More on Neepawa

More news on the Neepawa Natives hazing incident this morning...

First, the assistant coach who was reportedly in the dressing room during the hazing quit his position with the team last night. I think this is a positive move, because having him around the seven players he failed to stand up for is not a good move for anyone. I question though why the team itself didn't dismiss him immediately after the league issued its report on the incident.

Second, the team says the player who lodged the complaint will be traded to another MJHL team, at his request. The team and the league are working on facilitating the move as quickly as possible, which indeed is probably the best thing for all parties involved.

Third, in the same article, a University of Manitoba law professor gives a good analysis of whether or not what happened was the criminal offence of sexual assault. I know my first reaction upon hearing what was inflicted upon these players was "how is this NOT sexual assault?", and I'm sure many others asked the same question. Because then you really have to ask yourself whether a 1 - 5 game suspension from the MJHL is adequate punishment for something which gets other people 1 - 5 years in the slammer. But the professor points out that the players involved may have "consented" to what was done to them by not refusing to take part.

In any case, the police are investigating and I sincerely hope that if they feel they can make a case against any of the players involved, that they do lay charges. Having some offenders sent to jail for this stuff would send a very powerful warning against this kind of behavior happening again in the future somewhere.

And lastly, but definitely not least, it seems the local Neepawa community is sticking up for the victims - starting with the local radio station announcing that it will refuse to carry advertising for the team AND refuse to even mention the team on its airwaves until the team publicly apologizes to the victimized players and dismisses the two involved coaches. Obviously one of the coaches has already quit, so that second request is halfway completed.

The news in that last paragraph is awesome to hear, because IMO the actions of the team do not show they are taking this incident seriously enough. Making the victim apologize to the team for lodging a complaint??? Not dismissing the assistant coach ASAP??? Why are the ringleaders of the hazing still on the team, are these the kind of people the team wants representing them??? So many questions about how the team has handled this, so it's nice to see the community - essentially the team's own supporters - are going to help hold people accountable.

And one more note - I would be remiss if I didn't give credit to Neate Sager's blog for all the links to the articles I linked above.....he has some good analysis of the whole incident there on his blog if you want to pop over and read it.

UPDATE: the MJHL announced this morning that they are re-opening their investigation into the incident, due to "several players recanting their earlier testimony". We'll see what comes of this....