to create an esprit de corps between the members of a hockey team? From a combat unit?
All deviations will then be possible to mark membership, even the most barbaric deviant behavior, which must be rightly denounced and repressed.
But the rites of passage will remain, because they are part of the DNA of human societies.
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