Minor hockey exec says players don't sign up to be charged with assault

The executive director of a southwestern Ontario minor hockey association says there's more than one victim when a player is assaulted on the ice.

"I think there's the victim who was assaulted and then there's the victim who was charged. And I say that because it is minor sport, and I think that that player, they certainly didn't sign up to play minor sports thinking that they would ever get charged with assault," said Tony Martindale, executive director of the Minor Hockey Alliance of Ontario.

In 2013, a player in a league under the alliance's jurisdiction was criminally charged with assault for an incident during a game in Woodstock, Ont.

That player was found guilty and sentenced to 60 hours of community service.

In late January, an Ottawa teen was charged with assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm after a game in November 2015.

'We need to educate our participants'

Martindale said hockey players need to be better informed about the possible consequences of their actions, and that the culture of the game needs to change.

"I think part of what we need to do ... is we need to educate our participants that this could happen — that you need to play the game safe, you need to respect the opponent, all those things," he said.

"There needs to be a deterrent and it needs to be a length of suspension. There also needs to be education and we need to change the culture of our game. And we're slowly doing that, it's something that's not going to happen overnight."

Martindale also said parents should consider going back to their local hockey associations if they feel a suspension or other association-imposed sanction isn't strong enough.

"What I'd like to see, ... prior to it getting to the courts, is, if a complaint is lodged that that's not severe enough, we could deal with it from a hockey standpoint with the discipline committees," he said.