Hanover, Ont., denied chance to start girls hockey; parents ponder human rights case

The highers-up in female hockey can be just as out to lunch and disinterested in the needs of young players as ones overseeing male teams.

Over 30 years, our society has gone from Justine Blainey winning a human rights case to integrate a boys hockey team ... to hockey parents being told by the Ontario Women's Hockey Association that their 10-year-old daughters cannot have a hometown team next season. I guess that's progress, of a very cynical, short-sighted and self-serving kind.

Long story shorter, Hanover, Ont., a community of just fewer than 8,000 people in Central Ontario, set out this fall to ice two atom girls teams next season at what's commonly called the 'house league' level. As the town's minor hockey president, Steve Fitzsimmons, told BTN, the community had "22-25 girls ready to play" with a belief there were a few more "hiding in the weeds" who would be more receptive to taking up hockey if they had a team of their own. About five were already playing in Hanover on coed teams, but most would be first-timers or converts from ringette (the nearest ringette team being an 83-km drive away. Yet the OWHA, in its infinite wisdom, turned Hanover down.

Bizarre.

From Patrick Bales (@patrickbales):

The Sun-Times mentions that one of the girls programs close to Hanover, Arran Elderslie, was never asked by the OWHA for its input. Fitzsimmons also told BTN that no nearby centre informed him it had any objection to Hanover icing a team. He added that about 18 five- and six-year-olds are in a learn to skate program and "their parents are excited about this."

"There's not one player that's even playing for anybody else that would even be impacted by this," Fitzsimmons, who's the TV play-by-play voice of the OHL's Guelph Storm, told Bayshore Broadcasting in a recent interview.

It reeks of a decision made from on high that reinforces a double standard, well then maybe it is. How did we get to "denying players a chance to play in their own hometowns," as Bates put it? The fact that girls and women who play have always been expected to make more sacrifices doesn't justify denying such an opporutnity.

One would think that, instead of it's-better-than-it-was settling, there would be a sensitivity to why it's important for a town such as Hanover to have its own girls team. The physiological distinctions between females and males are one thing, but the social aspect is another that can be lost on people. Greater minds than I have pointed out that, in rural areas, lack of opportunity for girls to play on teams with their classmates and friends still presents a huge barrier to participating. Not to all, necessarily, but some get left out.

That seems to be what the mums and dads in Hanover, Ont., are trying to remedy. Fitzsimmons said that the appeals process, if any, isn't spelled out by the OWHA. He noted the parents "might have to go to the political route ... there is one family that is considering filing a claim with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal."

To reiterative, imagine having to go to a human rights commission to get a governing body for women's hockey — it's right in the name! — to allow your daughter and her friends to have their own team. Only in Canada.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.