A minor hockey coach in Peterborough, Ont., remains suspended after he pulled his team off the ice mid-game because an opponent directed a racial slur at one of his players.
On Nov. 15, one of coach Gary Walsh’s players on the NAPA Auto Parts team, 16-year-old Andrew McCullum, was sent to the penalty box along with a rival from the Austin Trophies.
While they were in the Kinsmen Arena penalty box, the boys heckled one another, and the opposing player called McCullum the N-word.
"I knew as soon as I saw the look on his face," Walsh told CBC Radio's As It Happens.
"I said, 'Did it happen again?' He said, 'yes.' "
The referee sat both players out for the rest of the period, but when the offending player came out to start the third period, Walsh and his team left the ice — something that's against the rules of Hockey Canada, the sport's national governing body.
"As a team we decided, in order to support the morals that we have, that we wouldn't play under those circumstances and we walked off," Walsh said.
"I knew I would be suspended. … I was prepared to accept that responsibility."
Prepare to accept a medal for standing up to these troglodytes.
The precious little darling's mother is defending him...
The mother of that player said her son deeply regrets making the comment. She spoke to The Examiner on the condition her son's identity wouldn't be published because she doesn't want the incident to destroy his reputation.
Her son used the N-word after he and McCullum exchanged vulgar words back and forth during an on-ice scuffle, she said.
"There is a lot of testosterone thrown out on that ice and it goes on non-stop," she said.
"I think he has learned his lesson about racial slurs. He was trying to hurt the kid verbally. He himself was being hurt verbally and it came out. The line got crossed."
Bullshit, but well crafted.
Read more here.
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