Hypocrisy in Kamloops minor hockey?

From The Daily News of Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2008 . . . .

If you visit dictionary.com — that’s what you do these days rather than hauling a big, old book down off a bookshelf, blowing away the dust and flipping through its pages — and type “hypocrite” into the search box, this is what you get:
“A person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess, esp. a person whose actions belie stated beliefs.”
Meet the Kamloops Minor Hockey Association, the B.C. Amateur Hockey Association (aka B.C. Hockey) and Hockey Canada.
When you consider what occurred in our city on Oct. 20 and the ensuing lack of action from the three bodies who control minor hockey in our city, province and country, well, the people empowered to run those organizations are nothing but a bunch of hypocrites.
To refresh your memory, in case it still is foggy from the Christmas break, one of Kamloops’ best-known minor hockey teams — the midget AAA North Kamloops Lions — held a team party in the home of KMHA president Stan Burton on the night of Oct. 20. Burton, whose son plays on that team, was aware that a party was to be held.
During that party, the youngest player on the team was forced to drink hard liquor. He ended up in hospital where he was treated for alcohol poisoning.
At the time, his father was out of town and the young player was in the care of family friends Monica and Ladd Maloski. Were it not for Monica’s actions, in fact, the player in question may have died. It was Monica who went to the Burton residence that night and got the drunken player and took him home. She soon realized how ill he was — it didn’t take much, what with his uncontrollable vomiting and near-comatose state — and, after calling a friend who is an RN, chose to get him to hospital.
KMHA vice-president Jason Perris, who also chairs the association’s discipline committee, was apprised of the situation that night. He chose to conduct an internal investigation that included questioning players at a practice the next day. On Oct. 23, the KMHA issued a statement indicating that the party in question wasn’t a KMHA-sanctioned event, therefore no disciplinary action would be taken against anyone.
Except that Ladd Maloski saw through the KMHA’s charade and chose to involve the media. After which the KMHA’s disciplinary committee whacked Maloski with a one-year suspension for being a whistleblower.
Maloski, with the help of a lawyer, is appealing that decision, although a date for a hearing hasn’t yet been set.
To date, no one else has felt the wrath of the KMHA over this incident.
In fact, B.C. Hockey, through president Al Berg, has patted the KMHA on the back and said: “Good job. Well done.” He could have added: “That’s the way to keep the peasants in line.”
Hockey Canada, under president Bob Nicholson, is too busy counting its money to pay attention to something as irrelevant as underage drinking in the home of the minor hockey association president in a community too small to play host to the World Junior Championship.
This is the same Bob Nicholson who, during his president’s report at Hockey Canada’s 2007 annual general meeting in Winnipeg, said: “We talk about why we are in the game. We should be in the game for one reason: for the kids.”
It was during that same Hockey Canada meeting, which, it’s worth noting, was attended by Berg and Barry Petrachenko, B.C. Hockey’s executive director, where members passed an amendment, without discussion, that involved hazing.
Under that amendment the definition of hazing now reads: “Hazing is an initiation practice that may humiliate, demean, degrade or disgrace a person regardless of location or consent of the participants.”
Which brings us to the KMHA . . .
The KMHA, in its policies and procedures, includes this in a section titled Expectations of Executive Members: “An Executive Member of Kamloops Minor Hockey is an Executive Member first, parent and spectator second. . . . Conduct shall be considered to be under scrutiny at all times and therefore above reproach.”
And in a section titled KMHA Membership Code of Conduct, there is this: “KMHA is committed to providing a hockey environment in which all individuals are treated with respect. . . . In particular, behaviour which constitutes harassment or abuse will not be tolerated by KMHA.
“During the course of all KMHA activities and events, members shall avoid behaviour which brings KMHA or the sport of hockey into disrepute, including but not limited to abusive use of alcohol and non-medical use of drugs.”
We could go on and on and on but by now you get the point.
In its Recommended Discipline Guide, the KMHA has a list of first-, second- and third-level offences, third-level being the most serious. That includes a paragraph noting that a third-level offender is “any player while at a KMHA sponsored event (who) is found with drugs and/or alcohol on his/her possession or is under the influence of a drug or alcohol.”
According to KMHA guidelines, the discipline for such offences involves a two-week suspension for a first offence and the remainder of the season for a second offence.
Perhaps now you understand why the KMHA ruled that this party, which included all but three team members, wasn’t a KMHA-sanctioned function.
No sanction. No discipline.
Which, of course, is so much hogwash.
The fact remains that a group of players, all of whom should have signed contracts based on the Fair Play code, were involved with the abuse of alcohol in the home of an executive member who also should have signed one of those agreements and also, because of his position, must be held to a higher standard. The same holds true for any other adults, parents or board members who may have been aware of this party.
It also holds true for members of the KMHA executive, a group whose silence on this issue is deafening and only serves to condone underage drinking.
And let us not forget an advertisement that appeared in The Daily News of Nov. 15, 2006. Included in the ad was this sentence: “Inappropriate behaviour by players, coaches and parents, on and off the ice, will not be tolerated.”
That statement was signed: Stan Burton, KMHA president.
It should be obvious by now that the KMHA executive is of the opinion that it operates with impunity, that it feels it is free to do what it wants, when it wants, however it wants, to whomever it wants . . . and too bad for you. If you don’t believe that, well, just ask the Maloskis.
It is worth noting, too, that while all of this has been transpiring, someone has been keeping the fifth estate, the CBC-TV newsmagazine, up to date on the situation.
Maybe that’s what it will take — the arrival of the national spotlight at the KMHA door — for the KMHA executive to do the right thing and resign.

Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca.