A historic stupidity

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 31/10/2011 (5473 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The widening storm from the hazing in a Neepawa hockey dressing room has triggered the indefinite suspension of an assistant coach and the exit of a half-dozen players from the junior team.

As you read in a Winnipeg Free Press story published in Saturday’s Brandon Sun, that won’t be the end of this scandal that’s shining new light on the sordid initiation practice.

The Manitoba Junior Hockey League announced Friday it is reopening its probe of the Neepawa Natives and this time it will have an special independent investigator handling the case.

MJHL commissioner Kim Davis said the case was reopened after it was learned players interviewed in the initial league probe had “lied” about the involvement of the suspended assistant coach, 21-year-old Brad Biggers.

“To make a long story short, they talked to some of the players and basically the players said they lied when they spoke to me earlier. The assistant coach was present during some of the time the hazing went on. Obviously, that’s a significant change to the facts that had been presented to us,” MJHL commissioner Kim Davis said.

“We just felt it was important to go back and try to see if anything else was unknown to us and go on from there.”

Last week, the league fined the Natives organization $5,000 and suspended 16 players, head coach Bryant Perrier and Biggers.

The longest suspensions were five games, issued to both the assistant coach and the team captain.

Biggers later denied being present during the late September hazing incident, which involved nudity and degrading initiation rites for five rookie players.

The father of the youngest victim, who has since left the team, believes both the head coach, team leaders and assistant coach should have been suspended for up to a year.

“That doesn’t fit the crime,” he said.

Speaking of which, an RCMP probe into the incident continues.

As the full weight of this incident has apparently yet to be felt, what has been exposed so far is more than troubling.

Sun readers have suggested the hazing incident involving a 15-year-old player could be viewed as child abuse and that Child and Family Services should be part of the investigation.

Some experts in various media have referred to the incident as being “pseudo homosexual” in nature.

Another noted studies that show some incidents of this nature are organized by young males with psychosexual disorders. We wonder if the instigators in Neepawa ever considered what the public would think if the incident were reported? Likely not.

The province has left the door open to lobby for changes to the Criminal Code to make hazing a specific crime.

Opposition Leader Hugh McFadyen called it “totally unacceptable,” while Sport Minister Eric Robinson said the Neepawa incident was “regrettable and unfortunate.”

Asked if hazing should be deemed a separate criminal act as it is in many U.S. states, Robinson said: “I think that we’ll have to seriously look at that.”

Hazing is considered a felony in several U.S. states, and anti-hazing legislation has been proposed in other states.

If this type of incident happened outside of a hockey rink, we suggest assault or aggravated assault charges would be top of mind.

But a University of Manitoba criminal law professor told the Free Press even if the Mounties lay charges, getting a conviction might be a longshot.

“The issue that troubles me — to be quite honest about this — is that there’s a whole issue of consent here,’’ said David Deutscher.

“Because it seems that although there were actions of the other players … that are reprehensible just from a moral perspective, there’s a question of whether or not they’re criminal, because it seems that the victim in this case was consenting to the participation in it.

“The only thing that I can say is, at least in my perspective, if it was a criminal offence I think it’d be very difficult to prove.”

There’s no denying the rookie hazing in a Neepawa hockey dressing room was humiliating and degrading.

But we also wonder what the full impact will be after all the investigations are done. That bone-headed incident in a Neepawa hockey rink could end up making history.