Farewell Hockey Night in Canada
CBC announced they will no longer participate in Rogers Sportsnet’s coverage of the NHL under their renewed 12 year deal. Hockey is no longer a public cultural good.
Farewell the White Settler Imagination of Hometown Hockey
This week, Rogers cancelled Hometown Hockey, a weekly broadcast from a different Canadian “hometown” each week. I will not miss the program’s presentation of Canada as a mythic settler colonial state.
Safe sport without governmental oversight is not safe
The objective of the piece was not to lambaste amateur sport organizations for these shortcomings because, while many amateur sport organizations could and should do more, nothing they can do will actually solve the problem. The only path to safe sport is through a federally-funded, multi-sport system of education, reporting and discipline. Unfortunately, this past week, the CBC reported on a story that highlights why this is necessary.
Book Launch — Changing on the Fly: Hockey through the voices of South Asian Canadians
When I was growing up in Vancouver, there were two groups of people in every hockey dressing room: there were the “White Kids” and the “Brown/Asian Kids”, and there was me. Nobody ever spoke about these groups and yet, they existed. I didn’t have this experience in my neighbourhood or my school and although I…
Hockey Research at the 2018 North American Society for Sport History (NASSH) Conference
In keeping with our effort to highlight academic research on hockey, we are pleased to post details about presentations occurring at the the North American Society for Sport History (NASSH) annual conference, which took place from May 25-28 in Winnipeg, MB. The full 2018 book of abstracts can be viewed here, and you can see…
The Canadian Women’s National Team and the Myth of Small Town Hockey
A Maclean’s Magazine article by Aaron Hutchins asks “What can our big cities learn from Ste. Anne, Man.?” in regards to producing “a women’s hockey juggernaut, brought to you by small cities and towns”. Of the 23 players on the national women’s team, none of them hail from any Canada’s five largest cities, which together…
“The best citizens of our country”: The NHL’s vested interest in Military Appreciation Nights
Each winter, six of the seven Canadian NHL teams* host Armed Forces Appreciation Night, where teams ask season ticket holders to donate tickets to members of the Canadian military. Such events have a relatively recent history, started by Ottawa in 2003 and joined by the other English Canadian teams in 2006. The calls for donations…
Hockey at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival
This year at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), amidst the star-laden Hollywood premieres and films from 74 countries, two (unsurprisingly Canadian) films debuted that use hockey as a lens to examine larger social issues. Indian Horse (directed by Stephen Campanelli): The powerful story from wonderful novel (reviewed by Mark Norman here) reaches the screen largely…
Weekly Links: HHOF 2017 class; Exciting developments for NWHL and CWHL in 2017-18; NCAA expansion?; and more
The Weekly Links post highlights important or interesting writing from the hockey blogosphere and media. The Hockey Hall of Fame announced its 2017 class this week: Danielle Goyette, Teemu Selanne, Dave Andreychuk, Mark Recchi, Paul Kariya will enter as players; Jeremy Jacobs (Boston Bruins owner) and Clare Drake (University of Alberta coach in the CIS/U…
Changing on the Fly: Exploring multiculturalism, citizenship, and hockey
As part of a storytelling contest I put together a three minute video summarizing my doctoral research on South Asian experiences in hockey. While it is impossible to fully explain a project that is four years in the making, I wanted to focus on the tensions that exist between hockey and Canadian multiculturalism. You might…
Hockey in Society / Hockey dans la société 