A young hockey player says he faced racist comments from the other team during a game between his Cape Breton West Islanders and the Northside Vikings Sunday.
Logan Prosper says he wants to bring attention to this kind of behaviour.
Prosper tells The Hawk the incident happened midway through the second period.
“There was a scrum in front of the net,” he says. “I moved someone, and he was like: ‘Hey you, native. You guys look like turds in a helmet.'”
Prosper says the comments escalated through the third period.
He says parents from the other team called for him to be removed.
“Starting to yell at me, they were like: ‘He’s one of them, he’s one of them; just kick him out of the game,'” he says. “They’re telling their own kids: ‘Don’t bother with him, he’s just one of them,’ and that hurt me.”
Prosper says he reported the other player’s comments to the referee, but the referee said he couldn’t do anything because he hadn’t heard them.
In a release, Hockey Nova Scotia says that, in response to this event and other incidents, they’re creating the Hockey Nova Scotia Diversity and Inclusion Task Force.
They say the group will help inform policies and procedures to ensure the rink is safe and welcoming for everyone.
Group members are:
-Kendrick Douglas
Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission, Senior Counsel
-Levi Denny
Team Mi’kmaw Nova Scotia, Chef de Mission
-Dean Smith
Hockey Nova Scotia Black Youth Ice Hockey Program, Program Lead
-Crystal Watson
Recreation Nova Scotia, Executive Director
-Steven Googoo
Waycobah First Nation, Band Councillor
-Chuck Dauphinee
Halifax Mussels, Team Founder
