Hockey Canada summit tackles cultural issues within the sport. What’s been done? And what’s next?

OTTAWA — Thursday morning was a big deal for Normand Hector. It’s not every day a Black, queer, drag performer is asked to remark on issues of hockey culture surrounding transphobia and homophobia, much less provide that blueprint to a national federation investing in a systemic refresh.

Hector was the keynote speaker at Hockey Canada’s “Beyond the Boards” summit, addressing a conference room full of hockey executives and administrators in a downtown Ottawa hotel.

Hector held the audience’s attention by telling stories of his experiences speaking to hockey players and their families and coaches. He was brought in to counsel a team that kept throwing a player in a garbage bin after games. He implored another team to speak up if they ever saw a young woman treated in a “violent” way. There was a time when a young player confessed to Hector that his parents didn’t want him to attend his session out of fear that he would “turn them gay,” and that his parents saw him as the devil.

“How am I going to turn you gay? Am I going to turn you Black, too?” Hector said.

Hector says he’s spoken to 800 players and their parents and 50 coaches. Hector also performed during the 2022 Memorial Cup in Saint John, N.B., as their drag persona “Normani.”

“It was emotional to see how far it’s come,” Hector said. “When I started this journey, I never dreamed that I would be here, doing this.”

The second annual Between the Boards summit comes as Hockey Canada’s image continues to be clouded by sexual assault charges against five former World Junior players. In 2022, Hockey Canada faced intense national scrutiny and criticism for its handling of the allegations. Several senior leaders were removed from their positions as sponsors fled.

The inaugural Between the Boards occurred in September 2023 in Calgary during Hockey Canada president Katherine Henderson’s first week on the job.

This year’s event revolved around themes of gender-based violence, homophobia, transphobia and sexism. The two-day summit features panel discussions with former NHL executive Brian Burke, former National Women’s Hockey League star Harrison Browne and Sportsnet’s Ailish Forfar. Marni Panas, a transgender woman, LGBTQ2S+ activist and diversity and inclusion consultant, is the summit moderator. The Athletic was permitted to attend a portion of the event, but some sessions and panel discussions were closed to working media.

“I think it just really motivates me when I hear about things in systems that have really hurt people, and they’re brave enough to come forward and they tell their stories and they’re vulnerable. It just adds fuel to that fire of really wanting to drive change,” Henderson told The Athletic.

Henderson says the thought process behind this year’s theme came after the federations surveyed participants from their previous Beyond the Boards event. Last year, the focus was on themes of sexual assault and toxic masculinity. Former NHLer Sheldon Kennedy was the keynote speaker.

“We wanted to know how did this affect you? I didn’t want the typical survey: Were the sandwiches good? How was the transportation from the airport? It was, what did you learn? What are you going to do about it? What do you want to know?” Henderson said.

The survey found that participants wanted more discussions on “gender” and “sexuality-based discrimination” as well as racism. Henderson said that, according to their internal data, 63 percent of instances of on-ice discrimination or “slurs” were gender-based. Henderson also acknowledged that racism will likely be a front-facing topic at a future Beyond the Boards event.

“I can’t imagine that this type of initiative wouldn’t become something that we want to tackle on an ongoing basis,” Henderson said.

Henderson thinks there will be a year where Beyond the Boards will have a discussion about the sport’s accessibility to Canadians and how it’s been affected by rising costs and facility availability. In turn, those economic factors have affected new Canadians or those from low-income situations who otherwise didn’t grow up with the sport or can’t afford to play.

“We want to reach out to those people and make sure that they feel at home in a hockey rink,” Hockey Canada board chair Jonathan Goldbloom said. “Which means figuring out ways of rolling out the red carpet so that if you’ve grown up on a soccer field, you feel that much more at home at one of our hockey rinks.”

Since the last Beyond the Boards event, Hockey Canada has sought to educate federation members and players on gender-based violence, consent and additional screening measures. A third-party group — Sport Complaints — trained them to address “maltreatment complaints in a procedurally fair manner.” Henderson added that Hockey Canada is working on two other projects that involve studying male hockey players as they transition from triple-A levels to major junior, and another that looks at the character development of players who’ve played through the major junior system.

Henderson also mentioned Hockey Canada’s dressing room policy which was unveiled in September 2023, shortly after the last Beyond the Boards event. The initiative advocates for “safe, inclusive and equitable dressing room environments” and requires participants to wear “minimum attire” (a bra, T-shirt, compression shorts, or any other type of base layer) as a way to promote locker room inclusion and personal privacy.

Henderson says member groups have worked “hand in glove” with these new protocols since they were implemented, but the next step is ensuring that discriminatory behaviours change across Hockey Canada.

“We don’t just want people to know what the minimum standards are. We want them to be able to call it out. We want people to be able to change behaviour,” Henderson said.

The trial for the five members of the 2018 Canadian World Junior team, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dubé, Carter Hart, Cal Foote and Michael McLeod, is scheduled to begin on April 22, 2025. They were each charged in January by the London Police Service with one count of sexual assault. McLeod faces a second charge of sexual assault for “being a party to the offense.” Henderson didn’t comment on the trial date or any specifics surrounding the ongoing case.

GO DEEPER

Jury trial for Canada’s 2018 world junior players to start April 2025

Ultimately, the challenge is to ensure that what’s been discussed at these Beyond the Boards events can seep into hockey culture and change it for the better, Henderson said.

“What we need to do is to make sure people are aware of what the standards are, what we expect of good Canadians when they’re participating in the sport of hockey, that we’ve got to remedy and we’ve got lots of things to learn if you want to learn them,” Henderson said

“But for God’s sake, speak up if you see something that isn’t going your way. And it’s OK to do that.”

(Photo: Andy Devlin /  Getty Images)