Brock University’s sports team, the Badgers, offered free tickets to a $160 high-performance hockey seminar to individuals who “self-identify as underrepresented.”
This comes as the Niagara-area university boasts about embracing “Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion” (EDI) ideology at an institutional level.
“Come learn, connect, and share with the hockey world for a 1 day event! TJ Manastersky, the Head Coach of the Brock Badgers, will serve as the event’s moderator,” reads the event’s description.
Brock says “a limited number of Community Supported Tickets are available courtesy of Stathletes upon request for individuals who self-identify as underrepresented.”
Examples of “underrepresented” include identifying as non-white and female.
For those who don’t “identify as underrepresented,” in-person tickets range from $115 to $159, while virtual attendance costs $74.
The seminar will feature “advanced hockey tactics and sport performance presentations from speakers in the OHL, NCAA, USPORTS,” as well as “networking with industry experts and thought leaders.” Participants will also earn Hockey Canada professional development points.
In the past, social justice activists have complained about how most hockey players are white.
The National Hockey League’s (NHL) 2022 “diversity and inclusion report” found that 83.6% of its workforce is white, with 61.86% saying they “identify as men” and 93.14% saying they’re straight or heterosexual.
”We are working to better understand and accelerate our engagement across all layers of diversity — including nationality, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability and religion,” said NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. “Each day, we are committed to ensuring inclusion becomes more of ‘who we are’ than ‘what we do.'”
It should, however, be noted that racial demographics differ for other professional sports. About 72% of National Basketball Association (NBA) and around 56% of National Football League (NFL) players are black.
On its website, Brock University says it has “identified fostering a culture of inclusivity, accessibility, reconciliation, and decolonization as a strategic priority” and that the latter “foregrounds Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) considerations.”
Other initiatives to help underrepresented groups at Brock have included the creation of a racially segregated “BIPOC Study Hall” for non-white students – as previously reported by True North.
Neither Brock University, the presenter of the seminar, nor the sponsor of the free tickets for people who “self-identify as underrepresented” responded to True North’s request for comment in time for publication.
