No decision yet whether Vancouver Canucks will don Pride jerseys
No decision yet whether Vancouver Canucks will don Pride jerseys
Several NHL teams and players are refusing to wear Pride jerseys, prompting questions about what the Vancouver Canucks will be sporting at an upcoming game.
Not donning the rainbow-coloured jerseys would be seen as a real setback for many people who love the game.
Brennan Roy-Bertin, a hockey player with The Cutting Edges Hockey Club, an inclusive hockey league with dozens of members from the LGBTQ2S+ community, said he stopped playing minor hockey in Grade 9 due to a discriminatory environment.
“Being in the dressing room or even being on the ice, there was a lot of homophobic slurs going around,” he said. “No one wants to be part of that.”
In the last few weeks, players like San Jose Sharks goalie James Reimer and brother Eric and Marc Staal from the Florida Panthers have refused to wear the Pride jersey, citing religious reasons. Roy-Bertin said he used to look up to the Staals.
“I grew up watching the Staals, they were great hockey players. I idolized them, so for them to say something like that, it’s a little disheartening. To me, it's a step back,” he told CTV News.
On Twitter, Luke Prokop, an openly gay professional hockey player with the Seattle Thunderbirds, said he shares the disappointment, “in what feels like a step back for inclusion in the NHL.”
The Chicago Blackhawks also opted for its team not to wear the jerseys, referring to an anti-gay Kremlin propaganda law they say could jeapordize the safety of some of their Russian players.
Florian Gassner, a professor at The University of British Columbia who specializes in Central and Eastern European cultural history, said the Blackhawks’ reasoning holds some merit.
“This is not just something about the morality police, this has geopolitical implications, which is probably why teams like the Blackhawks are so careful to tread lightly in this environment,” he said. “Therefore, you could also say that it’s basically the Blackhawks or the NHL just protecting their brand, because otherwise they could become subject to censorship in Russia.”
The Vancouver Canucks also have Russian players on their team: Vasily Podkolzin, Andrei Kuzmenko and Vitali Kravtsov.
In a statement to CTV News, the team said it will be releasing more information closer to game night and that it has “a long and proud history of hosting pride events.”
They team has donned Pride jerseys since 2017, and many fans hope they’ll continue the tradition.
"It’s so much more than that. It’s really their ability to bring the community together for a game and show the support from the Vancouver Canucks, the NHL and the community at large in Vancouver,” Roy-Bertin said.
Canada's special rapporteur on foreign interference David Johnston calls the allegations swirling around his objectivity 'quite simply false,' and said Tuesday he plans to push ahead with his work, launching public hearings next month
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should see to it that mass murderers serve their entire sentences in maximum-security prison.
The number of interactions between killer whales and humans has increased alarmingly in recent years. CTVNews.ca asked an expert to explain the reasons behind the increase in interactions, explore the types of encounters, and examine the implications for both humans and killer whales.
The PGA Tour ended its expensive fight with Saudi Arabia's golf venture and now is joining forces with it, making a stunning announcement Tuesday of a merger that creates a commercial operation with the Public Investment Fund and the European tour.
While the Liberals insist a Pacific Rim trade bloc should welcome anyone who meets its standards, an internal document suggests Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wants China kept out.
The federal government has given an updated deal to a public-service union that signed its collective agreement in the fall in order to match deals reached with the Public Service Alliance of Canada during a strike this spring.
Prince Harry entered a courtroom witness box Tuesday, swearing to tell the truth in testimony against a tabloid publisher he accuses of phone hacking and other unlawful snooping.
Canada's emergency preparedness minister says images of wildfires burning across the country are some of the most severe ever witnessed in Canada and the current forecast for the next few months indicates the potential for continued higher-than-normal fire activity.
Many Canadian parents are stretching themselves thin — even going as far as to postpone their retirement in some cases — in order to help pay for their children’s education, according to a new survey.
