Appeals have been launched by 5 minor hockey gamers in Prince Edward Island going through 25-game suspensions for allegedly directing racial slurs towards a Black Nova Scotia goalie.
Mark Connors, a 16-year-old goalie for the Halifax Hawks U18 AA crew, has mentioned a bunch of youngsters directed the feedback at him throughout a recreation in Charlottetown final November.
He mentioned he was repeatedly referred to as the N-word on the rink, and he mentioned he was informed by different teenagers at a lodge that hockey was a white man’s sport.
Wayne Connors, Mark’s father, mentioned in an interview Friday he had acquired an e mail from Hockey PEI indicating the appeals have been continuing. The Canadian Press was capable of evaluation the e-mail.
The governing physique didn’t reply to a request for an interview or for affirmation of the appeals.
The 5 gamers had been suspended indefinitely following the alleged incidents, earlier than the 25-game sanction was handed down in a written determination final month.
Each Mark Connors and his father have beforehand acknowledged they have been happy by the sanction, saying they have been hopeful it might deter racism on the rink.
In a 24-page ruling, a particular self-discipline and ethics committee discovered Connors’s testimony that he had been taunted on the area to be credible. Different witnesses offered testimony supporting his declare.
The Hockey PEI ethics committee famous the proof offered by the 5 gamers was “oblique and restricted” and that they appeared as a bunch. Most didn’t converse immediately with the committee on video, and submissions have been made on their behalf by their dad and mom.
Hockey PEI says a third-party investigator discovered inconclusive proof about racist slurs uttered at Connors on the lodge, citing an absence of witnesses. The 5 suspended gamers weren’t linked to that incident.
Connors has acquired a letter of apology from P.E.I. Premier Dennis King.
