2 members of Hockey P.E.I. committee resign, further delaying Mark Connors case

Two people recently recruited to help investigate allegations of racist incidents involving Hockey P.E.I. have resigned.

Liberal MLA Gord McNeilly told a legislative committee Wednesday that both people are members of the BIPOC community, and were members of Hockey P.E.I.'s discipline and ethics committee until their resignation.

McNeilly told thestanding committee on health and social services that he attended a meeting late last year when the members in question first joined the committee.

"I was part of a meeting early on in December and there was a good vibe," said McNeilly. "Then things kind of changed there was no mention of using people from the marginalized communities to become a disciplinary committee as such and I just wanted to ask on the record what and when that changed."

Resignations will cause further delays

Connor Cameron, executive director of Hockey P.E.I., said the resignations have added to delays in the already long-awaited disciplinary ruling on the Mark Connors racism case.

National attention has been focused on racism in the hockey community in P.E.I.

Connors, a Black goalie from Halifax, said teens in the stands subjected him to repeated racistslurs and tauntsat a tournament in Charlottetown last November.

In December, Hockey P.E.I. suspended a player for using an anti-Asian slur, butthe entirediscipline and ethics committee resigned after intense criticism that the penalty was too lenient.

Hockey P.E.I. recruited people for a new five-member committee to address the Connors case, two of whom have now resigned.

Cameron told the legislative committee he did not know why the two people resigned.

"I got conflicting reports," Cameron said. "They told the chair one issue and they told me a different issue. So I'm not sure and I don't feel comfortable to talk about that because I don't feel as though it's fair to those two members that dropped out."

McNeilly suggested thatthe two people saw no other choice.

"Hockey P.E.I. was potentially putting them in a situation that they had to make a ruling on something that could come back and be detrimental to them as a community, the marginalized community," he said.

"What I'm saying to you is that when you bring marginalized people to the centre, everyone benefits. When you use marginalized people to solve a problem, that hurts everybody."

'Boots on the ground' to address racism

Cameron told the committeethat Hockey P.E.I. isputting "boots on the ground" to tackle racism.

"We're currently in the listening phase," he said. "We do have groups and people and organizations identified that we're going to [partner] with people that are going to provide training."

Cameron said the vast majority of hockey players in P.E.I.are under the age of 13.The organization is run by 3,000 volunteers province-wide, including coaches, trainers and local organizing bodies.

McNeilly urged Hockey P.E.I. to listen to young hockey players in its search for "opportunities" to benefit Islanders.

"I want to look at it as a huge opportunity to move Prince Edward Island forward," said McNeilly. "And right now Hockey P.E.I. is at the centre of that."