Houle gives coaches valuable perspective on racism

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This article was published 26/09/2023 (816 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When Hockey Brandon held its first-ever coaches day on Sunday, the several dozen attendees may have gotten an education they hadn’t expected.

Volunteers were sorted into three groups and given on and off-ice instruction, but the day started with breakfast and a presentation by Dauphin anti-racism educator Wade Houle.

As dozens of coaches sat rapt, Houle challenged them to consider a different perspective.

“We’re a part of the system. We’re the gate keepers of this sport,” Houle said. “That’s where we can make some transformative change.”

Houle, who grew up in the Metis community of Vogar prior to moves to Peguis and Dauphin, played four seasons of junior hockey in Manitoba and Saskatchewan between 1997 and 2001. The final season was with Hockey Brandon president Tim Lang and the Dauphin Kings.

After teaching for 15 years and earning a masters degree at Brandon University, the Mountain View School Division named Houle its Indigenous education coach, with Houle instructing educators on how to incorporate an Indigenous perspective into lessons and unit plans while also offering an anti-racism perspective.

As a side job, he started Bright Sky Consulting in 2020 to offer organizations an anti-racism perspective, and reached out to the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s commissioner Kevin Saurette of Brandon about potentially doing workshops for the league. They found common ground and the new partnership was announced on June 9, 2021.

“We built a program coming off of COVID and that’s kind of how my business started,” Houle said. “I sort of fell into the hockey side of things. I still work with businesses and organizations on this topic and indigenous education topics but unfortunately and fortunately, I’ve gotten a lot of calls from the hockey world.”

Houle started with online presentations to MJHL teams and when pandemic rules loosened, began to visit dressing rooms to bring his message in person in sessions that involve the players actively moving around as they work in groups. The program is now in it third year.

On Feb. 19, 2022, Dauphin Kings defenceman Klim Georgiev of Toronto pretended to shoot a bow and arrow at a Waywayseecappo Wolverines player. Houle participated in a review of the incident, which eventually led to Georgiev being levied a lengthy suspension.

But even Houle was a little surprised by the online reaction.

“The community itself worked harder online at explaining it away rather than saying ‘Ya, what are we going to do about it?’” Houle said.

He noted after Michigan State University forward Jagger Joshua was called a racial slur multiple times by an Ohio State University player on Nov. 11, 2022, Joshua finally made a statement 10 days later after nothing had happened in terms of an apology or investigation.

“We have a situation again where people have no idea of what to do because we’re scared,” Houle said. “We’re scared to actually make it worse because we don’t know what to say and do. As coaches and leagues and systems, we get into these situations and are unsure how we’re going to handle them.”

He said everyone understands when something terribly racist has been said but often fail to grasp the borderline comments or micro aggressions that can make the dressing room a lonely place for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Colour) players.

He noted that extends to the National Hockey League and the Columbus Blue Jackets parting ways with Mike Babcock after he asked to look at the pictures on the phones of players.

“Hockey has a massive, massive scope on it right now,” Houle said. “It’s huge in all aspects. There is just incident after incident. Even last week we’re looking at a coach who is abusing power. Something is constantly popping up.”

He said the good-bad binary is a very real thing, and it hinders progress because people distance themselves from any problems.

“We’re all good people, every one of us,” Houle said. “We’re great people actually. The problem with positioning ourselves as good and being racist as bad is that we disassociate ourselves from the subject because we wouldn’t do those things.

“‘How can I be racist if I’m a good person?’ That’s where we start to work harder at explaining away all the racist and discriminatory behaviour that we do.”

Houle asked the coaches what racism means, and after a pause, noted that many of the definitions are similarly based on individual behaviour despite everyone’s life experience being different. He said it’s far more pervasive than some ugly comments, noting its structural, institutional, systemic, internalized and inter-personal.

“Understanding these things is hard for young people,” Houle said. “These are not terms we talk about in schools or even in our homes. We become adults and start coaching teams and start getting involved in the community and these things pop up and we have no idea what to do or say.”

Houle said he learned from an early racist incident he faced as a child when his mother simply told him to stay from those people. That meant even she was essentially avoiding the issue, much like the larger society around her.

Compounding the problem for hockey is that as it evolves into a 12-month sport, the top players increasingly are funnelled onto the same teams with the same players. As a result, they become more insulated from the outside world in a sport that remains overwhelmingly white.

He said the cost and the time commitment of the sport at the higher levels won’t help change that dynamic.

Houle added that teaching players what their whiteness means in the society helps them to understand the world around them better, and he hopes long term, they will stay in the sport after their playing careers end and bring that knowledge with them.

“Culture, prejudice, stereotypes, discrimination, oppression and power, we do have definitions, but tie those definitions to the sport of hockey and that’s what really connects the players,” Houle said. “It’s understanding that we’re all part of certain cultures and socialized human beings that have a position in this society whether we like it or not.”

Lang said Houle’s presentation was an important one for coaches to hear as hockey makes steps to a better place, particularly in the wake of the Hockey Canada scandals.

“I think it’s really, really big,” Lang said. “It think it’s something that Wade put perfectly when he said we push it under the rug a little bit or act like it doesn’t exist, and if we don’t feel we’re in that situation, we just forget about it.

“Having him up here talking was great for us. I think it was a real good education piece for all the coaches because it’s something we’ll run into at some point during the season.”

Lang said the entire day of activities was a good one, and that he hopes the event can be repeated on an annual basis to help Brandon’s coaches become even better.

“To have this many folks out for coaching day was awesome,” Lang said. “We’re trying to engage more coaches and make sure we have the right coaches in place and give them the education and building blocks to be good coaches. Obviously it’s great to have this many people out. Hopefully it’s an annual event we can continue on for sure.”

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