Harvard women’s hockey coach under fire after reporting racist comments to Indigenous Canadians
Claire ClarksonFebruary 1, 2023
The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations is calling on Katey Stone, Harvard Crimson women’s ice hockey coach, to resign.
Stone reportedly made racist comments towards players, including two BC Indigenous players
According to the Boston Globe, Stone accused the players of disrespect and that the roster was a group of skaters “with too many chiefs and not enough Indians” after stopping practice in the 2021-22 season.
“I am just disgusted by the statements that have been made. It’s completely disrespectful to our people and of course our youth,” Heather Bear, deputy director of the FSIN, told The Canadian Press on Tuesday.
“In our eyes, she has no place in hockey.”
Harvard did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Canadian Press.
FSIN, which represents 74 First Nations in Saskatchewan, sent a letter to Harvard’s athletic department demanding Stone’s firing.
“I don’t even care about discipline right now. She should just be let go,” said Bear, who is from the Ochapowace Nation.
An independent panel found that racism and discrimination are “significantly present” in the Greater Toronto Hockey League – the largest minor hockey league in the world.
The Boston Globe reported that Indigenous players Maryna Macdonald of Ditidaht First Nation, BC, and Taze Thompson, a member of Metis Nation Alberta and Okanagan Indian Band, BC, have left the team.
The daughter of Philadelphia Flyers assistant coach Rocky Thompson, Thompson played two years at Harvard before joining Northeastern this season.
The 20-year-old forward was the 2020-21 Ivy League Rookie of the Year.
Macdonald, a four-season defenseman with the Crimson, told the Boston Globe that Stone looked her in the eye when she made the comment.
14 players have left the program since 2016
“I had learned to navigate a lot of their toxic environment,” Macdonald said. “But now she respected me and my family and my heritage above anyone else.”
Macdonald and Thompson were among 14 recruited players to have left Stone’s program since 2016, including three this season, The Globe reported in its history.
The newspaper also said former Crimson captain Sydney Daniels of Mistawasi’s Nehiyawak First Nation, Sask., is suing Harvard over alleged racial discrimination related to Stone and the athletic department.
CBC’s Greg Ross caught up with Akim Aliu when he made a surprise visit to a group of kids new to Canada and the sport of hockey.
The university has until February 8 to respond to the lawsuit.
Daniels, who is now an NHL scout with the Winnipeg Jets, was team captain in 2016-17 and Stone’s assistant coach for four years from 2018-2022.
Stone has coached Harvard to a dozen NCAA tournament appearances in the event’s 20-year history.
She was the head coach of the US women’s team that lost 3-2 in overtime to Canada in the 2014 Ice Hockey Olympic final in Sochi, Russia.
The Boston Globe wrote that Harvard conducted an internal review following Stone’s comment and that the athletic director informed the players that Stone would remain head coach of the Crimson.
“I would urge the Harvard Board of Governors to take serious steps to correct this,” Bear said.
Source: www.cbc.ca
Claire ClarksonFebruary 1, 2023
The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations is calling on Katey Stone, Harvard Crimson women’s ice hockey coach, to resign.
Stone reportedly made racist comments towards players, including two BC Indigenous players
According to the Boston Globe, Stone accused the players of disrespect and that the roster was a group of skaters “with too many chiefs and not enough Indians” after stopping practice in the 2021-22 season.
“I am just disgusted by the statements that have been made. It’s completely disrespectful to our people and of course our youth,” Heather Bear, deputy director of the FSIN, told The Canadian Press on Tuesday.
“In our eyes, she has no place in hockey.”
Harvard did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Canadian Press.
FSIN, which represents 74 First Nations in Saskatchewan, sent a letter to Harvard’s athletic department demanding Stone’s firing.
“I don’t even care about discipline right now. She should just be let go,” said Bear, who is from the Ochapowace Nation.
An independent panel found that racism and discrimination are “significantly present” in the Greater Toronto Hockey League – the largest minor hockey league in the world.
The Boston Globe reported that Indigenous players Maryna Macdonald of Ditidaht First Nation, BC, and Taze Thompson, a member of Metis Nation Alberta and Okanagan Indian Band, BC, have left the team.
The daughter of Philadelphia Flyers assistant coach Rocky Thompson, Thompson played two years at Harvard before joining Northeastern this season.
The 20-year-old forward was the 2020-21 Ivy League Rookie of the Year.
Macdonald, a four-season defenseman with the Crimson, told the Boston Globe that Stone looked her in the eye when she made the comment.
14 players have left the program since 2016
“I had learned to navigate a lot of their toxic environment,” Macdonald said. “But now she respected me and my family and my heritage above anyone else.”
Macdonald and Thompson were among 14 recruited players to have left Stone’s program since 2016, including three this season, The Globe reported in its history.
The newspaper also said former Crimson captain Sydney Daniels of Mistawasi’s Nehiyawak First Nation, Sask., is suing Harvard over alleged racial discrimination related to Stone and the athletic department.
