You Did Wrong, PEI

There's an expectation that hockey authorities in provinces will not only do the right thing, but set clear rules with examples of rules that simply cannot be broken for any reason. While we've seen most hockey governing bodies achieve these very attainable goals, there's always a moment where the governing bodies drop the ball and need to be called out. Hockey PEI is under the microscope today because they had a very easy ruling to make on an incident seen in a game under their purview, but they went ahead and not only messed up a very elementary decision, but doubled-down by punishing a player who called them out for their poor decision. Let me state this very clearly for the record before we go further: I am 100% on "Team Keegan" in this story.

According to reports, junior hockey player Keegan Mitchell, a 20 year-old playing in the Island Junior Hockey League with the Sherwood Metros, received a letter on Thursday from Hockey PEI that informed him that he is suspended indefinitely after he took to social media and publicly criticized officials and Hockey PEI while referencing to a player on the rival Kensington Vipers. This apparently violates the league's social media policy which I can understand, but there's more to this story than a bad call.

Mitchell claims that a player on the Vipers made an anti-Asian comment toward one of Mitchell's teammates during a December 17 game in the Junior-B league, and that he was suspended two games for a slash to the legs of the player that made the comment later in the game. The suspension was upheld by the league, and Mitchell served the two games.

Mitchell, though, was bothered that the player from the Vipers received the same suspension as he did for what he said - a two-game suspension - so he went to Facebook on January 5 where he blasted the officials and the league for imposing what he feels is a punishment not worthy of the crime. It should be noted that "Mitchell said he was not comfortable revealing what was said by the other player," but he is appealing this indefinite suspension where I'm sure whatever said will be discussed at length.

If Hockey PEI doesn't like players violating its social media policy or critizing officials, perhaps it should be willing to look a little deeper into a problem than assigning the same penalty for slashing to a racist comment. Because they suspended the Vipers' player who was involved, they're clearly admitting that a racist comment was made, so on what planet are slashing and racism on the same plane?

I stand with Keenan Mitchell in this one when he says, "I'm not just going to let this go. If I don't ever play hockey again, that's fine by me, because I'm going to fight this until it's right" because we should be celebrating Keenan's efforts in not only looking out for his teammate, but looking out for hockey in general by making the game better by curbing racism. He's willing to scarifice his career - a season that sees him with seven goals and six assists in 11 games, might I add - to right a serious wrong. That's the kind of sacrifice we rarely see these days, so count me as standing alongside Keegan Mitchell.

Mike Hammill, the chair of Hockey PEI's discipline and ethics committee, needs to give his head a serious shake in this case. A two-game suspension for racism is not the same as a two-game suspension for slashing, and I really have questions about Hammill's ethics, defined as "moral principles that govern a person's behavior", when it comes to handing Keegan Mitchell an indefinite suspension for criticizing the league while allowing the Vipers' player who uttered the alleged racist statement to continue on with his career.

Think about what kind of person and league you'd have to be to suspend the guy who is asking for the league to do a better job in keeping racists off the ice while you allow the very person who allegedly uttered an anti-Asian comment to play. Think about being the guy and the league that suspends players for the same length of time for both slashing penalties and racist comments. If both of these seem wrong, you'd probably not the right person for Hockey PEI's discipline and ethics committee.

Sarcastic comments aside, having been to PEI and been immersed in the hockey community there, I feel like this incident hardly represents the community in general on Prince Edward Island. However, racist incidents need to be crushed at their source, and allowing this problem to fester will only cause more problems in the future for Hockey PEI because the standard of a two-game suspension has been set. Whistleblowers won't step forward thanks to their treatment of Keegan Mitchell, and this will lead to less players of colour and minorities playing the game as they become targets for racist comments.

If Hockey PEI wants to fix this, all they have to do is admit they did wrong in suspending Keegan Mitchell. Following that, do a complete and thorough investigation on the incident witnessed in the December 17 game, and punish those who were involved in the racism harshly. Make an example out of that player or those players who were involved in the racist events so that these types of situations never arise again. The last step is standing by those harsh punishments for any future indicents seen. This isn't hard to fix, but Hockey PEI needs to swallow its pride and admit it messed up.

There is absolutely no room in hockey for racism. There is room, however, for good teammates like Keegan Mitchell who stick up for their teammates when a wrong has been committed. If Hockey PEI can't see these two facts clearly, those who are running the organization should be suspended indefinitely.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!