The province is revealing its housing cards, as 37 more municipalities have been identified as the next group that will be required to create housing targets in their communities to help combat the ongoing housing shortfall.
A wildfire that has been burning out of control on Vancouver Island since Sunday morning is now estimated to cover approximately 20 hectares of dense forest near Port Alberni.
Calgary-based Cenovus Energy says it has safely restarted a portion of its production that was shut down because of the threat of wildfires in northern and central Alberta.
Innisfail RCMP say an officer was attacked by the driver and passenger of a truck they'd stopped on suspicion of impaired driving on Saturday, but the accused's lawyer has a different story of the encounter.
Police in Australia are investigating the suspicious death of a woman who used to live in Surrey, BC, after her body was found in her apartment on the outskirts of Sydney.
Mounties in the town of McLennan, Alta. are hoping members of the public can help them identify two men who tried to steal a bank machine from the local ATB Financial.
Mounties in Peace River Alta. are asking residents to check their "businesses, homes, sheds and outbuildings" for any sign of 13-year-old Rocky Conrad Cardinal.
The actions of the teen who repeatedly slashed a North York massage parlour receptionist, killing her and injuring her manager, were an act of terrorism, an Ontario Supreme Court Justice found Monday in a 'historical' decision in Canada.
A grieving widow whose husband was run over and killed by a speeding OPP officer can't believe the force told her it won't hold a public hearing into the case because it decided the misconduct was 'not serious.'
One Quebec city that had been threatened by approaching wildfires has lifted an evacuation order, but other parts of the province continue to deal with out-of-control blazes that are taxing firefighting resources.
A 53-year-old man was shot and killed in the Montreal suburb of Dorval on Monday afternoon. A source told CTV News that the victim is Francesco Del Balso, who has links to Montreal's Mafia.
Investigators out of the Quebec police organized crime task force was in Kanesatake and St. Jerome on Tuesday conducting raids and interviewing potential suspects.
A Ukrainian woman who now lives in Winnipeg is hoping one day she will be able to bring her husband's remains to her new home, a place he hoped one day he too would be able to call home.
While Saskatoon Tribal Council (STC) publicly mulled moving its downtown emergency shelter to a location on 20th Street near the city's core, city documents reveal the wellness centre's present Fairhaven area location was heavily favoured early in the process.
Canada's emergency preparedness minister says images of wildfires burning across the country are some of the most severe ever witnessed in Canada and the current forecast for the next few months indicates the potential for continued higher-than-normal fire activity.
It’s been 79 years since the war effort known as ‘D-Day,’ which eventually led to the liberation of western Europe during World War II. The day was marked with a service in Normandy with the Royal Regina Rifles on hand.
Hammonds Plains Road reopened to traffic early Tuesday morning more than week after wildfires began in the Halifax area. Officials say the fires in the area are contained, though crews continue to deal with hot spots and flare ups.
Canada's emergency preparedness minister says images of wildfires burning across the country are some of the most severe ever witnessed in Canada and the current forecast for the next few months indicates the potential for continued higher-than-normal fire activity.
Marking the two year anniversary of the alleged terror attack that took the lives of four members of the same family, the board has announced an Anti-Islamophobia Strategy.
On this day in 2021, four out of five members of a London, Ont. family were killed while they were out for a walk and struck by a vehicle, in an apparently deliberate attack.
An investigation is underway after a crash between a car and a transport truck on Tuesday morning. It happened around 9 a.m. on Highbury Avenue near Ron McNeil Line, north of St. Thomas.
While firefighters get more forest fires under control in northern Ontario, travel restrictions declared under an emergency order are being expanded in several communities.
A 13-year-old male from Elliot Lake in northern Ontario has been charged with sexual assault again, bringing the total to 10, after another survivor came forward.
A grieving widow whose husband was run over and killed by a speeding OPP officer can't believe the force told her it won't hold a public hearing into the case because it decided the misconduct was 'not serious.'
