A junior hockey commentator has been relieved of his duties following an abhorrent on-air remark he made final Sunday.
The announcer, whose title has not been revealed, had been commentating a sport on the Junior B degree within the Nova Scotia Junior Hockey League between the Eskasoni Junior Eagles — a staff owned and operated by First Nation Chief Leroy Denny — and the Pictou County Scotians.
Down 2-0 within the third, the Junior Eagles got here screaming again to tie the sport, thanks partly to the Scotians taking seven penalties to Eskasoni’s one. That parade to the penalty field, self-inflicted as it might have been, prompted the unnamed broadcaster to say “I’m wondering if [the referee] has a band card.”
The xenophobic remark, which questioned if the official was Indigenous and unfairly serving to the Eskasoni staff, earned swift and vocal criticism, prompting an inner investigation and the announcer’s eventual dismissal by the Scotians.
Notably, whereas the Eskasoni Junior Eagles are owned by the aforementioned Leroy Denny, the staff consists of a mixture of Indigenous and non-Indigenous gamers and coaches, in response to a report from the CBC.
Denny additionally spoke at additional size concerning the incident, calling the feedback stunning.
“(I am) discouraged and saddened that occurred as a result of there’s actually no place for this in hockey,” he instructed CBC. “As our staff, we at all times push inclusiveness on a regular basis.”
The incident is only one in a listing of latest occasions that has raised questions surrounding hockey’s push to be extra inclusive, and whether or not or not sufficient is being finished. Alongside the broadly publicized incidents involving Ivan Provorov and the New York Rangers concerning their respective membership’s Delight nights, there was additionally the case of Jagger Joshua this previous November and the alleged racial epithet directed at him.
Regardless of the discouraging feedback, Denny, whose Eskasoni membership received the sport in a shootout, maintained that his staff would not let the distraction get in the way in which of their season.
“We’re simply going to proceed and transfer ahead and hope sooner or later that all these issues do not occur once more.”
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