CBC’s Greg Ross caught up with Akim Aliu when he made a surprise visit to a group of kids new to Canada and the sport of hockey.
The university has until February 8 to respond to the lawsuit.
Daniels, who is now an NHL scout with the Winnipeg Jets, was team captain in 2016-17 and Stone’s assistant coach for four years from 2018-2022.
Stone has coached Harvard to a dozen NCAA tournament appearances in the event’s 20-year history.
She was the head coach of the US women’s team that lost 3-2 in overtime to Canada in the 2014 Ice Hockey Olympic final in Sochi, Russia.
The Boston Globe wrote that Harvard conducted an internal review following Stone’s comment and that the athletic director informed the players that Stone would remain head coach of the Crimson.
“I would urge the Harvard Board of Governors to take serious steps to correct this,” Bear said.
Source: www.cbc.ca
St-Onge is urging provinces to step up efforts to make sport safer for athletes
Claire Clarkson
February 1, 2023
OTTAWA — Sports Secretary Pascale St-Onge plans to urge her provincial counterparts to speed up their efforts to investigate abuse in sports when she meets them in Prince Edward Island in February.
St-Onge said in August she had asked provinces to register provincial-level grievances with the new national office of sports integrity officer or develop a similar program of their own. She said they all committed to it.
“I’ll ask them how their progress is, where they’re going, what their schedule is,” she said. “This must be done as soon as possible. I think we face an urgent matter. We hear these stories of abuse and mistreatment at every level. It shouldn’t be a court issue. All athletes should know who to turn to when faced with these situations.”
The Federal Office for Sports Integrity opened in June to handle complaints and investigations for athletes at the national level in sports organizations affiliated with the program. St-Onge said any of the 64 national sports organizations that have not registered by April 1 will lose their federal funding.
On January 10 there were 22 full participants, but the Sports Integrity Officer’s website says many more are on track to do so. There are six other sports groups that are signatories, including training institutes in the Atlantic and Ontario and the Canadian Olympic Committee.
OTTAWA — Sports Secretary Pascale St-Onge plans to urge her provincial counterparts to speed up their efforts to investigate abuse in sports when she meets them in Prince Edward Island in February.
St-Onge said in August she had asked provinces to register provincial-level grievances with the new national office of sports integrity officer or develop a similar program of their own. She said they all committed to it.
“I’ll ask them how their progress is, where they’re going, what their schedule is,” she said. “This must be done as soon as possible. I think we face an urgent matter. We hear these stories of abuse and mistreatment at every level. It shouldn’t be a court issue. All athletes should know who to turn to when faced with these situations.”
The Federal Office for Sports Integrity opened in June to handle complaints and investigations for athletes at the national level in sports organizations affiliated with the program. St-Onge said any of the 64 national sports organizations that have not registered by April 1 will lose their federal funding.
On January 10 there were 22 full participants, but the Sports Integrity Officer’s website says many more are on track to do so. There are six other sports groups that are signatories, including training institutes in the Atlantic and Ontario and the Canadian Olympic Committee.
But the national office is limited to complaints and investigations affecting athletes at the national level, and St-Onge said the vast majority of athletes in Canada train and compete at a non-national level. These include provincial athletes, high schools, and community clubs, all of which fall under provincial jurisdiction.
Currently, only Quebec has a provincial-level grievance system, Sport’Aide, which was established in 2014 to address the growing problem of violence in sport in the province.
The matter will be raised by St-Onge when she meets provincial sports ministers on February 17 and 18 when they are in Charlottetown for the Canada Winter Games opening ceremony.
Hundreds of athletes from more than a dozen sports have come forward in recent years, accusing coaches, coaches and others of abuse. In some cases, athletes said their abusers used their power to decide national team spots, while others have made chilling allegations of abusive training practices and sexual assault.
There have also been concerns that a lack of inter-provincial information sharing on allegations of abuse has allowed coaches accused of abuse in one province to simply relocate and resume coaching and abusing athletes in another province.
The Commission received 24 complaints in the first three months, but only eight concerned sports organizations that had already joined the program and only two of these could be investigated. The others involved athletes whose national sports federation was a member but the athlete was not, or the complaint did not fall under the universal code of sport.
In the second three months, between October and December, a further 24 complaints were filed, but by then more organizations were taking part, so 18 were from athletes in sports falling under the bureau’s powers.
However, only eight of these complaints can be investigated as the others do not fall within the Commissioner’s jurisdiction.
The Code of Conduct prohibits psychological abuse, including verbal assaults in person or online, and body shaming, physical abuse including denial of adequate food or water, neglect and sexual abuse. It also covers those who fail to report suspected abuse by others, those who make false reports, and retaliation against those who make complaints.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on January 31, 2023.
Mia Rabson, The Canadian Press
Source: www.orilliamatters.com
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