Hockey coach gets 15 days in jail for tripping opposing child player
By The Canadian Press - Tuesday, February 26, 2013 - 0 Comments
RICHMOND, B.C. – A Vancouver father who purposely tripped a young hockey player while…
RICHMOND, B.C. – A Vancouver father who purposely tripped a young hockey player while coaching his son’s minor league team will serve jail time for the assault in an unexpectedly heavy punishment a provincial court judge said should warn other parents to keep their cool.
Martin Tremblay must serve 15 days at a provincial corrections centre for hurting the child because he was in a position of trust and was supposed to be a role model when he instead acted out in a post-game fit of anger, said Judge Patrick Chen.
“Society will not tolerate the assault of children by adults,” Chen said Tuesday, as he read his ruling from the bench at provincial court in Richmond, just south of Vancouver.
“(The sentence is) a signal to other parents heavily involved in the sporting activities of their children that they must be seen as models of good and acceptable behaviour and not as instigators of violence and of riotous behaviour.”
-
The real scandal in hockey
By Charlie Gillis - Sunday, January 20, 2013 at 12:00 PM - 0 Comments
Ken Campbell on the problem with Canada’s obsession
Andrew Tolson
With $320,000, you could buy a home in a medium-sized Canadian city, or an education at an Ivy League university. Or, you could do as a growing number of parents do: spend it on personal trainers, road trips, sport psychologists and league fees in the faint hope your child will attain fame and fortune in hockey. Ken Campbell, a senior writer at the The Hockey News, and co-author Jim Parcels explore this phenomenon in Selling the Dream, a book about how hockey parents, kids and the game itself are paying a steep price for Canada’s national obsession.
Q: I was struck, as many hockey fans were, by an ad Nike ran just before Christmas, which played on a familiar and romantic notion linking pro hockey to scenes of frozen lakes and small-town arenas. How far does that imagery stand from today’s reality, as witnessed by a kid dreaming of an NHL career?
A: The dream is still pure for most people; hockey is and always will be an enormous part of the Canadian cultural fabric. But I want people, when they read this book, to realize that it’s time to dial things down a bit. Hockey has become almost too important in Canada; in a lot of ways, it’s all we have. We have athletes who excel in other sports, but the stakes in hockey have gotten so high that it seems all-pervading. People get caught up in the dream very quickly, and very easily.
-
Why aren’t neck guards catching on?
By James Jackson - Thursday, January 21, 2010 at 1:10 PM - 2 Comments
Linesman Kevin Brown had his throat slashed by a skate
Referees are the peacekeepers of our national pastime. Sometimes they are forced to risk their necks—literally—on the job. Such was the case for Ontario minor hockey linesman Kevin Brown, who had his carotid artery slashed by a skate while breaking up a fight during a Junior C game on Dec. 29 in Woodstock. The Ontario Hockey Association has responded to the incident forcefully, making neck guards mandatory for all OHA on-ice officials as of Feb. 1.The decision would seem to be a no-brainer. Most minor and house hockey leagues across Canada already require players to wear neck guards—the same logic should apply to the 33,000 referees and linesmen in Canada, who are just as susceptible to errant skates and pucks. And yet other provincial associations have not followed Ontario’s lead. Yves Archambault, technical director for Hockey Québec, says that there are currently no plans to make neck guards mandatory for refs in Quebec. “There are many injuries during the year for referees—cuts and pucks to the face—but the [new rules] are always reactionary,” says Yanik Gagné, referee coordinator for Hockey Québec. “Where is it going to stop?”
