Contributed by Laura Robinson (Toronto-based journalist)
Thank you to journalist Laura Robinson, author of Crossing the Line: Violence and Sexual Assault in Canada’s National Sport, who permitted Minor.Hockey.Life. to reproduce this article, she wrote for Play the Game, 2002.
In her correspondence with MHL, Laura told us of her reasons for writing about this disturbing, but important topic.
It is out of print now, but available on-line second hand many places as it is used in Canadian universities frequently. Unfortunately there are even more cases of abuse and assault now than there were when I wrote the book. Please know it is not just hockey. I raced for many years in cycling and cross-country skiing. Both sports had seemingly endless amounts of coaches and sponsors who believed they could help themselves to teen-age girls and young women. It was my experience as an athlete who had to choreograph movements around these men so I was never alone with them, and my experience of seeing what happened to my friends and fellow competitors who were caught in the coach’s web that made me commit to telling these stories, no matter how difficult.