Minor hockey team forced to cancel season over death threats.

Unbelievable.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 5 years ago
Minor hockey team forced to cancel season over death threats.
Andreas L Eriksson/Bildbyran/Zuma

I make it a point to usually avoid sharing my opinion too much in the stories I cover as I think it's very important, especially in this current day and age of media, to deliver the facts in as neutral and unbiased a way as possible. That being said I want it to be clear that I am incapable of remaining neutral in the face of such an absolutely outrageous story. 

According to a report from The Globe and Mail a minor hockey team in Canada has reportedly been forced to forfeit it's entire season due to the fact that their parents now fear for the lives of their children following a serious of insane death threats. What did these children, and make no mistake these young boys aged between 15 and 17 years old are absolutely children, do that was so bad they deserved to have their lives threatened and potentially ruined over? They posted a video of themselves having a little fun in the locker room on social media. 

So what's so bad about the video they posted online? Well in the video the boys are shown dancing to a song called " Electric Pow Wow Drum," a song that is performed by Indigenous electronic music group A Tribe Called Red, and that alone was enough to warrant threats against their lives. The locker room dance was apparently considered by some to be an act of overt racism, although how you could possibly interpret that kind of malice from such a short and harmless video is beyond me, and the persecution of the boys in the video began almost immediately after it was shared on social media. 

A large part of the blame for how bad this situation has gotten falls, in my opinion, on the Fort McMurray Minor Hockey Association (FMMHA) who just 3 hours after the video were quick to disparage the boy. The FMMHA said that the content in the video was "wrong and will not be tolerated," and that additionally "These players will know how deeply impactful their actions are." This by the way is an association run by adults, adults who were so angry over a freaking dance they decided to bring the wrath of social media on the heads of these boys. Never mind the fact that according to the parents of the children impacted by this several of the boys dancing to the song are in fact Indigenous themselves and that additionally the song was meant to be a motivator for the boys ahead of their play, and not in any way a mockery of Indigenous peoples. 

Apparently enjoying an Indigenous song produced by an Indigenous group is now grounds for you to be labeled a racist and have your life put under duress. I for one view anyone who has treated these children in such a manner as absolutely beyond the pale and I hope that you one day find the decency to be ashamed of how you have treated these young kids, but I digress. 

In case you don't understand just how bad things have gotten for these children as a result of this video, this statement from one of the parents should give you a pretty good idea of just how sick some people are. 

“We couldn’t guarantee the safety [from] people in the stands or the players on the ice from the other team,” parent Shane Kearney said on Friday as per the Globe and Mail. “Some of the threats made, it absolutely baffles you about mankind. To say, ‘We hope that the next semi that collides with a bus is your guys’ team’ [a reference to the Humboldt Broncos bus tragedy] – who in their right mind says that to 15-, 16-, 17-year olds? Where in society is that acceptable?”

For the record the FMMHA has since pulled their initial statement on this matter from all social media and from their website, but the damage to these young boys has already been done. Some of the players have resorted to carrying weapons in their automobiles, again we are talking about children aged 15 to 17 here, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police even had to step in and offer to escort the boys to and from their games before their entire season was cancelled. 

Even if you are offended by the video, and I can certainly respect your difference of opinion, I hope we can all agree that in no way shape or form does any of this warrant the serious threats made against the lives of these young men.

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Saw this on Snapchat today and thought how disrespectful this is, first the elder and now this? What’s next..

Posted by Britney Commonda on Monday, January 21, 2019

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