Video backlash ends season for Fort Mac hockey minors

fort mCmurray Parents of a Fort McMurray Minor Hockey Association team have forfeited the rest of the season after social media backlash to a viral video included “death threats, threats of harm, and humiliating and degrading comments.”

However, forfeiting the rest of the season means the team will have to pay the association a $2,100 fine.

Last month, a video uploaded to Snapchat showed a boy from the Fort McMurray Midget A Junior Oil Barons banging a hockey stick against the lid of a garbage can like a drum. As music from the Indigenous electronic group A Tribe Called Red plays, two other players can be seen dancing while the rest of the team shouts and laughs.

The locker-room incident went viral after it was uploaded to Facebook. The social media backlash that followed saw commenters accusing the boys of mocking Indigenous culture. Many comments included hopes the boys would die in a traffic accident, specifically mentioning the Humboldt Broncos’ team bus crash.

As it turned out, the boys involved are Indigenous, with at least one player a member of the Fort McKay Métis.

“We could not guarantee the safety of our players, the families and the teams that we were going to play against because of the threats that were made against the team,” said Shane Kearney, a parent of one of the players on the team.

Following the release of the video, the association released a statement saying the behaviour was “wrong and will not be tolerated.”

“We are sick to know how many people this hurts and offends and for that we sincerely apologize on their behalf,” the association’s statement read.

Two days later, a statement from lawyer Dwayne Roth, who is also the CEO of the McKay Métis Group, said the teens are Indigenous and said the dance was intended to be motivational.

The apology was later pulled from the association’s website and social media accounts.

The statement from the parents blames the response of the association for mismanaging the incident. The group says leadership of the association never met the parents or team staff members before posting an apology, which they say gave the video further exposure online. It also says police were called to one of the player’s schools after the association’s response was posted.

A representative from the minor hockey association did not respond to email or phone requests for comment made by Postmedia by deadline.

“They are out there to protect all the kids that are in minor hockey ... we don’t feel that they protected these 17 kids with what went on,” said Kearney. “We feel that the people that were in place, the executives, need to take responsibility for what they did and own up to it and make sure that this doesn’t happen again.”

Roxanne Janes, another parent of a player on the team, said the parents have reached out to the association on two separate occasions with no response.

“Minor hockey itself has been amazing for our kids. It’s taught them so many life skills from being a team member to hard work to leadership,” said Janes. “For me it’s not minor hockey that’s the problem, it’s the leadership and the error that resulted ... something like this can’t happen.”

The team has decided to participate in provincial playdowns as an alternative, with parents hoping to “end the season on a positive note.”

“Unfortunately what ends up happening is a lot of these kids quit playing the game that they love because of the decision of adults that are put in place to protect these kids,” said Kearney.