THE CONVERSATION
This article was originally published on The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Disclosure information is available on the original site.“Hockey is Canada, and Canada is hockey.” At least, that’s what Hockey Canada claimed on Twitter in the lead-up to the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games.
Hockey Canada ultimately settled the case out of court. But as news of the allegations broke, the organization promised a third-party investigation — but stopped short of requiring all the players involved to participate in the inquiry. That’s now changed.On July 14, sports writer and activist Shireen Ahmed broke down Hockey Canada’s open letter on CBC News. “Abuse in hockey is not new,” insisted Ahmed. “Sexualized violence in hockey is not new.
And many Canadians agree. In a recent survey by the Angus Reid Institute, 56 per cent of respondents who “played or coached youth hockey” felt that “the treatment of women and girls by young male hockey players was misogynistic or disrespectful.” That’s quite a condemnation, but hardly surprising. And for years this masculinity, as historian Peter James Hudson writes, was defended on national television by hockey commentator Don Cherry.The problematic violent masculinity at the heart of Canadian men’s hockey is reinforced by nationalism, producing a particular kind of hockey, associated specifically with the nation. After all, not all hockey is played like Canadian hockey, nor do all hockey cultures experience the same degree of sexual abuse as Canadian hockey.
This nationalism — the win at all costs mentality, the notion that “Hockey is Canada, Canada is Hockey” — make hockey players victims, on and off the ice, mere collateral damage. The improprieties and crimes of young men are transformed into a national dilemma; a indictment of a hockey culture that valorizes violence and notions of masculine supremacy.
And when the accused is an elite hockey player, revered for their masculine domination and violence on the ice, celebrated for representing the nation in “Canada’s Game,” pursuing a conviction becomes a near insurmountable task. Oftentimes for the victim, coming forward may not seem worth it.
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