Mayor David Miller on Wednesday waded into a skirmish over gender equality at city hockey rinks, but may soon find himself at the centre of an all-out brawl over how to accommodate the evolution of Canada’s national game into a sport enjoyed by both sexes.
In a bid to stand up for the growing legion of girls vying to play hockey on city-owned ice pads, Mr. Miller said on CBC Radio that men and some boys teams might have to give up some coveted rink time.
But the Mayor’s assertion that players in recreational girls leagues are a priority for the city above competitive boys in the Greater Toronto Hockey League — a youth organization that has developed such talent as Eric Lindros and Jason Spezza — had its president vowing a fight.
“They’re going to kick little boys out, too. I think that’s unconscionable,” said John Gardner, president of the GTHL, with 40,000 recreational and competitive players between the ages of 5 and 19 in the Greater Toronto Area.
“I don’t want to declare open warfare on anybody at this stage of the game, but if they start kicking little boys out of arenas so they can’t play hockey, then I am definitely going to be a problem for the people behind these decisions.”
Ron Baker, president of the Toronto Leaside Girls Hockey Association, called the reaction symptomatic of the backlash to a long effort to make room for girls in hockey.
“There are arenas in our community that we can’t get into … that are pretty much dominated by the GTHL,” he said. “Yeah, they may move some of their programs around. Do I think we’re going to do serious harm to boys hockey? Not in the least. And to make inflammatory statements to suggest that’s what’s going to happen, I think that’s unfortunate.”
Mr. Miller said he would take action at council to ensure girls get their fair share in accordance with an equity policy, after the Leaside girls mobilized a petition and threatened a human rights complaint over what it says amounts to discrimination by arm’s-length arena management boards.
“The result is discrimination. Whether or not it’s intended is a separate issue,” the Mayor said on air. “The city’s policies are very clear. We have priorities in the allocation of ice time and we have an equity policy. The priorities are for recreation and the equity policy indicates that girls have to have equity with boys.”
Mr. Miller singled out Leaside, North Toronto and Forest Hill arenas for not applying the equity policy as intended.
“The people who sit on those boards tend to represent historic user groups. And with no disrespect to them whatsoever, they tend to support the historic ice allocation and of course we’re going through a huge change,” he told CBC. “Girls are playing hockey in very significant numbers and they need a fair crack at local rinks.”
But the chair of one of those arena management boards called out by the Mayor said the board feels as if it has been blindsided by Mr. Miller’s very public involvement in the case.
Gord Thompson, chair of the board of the North Toronto Arena, claimed the situation has been misconstrued as a case of sex discrimination, and it is not.
“This has been going on for a long time,” he said. “Everybody in Toronto wants ice and there just isn’t enough ice. That’s the fact.”
First of all, he said, the rink near Yonge Street and Eglinton Avenue limits use to children with certain postal codes in order to accommodate the incredible demand from those in the area. He claimed the Leaside league is really from East York, not north Toronto.
Also, he said the North Toronto Hockey Association is undertaking an “ambitious” new girls hockey program.
“Leaside … they just think they’re the only game in town. And they’re not,” he said. “This has hit the fan. We’re not at war with anybody, but they’re at war with us. We’re just doing our best to make a hockey program and a skating program.”
Mr. Thompson also said it recently came to light that a person involved with the Leaside girls league works in Mr. Miller’s office and questioned whether a conflict might exist.
Stuart Green, a spokesman for the Mayor, confirmed a staff member in Mr. Miller’s office does have ties to the team, but denies any conflict of interest.
“There is no conflict,” he said, without naming the individual. “The issue is the policy they are not following.”
Mr. Baker, president of the Leaside girls association, with 900 players and growing, said the real conflict is with the entrenched interests and traditional allegiances that are shutting out girls hockey.
In a letter to parents and a petition it has prepared for city council, the response from some of the arena boards has ranged from “We must honour our traditional users” to “Why would girls want to play hockey?” (a quote he attributed to a city councillor).
“Our players have the right to play hockey in their local community arenas. This right is largely being denied. As a result we play at widely scattered arenas and at much higher cost,” Mr. Baker wrote. “We only want the same consideration given to other house-league programs.”
Mr. Gardner at the GTHL bristled at the talk about gender discrimination and human rights complaints in hockey, pointing out girls are allowed to play in boys leagues, though not vice versa.
But he insisted the real problem is not boys against girls, it’s a shortage of ice time in Toronto.
“Here you have Toronto, the largest city in the country … they haven’t built a municipal arena in 30 years. That to me is a sad, sad situation. I’m not going to say it’s morally criminal but it’s a sad situation that they would let the thing go to this extent,” he said. “The city couldn’t be happier right now because they’ve got the girls fighting with the boys for ice. What should be happening is that the boys and the girls groups should be getting together and moving against the very people that are responsible for the shortage of ice, which is the city.”
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