Discriminatory taunting nets Manitoba hockey player 18-game suspension from MJHL

A junior hockey player has been suspended for 18 games for making what appeared to be a racist gesture during a game on the weekend.

The Manitoba Junior Hockey League issued a gross misconduct penalty to a 20-year-old Toronto defenceman on the Dauphin Kings team for violating Hockey Canada's discriminatory taunting rule.

The player raised his stick and made what looked like a bow-and-arrow gesture toward some visiting team players from Waywayseecappo First Nation as they skated away from Dauphin's end of the rink during a game Saturday.

"The discriminatory taunting was a public display which consisted of a widely recognized racial gesture which was very hurtful to many persons who viewed it," the MJHL said in a news release Thursday.

"The gesture was directed specifically to an Indigenous player while he was skating away well after the final buzzer of the game."

The player will sit out a minimum of 11 regular-season games and seven playoff games, subject to the completion of a reconciliation process, the league said.

The player had previously received misconduct penalties in the last four games Dauphin played against Waywayseecappo.

The gross misconduct penalty was originally issued at the end of the game Saturday. The Kings won 3-2 against the Waywayseecappo Wolverines.

The league was told the Dauphin defenceman's gesture was in response to a Waywayseecappo player "making a celebratory gesture" following one of that team's goals earlier in the game. 

"After thorough review of the video and in consultation with the on-ice officials, this factor was found to be without merit or justification," the league said in a statement. 

"The opposing players' celebratory action was a common hockey manner of celebration after a goal."

The MJHL said the conduct of the Dauphin player was detrimental to the game of hockey. 

The gesture drew condemnation from Hockey Manitoba and Hockey Indigenous, a group that advocates for Indigenous hockey players, as well as others.

The Waywayseecappo organization and player have accepted an apology from the Dauphin defenceman, the MJHL said. He has also begun a reconciliation process that will include anti-racism and cultural sensitivity training. 

The Dauphin Kings will also continue to work with Bright Sky Consulting, which provides the training, Treaty 2 leaders and the Waywayseecappo Wolverines organization to address what happened and address racism in hockey, the MJHL said.

The league announced its anti-racism player education program last summer. It says players, team officials or executive members found to have acted contrary to the anti-discrimination policy — including violating rules around taunts, insults and acts of intimidation based on discriminatory behaviour — will be penalized.

"Racial and discriminatory actions, gestures or behaviours, regardless of intent, will not be tolerated in the MJHL," the league said in its Thursday statement.