There was something that happened recently that I can’t shake out of my head based on the way that it’s been handled by those in charge, and the idea that it’ll keep going on unless someone steps up and says something about it.
I have it on reasonably good authority that in a recent Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League game, a player on the opposition called a member of the Power Dodge Estevan Bruins by a homophobic slur, a slur that went out decades ago. I’m not going to name the player or the player that the slur was referring to, or even the offensive slur itself but it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the agitator stepped over the line.
Now, I’m not naïve enough to think that a slur like that has never gone the other way from the local team in the last decade or two, nor am I of the belief that it’s potentially uncommon through the league for potentially many teams.
But this player likely is something of a hero in his home SJHL community, probably wore a pink anti-bullying shirt a few days ago, meanwhile using his limited time in this league to do anything, like literally anything apparently, to gain some kind of psychological advantage.
And it’s a sick thing to do. Imagine that’s your go-to thing, the thing you’re known for? ‘Better not tick me off, I’ll call you a degrading slur’ is the message that sends.
Follow me on this: In the Western Hockey League the rules are a little bit different. You could even have a player temporarily suspended pending an investigation if you coughed up a few hundred dollars. If the suspension proved worthy, the league would keep the money. If it wasn’t worthy of a suspension, the team accused got to keep the money.
There was a player on the Moose Jaw Warriors a few years ago that was hit with a bond like that for an on-ice hit and was forced out for a regular season game by the league. The event was deemed not suspension worthy and the teams met in the playoffs. After a goal the Warriors scored, the team does a fly-by of high fives on their bench (next to the other team). At that moment, he yells out ‘Thanks for the $500, (homophobic slurs)’.
He rightly got suspended this time for the next game – a playoff game no less – when the opposition told on him.
Now, I can hear the shrugging of shoulders from some locals here. ‘What’s the big deal?’, they’ll ask.
It’s 2018. It’s going to be a big deal regardless of whether we stick our heads in the sand on this or not. It’s one thing to wear the shirts and say we don’t act like that, and another thing to actually live a life where no matter what the circumstances, racial, ethnic and homophobic slurs aren’t a part of our lives. Even in the heat of the moment, we’re better than this.
Due to progress made in this province, for the first time ever communities like ours are having Pride parades, or at the very least, walks down major streets where traffic is stopped. Those walks are growing every year as people of all occupations and backgrounds are no longer forced into hiding from the community, free to live the life without fear of reprisal.
With all of this in mind, and this may come as shocking to some people, but this corner of the province for whatever reason isn’t seen as the most socially progressive. Regardless of whether or not we choose to believe it, it’s a reality that we live in a century where this kind of talk isn’t tolerated.
This thing that happened in a recent SJHL game seems like such an easy thing to take care of that it’s shocking to see it still going on to this day. We can talk about inclusion and acceptance until we’re blue in the face but until we actually live it, embrace it and speak up when it’s presented to us, we’re always going to be complicit in the slurs and the degradation of one kind of sexuality that might not be our own.
