A couple of random thoughts that didn’t quite grow up to be full-fledged editorials:
• There are people in our province, many of them in the media, who are geographically challenged. Or perhaps this is just a pet peeve being vented because we have the spot to vent.
We do not live in the Pacific Northwest. Time and time again, we hear references to this part of the world — Vancouver, Victoria, Vancouver Island — being part of the Pacific Northwest.
Our Pacific Northwest is Prince Rupert or Haida Gwaii or maybe the Yukon. The Pacific Northwest being cited on radio and TV by the geographically challenged refers to the United States. Seattle and Portland are in their Pacific Northwest.
While on the topic, Toronto is not in Eastern Canada. It is in Central Canada. Halifax and Moncton are in Eastern Canada.
Enough said.
• Imagine a minor hockey game with no spectators
allowed.
The Vancouver Island Minor Hockey Association, fed up with abusive language flying from the stands directed at officials and players, is considering a parent-free weekend for all minor hockey games on the Island.
It’s a drastic move, but it also demonstrates how serious the powers that be in minor hockey consider this problem.
For most sane people, it’s difficult to imagine a man in his 30s or 40s or older yelling profanities at a 13 or 14 year-old official. Unfortunately, it happens in hockey rinks all over this country, probably every weekend of the season.
The downside to this drastic measure? The vast majority of parents, grandparents and friends who attend the games of the young people do not engage in this kind of inexcusable behaviour, and they will be punished because of the acts of the idiot few.
We applaud the Vancouver Island Minor Hockey Association for floating this idea. They haven’t said it will happen for sure, but it’s out there now and undoubtedly a topic of discussion at the rinks.
We want to believe Oceanside Minor Hockey Association parents are a well-behaved lot, but there are always a few bad apples around to spoil it for the rest. If the spectator-free dictum is employed, we’re willing to wager these bad apples will be twitching and screaming anyway from the lobby.
— Editorial by John Harding
