Maritime Junior Hockey League seeking women for coaching, operations jobs
A junior hockey league on the East Coast wants to create new opportunities for women by hiring up to 10 of them as assistant coaches and scouts for the upcoming season.
The Maritime Junior Hockey League says it will be the first league in Canada to offer such a program. League president Troy Dumville, who has been on the job for only two months, said women do not enjoy the same opportunities as men do when it comes to hockey operations jobs in the junior leagues.
"I think it's important for teams to be more diverse," he said in an interview Tuesday.
"It's an asset to have different opinions and perspectives .... The perception has been for years that it's an old boys' club. I think that it's important that all levels take steps to changing that, not just with women but with diversity in general."
The program will feature monthly guest lectures from influential women, including broadcaster Tara Slone, Hockey Nova Scotia executive director Amy Walsh and Meghan Chayka, co-founder of hockey analytics company Stathletes. These women will serve as mentors to those who get the new jobs, Dumville said.
Slone, former co-host of Rogers Hometown Hockey and an advocate for social change in sport, said hockey in Canada is at a crossroads.
"It's been a very homogeneous group of people running hockey," she said. "Obviously, when it comes to toxic masculinity and misogyny and matters of sexual assault and sexual impropriety, it's just so much easier to have that pack mentality when you don't see anything else but yourself.
"Just having women there, adding their voices and points of view, is going to make a massive difference. But this is just the beginning. Diversity can't just be one flavour."
Slone said she jumped at the chance to help with the MHL's diversity program. "I was blown away when Troy contacted me," she said. "It just takes somebody to say, 'I see that there needs to be some diversity in our leadership. It's not OK that we haven't made space for this.' And Troy did that."
Walsh said the program represents a step toward creating more equitable opportunities for women at the highest levels of the sport. "I believe that representation matters and that when you can see her, you can be her," Walsh said in a statement.
Dumville, who has worked as an NHL scout for several years, said the goals of the program go beyond promoting diversity within his 12-team league.
"The ultimate goal is to move (these women) along so that when teams in the NHL or other high levels of hockey are looking for candidates, they now have a pool of experienced women as well as men for those positions," he said.
The league is looking for women to serve as assistant coaches for New Brunswick's Grand Falls Rapids and Nova Scotia's Pictou County Crushers and Truro Bearcats. It also wants a female development coach for the Fredericton Red Wings and a number of scouts for the Red Wings, Crushers, New Brunswick's Campbellton Tigers and Nova Scotia's Valley Wildcats.
The deadline for applications is Aug. 31.
Dumville said women will get the first crack at applying for the jobs, but "we're not going to force somebody in that's not ready for that type of position," he said.
As well, he said he would like to see the program expanded to all 10 leagues in the Canadian Junior Hockey League. "There's no reason why this can't go national," he said.
Earlier Tuesday, Toronto lawyer Andrea Skinner was appointed interim chair of Hockey Canada's board of directors. She is the first woman to hold the position in the organization's history. She takes over from Michael Brind'Amour, who resigned last week.
Hockey Canada is under the microscope for its handling of sexual assault allegations against members of past junior men's hockey teams. The federal government has frozen its funding until Hockey Canada meets several conditions, including a plan to change the organization's culture.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 9, 2022.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Fluid in eye cells can 'boil' if you watch the eclipse without protection: expert
Millions of people in parts of Eastern and Atlantic Canada will be able to see the rare solar eclipse happening on April 8. But they should only look up if they have proper eye protection, experts say.
He didn't trust police but sought their help anyway. Two days later, he was dead
Jameek Lowery was among more than 330 Black people who died after police stopped them with tactics that aren’t supposed to be deadly, like physical restraint and use of stun guns, The Associated Press found.
CRA no longer requiring 'bare trust' reporting in 2023 tax return
The Canada Revenue Agency announced Thursday it will not require 'bare trust' reporting from Canadians that it introduced for the 2024 tax season, just four days before the April 2 deadline.
Being harassed at work? What to consider when deciding what to do next
If you've been the victim of workplace harassment, it can be difficult to feel you're not alone - and even more difficult to know where to go with a complaint.
Sunshine list: These were the Ontario public sector's highest earners in 2023
Ontario released its annual sunshine list Thursday afternoon, noting that the largest year-over-year increases were in hospitals, municipalities, and post-secondary sectors.
Grandparent scam: London, Ont., senior beats fraudsters not once, but twice
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
Half of Canadians support TikTok ban, with U.S. concerns 'trickling' north: poll
A new poll indicates 51 per cent of Canadians support banning the social media app TikTok, after a U.S. bill aiming to do just that passed in the House of Representatives.
Where is the worst place for allergy sufferers in Canada?
The spring allergy season has started early in many parts of Canada, with high levels of pollen in some cities already. Experts weigh in on which areas have it worse so far this season.
More unauthorized products for skin, sexual enhancement, recalled: Here are the recalls of this week
Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency recalled various items this week, including torches, beef biltong and unauthorized products related to skin care and sexual enhancement.