Waterloo region organization aiding Hockey Canada with sexual assault training workshop
Hockey Canada has turned to the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region (SASCWR) for help in training its athletes and staff to end sexual violence.
The move comes following revelations of how Hockey Canada has handled allegations of sexual violence involving players.
“There’s a huge need for these conversations to happen,” said Jacob Pries, project facilitator of male allies program with SASCWR. “Giving guys the tools to understand their role in preventing sexual violence… how they can call out their teammates or coaches.”
The two-hour training program comes with the goal of ending sexual violence in sports culture.
Hockey Canada reached out to SASCWR in June to provide mandatory training for all of its players and staff; one part of Hockey Canada’s commitment to address challenges facing the organization and sport, as laid out it in its Action Plan meant to address toxic behaviour on and off the ice.
Pries said they’ve been working with Calgary Communities Against Sexual Abuse to offer “leading by example” workshops to Hockey Canada over the summer.
They’ve had 19 sessions so far with about 380 athletes, including those part of the national junior hockey team ahead of the world championship set to start in Edmonton this week.
“[It’s] doing things like making jokes about rape in the locker room how that helps normalize sexual violence, and why it’s important to call that out,” said Pries.
It’s not the first time the support centre has worked with sports organizations. They’ve been educating athletes through their male allies program and the Ontario Hockey League onside program for years.
“We know a lot of the players haven’t had a lot of conversations about consent or how they can be leaders in their community to prevent sexual violence, so I think they’re looking for more conversations about these things,” said Pries.
Pries says while this training is a powerful tool there is still more that needs to be done.
“In the short term it’s a good first step, but again, the stuff we’re covering with the athletes is very much the introduction. There’s so much more we need to unpack with players,” said Pries.
He said everyone has a responsibility to be allies in the work to end sexual violence.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.