Hockey P.E.I.’s bad call should be a wakeup call

Strong reaction to a recent call by Hockey P.E.I. should put other sporting organizations on notice.

When Hockey P.E.I. recently decided to indefinitely suspend a 20-year-old junior hockey player for violating the organization’s social media policy, even Canadian heavyweights like “Hockey Night in Canada” and k.d. lang weighed in.

Keegan Mitchell’s crime? Calling out Hockey P.E.I. for not being tough enough on a player who had used a racial slur against one of Mitchell’s teammates.

“C’mon. Do better,” k.d. lang tweeted in response.

But let’s go back to the beginning. Hockey P.E.I. has already been criticized for its handling of an incident in November, in which a 16-year-old goalie from Halifax was the target of racial epithets during a P.E.I. tournament.

The Halifax minor hockey organization has withdrawn from any further play in P.E.I.

Hockey P.E.I.’s response after several weeks? It’s still investigating that incident.

So, when Keegan Mitchell heard that racial abuse had been hurled at his teammate by a rival player in a Dec. 17 game, he tried to do the right thing by reporting the incident to his coach and the referee.

He also retaliated by slashing the offending player across the legs, earning himself a two-game suspension.

The offender then apologized to Mitchell’s teammate, and that player accepted the apology but still filed a formal complaint with Hockey P.E.I.

The offender was then suspended for two games.

Not feeling that the offender’s punishment fit the crime, Mitchell took to Facebook this month to vent his frustrations.

“If Hockey P.E.I. took these scenarios as seriously as they say they do, this player would have been suspended appropriately. …A twogame suspension for a racist slur is absolutely disgraceful,” Mitchell wrote, saying it is “making our whole community look racist.”

Hockey P.E.I. says Mitchell violated its social media policy, which prohibits “Any statement deemed to be publicly critical of association officials or detrimental to the welfare of a member of a team, association, league, Hockey P.E.I. or individual.”

Let’s cut to the chase here. Taking to social media to defame a referee whose call you didn’t like or to bad-mouth an opposing player who thwarted your slapshot is one thing.

Being critical of an organization because you feel its anti-racism policies and penalties aren’t robust enough, or fail to protect your teammates from abuse, is something different altogether.

This is not to condone slashing; Mitchell was punished appropriately for that action with a two-game suspension.

The penalty for verbally assaulting another player with racist language has to be tougher than that.

Good sportsmanship demands that sporting organizations lead by example — particularly when governing the play of young people — and set strict policies about acceptable behaviour on the ice (or court or playing field).

There should be zero tolerance for racism.

Suspending Mitchell indefinitely because he stood up for what’s right is not only poor sportsmanship, it sends the wrong message.

Hockey PEI has since revisited the situation, admitting it got it wrong and revoked Mitchell's suspension while increasing the suspension of the offending player to five games. That's a good step, but ought not be the organization's last one when it comes to dealing with racism.