An Interview with Tracie Leost: Player, coach, activist

Tracie Léost is one of Canada’s burgeoning activists. In 2015, at the age of 16, she ran 115 km in four days to raise funds and awareness about the plight of missing and murdered Indigenous women. As a track athlete who has won three bronze medals under the Métis flag at the North American Indigenous…

Indigenous hockey firsts?: Who counts and who doesn’t

Hockey Canada recently announced the women’s roster that will be playing at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics. On that roster is Brigette Lacquette, a Cote First Nations woman from Mallard, Manitoba. When Lacquette was included on this year’s roster numerous outlets such as Color of Hockey, Sportsnet, and the CBC all tweeted articles touting Lacquette…

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…

Things We Don’t Talk About: Residential Schools and hockey

Indian Residential Schools are a dark part of Canada’s history; it is a fact that we would probably prefer be swept under the rug.  The history of American slavery continues to be part of everyday vernacular (whether popular or not), yet residential schools and Canadian settlement really aren’t talked about. It wasn’t something that I learned about…