Readers who are hockey fans may already know this cautionary tale, seeing as a Youtube video of the altercation at a Canadian PeeWee hockey league game last summer has received over 2 million hits. The upshot was that one of the coaches "lost it," deliberately tripping and consequently injuring a 13-year old player during the post-game handshakes. But you probably haven't seen the outcome of the criminal case, which was just issued on Feb. 26. From the opinion's description of the facts:
[2] At the time of the assault on June 23, 2012, K.S. was 13 years old and M.P. was 10 years old. They were both members of the Richmond Steel hockey team. The Accused was the coach of the UBC Hornets hockey team of which his son was a member. Both teams play in what is called a “Pee Wee” hockey league consisting of children aged 9 to 13 years. The incident occurred at the end of the final game of the spring hockey season – the Gold Medal championship game - won by the UBC Hornets by a score of 5 - 4.
[3] The game was the final game of a five game series. Each game had been rough and “chippy”. Both coaches, instead of acting as a calming influence, stoked the bad feeling between the teams by yelling at opposing players and at each other. The game was refereed by two 14 year old girls, one of whom – according to submissions from the Accused’s Counsel - broke down in tears during game 3, after being lambasted by the Richmond coach.
[4] The Accused was yelling at K.S. whenever he was on the ice, for the entire game, right from the start. According to a parent of a player on his UBC Hornets team, the Accused was deliberately taunting K.S., calling him names like “twinkle-toes”, ridiculing him when he didn’t score and telling him that he was a poor skater. When that parent tried to tell the Accused that those actions were not needed, the Accused replied that he was just trying to throw K.S. off of his game.
[5] Parents of players from the Richmond team noted that K.S. broke down in tears on the bench as a result of the Accused’s taunting. The Richmond coach held K.S. back from playing while he was crying, with the result that he was not on the ice as much as he would have been otherwise. The parent said it was upsetting to see K.S. crying on the bench.
[6] At one point in the game, K.S. scored and celebrated as he skated by the UBC bench. The Accused yelled at K.S. and K.S. made an obscene gesture by giving the Accused “the finger”.
[7] UBC, the Accused’s team, won the game 5 - 4. At the end of the game, the teams lined up on the ice for the traditional hand-shake. All the players touched or shook hands but the Accused, who was near the end of the line, strode purposefully towards K.S.. Instead of shaking hands with him, he stuck out his right foot to trip K.S. The Accused ended up tripping not only K.S. but also M.P. who was directly in front of K.S., causing both of them to fall to the ice. K.S. injured his wrist as a result of his fall. A cast was put on as a precaution which remained on his wrist for some time into the summer, but ultimately X-rays showed that there was no fracture.
[8] K.S. got up and swung his stick at the Accused hitting him on the arm. A Richmond coach approached the Accused but was held back by one of the other coaches. People in the stands then started yelling and throwing water bottles onto the ice and the Accused gave “the finger” to them.
[9] Back in the dressing room after the game, the Accused asked for everyone’s attention and told the team that he had deliberately tripped K.S. and knew he should not have done that.
[10] The incident was captured on video by various parents and was posted on Youtube where it has had over 2 million “hits”. One video of the incident was copied by Crown, played in Court and filed as an exhibit in the sentencing.
This opinion includes this lecture, which presumably will reverberate across the PeeWee hockey world:
The incident occurred during the hand-shake ritual that traditionally follows a play-off or championship hockey series. This is a time when, no matter how hard-fought the game, no matter what level of hostility may have been displayed in the heat of the moment, or how tempers may have flared while playing, all participants put all of that aside in the spirit of good sportsmanship to shake hands and to acknowledge the mutual respect that each is due. It is a time when all participants take a deep breath and appreciate that – notwithstanding the emotional commitment each had to achieving victory –win or lose, this was just a game. This was the last place anyone would have expected an assault to take place, and the very last place that one would have expected an adult to assault a child.
The sentence, in summary, was 15 days' weekend imprisonment, 12 months probation, no contact with the victims, and a prohibition on seeking or obtaining any employment or volunteer work that involves being in a position of trust or authority or supervision towards persons under the age of fourteen years.
HT: Slaw
