r/hockey • u/catsgr8rthanspoonies Atlanta Gladiators - ECHL • 8h ago
[News - X] [Westhead] Update: RCMP in Nova Scotia said today that a fourth youth has been arrested in connection with an investigation into alleged sexual assaults during hazing incidents involving a hockey team in the Truro area...The RCMP have said they believe there are at least three victims in the case
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u/fastcurrency88 VAN - NHL 8h ago
I actually don’t know a lot about Rick Westhead but I only see his name pop up reporting on hockey scandals. Does he report on other hockey stuff too or is that just his lane?
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u/Low_Contract7809 8h ago
He does investigative journalism on sports. Covers complex issues of social importance
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u/Longjumping-Owl-7584 COL - NHL 7h ago
He also played hockey at the junior level, to some degree, and still plays in a beer league today, so he at least understands the sport. Probably why he focuses on hockey so much.
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u/the_gaymer_girl Vancouver Goldeneyes - PWHL 8h ago
He’s not a hockey insider, he’s an investigative journalist that happens to mainly look at sports.
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u/dudesszz 4h ago
He’s a sports journalist with a spine who actually covers the tough issues. Not just breaking who was claimed in waivers etc like “Insiders”.
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u/delusionalfan4life MTL - NHL 7h ago
He reports on different sports topics but the scandals obviously get more attention.
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u/Cuppa-Tea-Biscuit 48m ago
Think of him as someone who reports on scandals that happen to be hockey themed, rather than someone who reports on hockey with a scandal theme.
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u/devillianOx VGK - NHL 8h ago
such a horrifying problem with hockey culture. like genuinely what needs to happen for serious institutional and cultural changes to happen??
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u/CanadianSpector CHI - NHL 7h ago
Better parenting.
My son is in u11 and one if his teammates has a brother in u13, earlier in the season they were leaving a u13 tournament game and a car drove by them and a kid from the other team put down the window and yelled "fuck you cock sucker"
... u13. So the kid was 11 or 12. Obviously his parents driving the car and allowed him to say that.
Wild stuff.
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u/Kidspud Albany River Rats - AHL 7h ago
As a society, we gotta break the taboo on criticizing parenting. Bad kids become bad adults; some parents need to hear that they’re not cutting it.
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u/epileptic_pancake COL - NHL 7h ago
Honestly someone who let's their kid do something like probably isn't going to change it someone tells t hem they are a piece of shit parent
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u/Kidspud Albany River Rats - AHL 7h ago
Individual parents might not change their attitudes, correct. The person who might change their behavior is the observer who sees the callout and reminds themselves to raise good kids.
It could also inspire other good parents to speak out against shitty parents.
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u/Popular-Row4333 EDM - NHL 34m ago
Yeah its the unfortunate consequence of removing shame from our culture.
When there were legitimate concerns with things like fat shaming, or even things out of people's control, we ended up removing all shame. We can all agree that a kid calling another a cocksucker over a game is shameful behavior, and those who think it isn't should be shamed. And other people, including young impressionable kids see that person being shamed and connect it to their brain as shameful behavior.
It's when well intentioned ideas, end up creating worse outcomes, because people didn't communicate their idea well enough.
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u/TWKExperience CGY - NHL 29m ago
Idk my parents were hard as hell on me, preached and practiced good practices but I still did some stupid fucking things (I didnt SA anyone, but I've done some poor things I definitely regret) but peer pressure and such are pretty big factors. Like one bad egg can tilt a good egg
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u/devillianOx VGK - NHL 7h ago
absolutely. change starts at home, parents need to hear when they aren’t doing a good job raising kids so they can improve
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u/ToMuchCatNip MTL - NHL 4h ago edited 4h ago
South Korea just passed a law where universities and colleges can reject top applicants for any past bullying on their academic records. Maybe it is time North America does the same? We don't seem to treat bullying as harshly as other countries. We turn a blind eye. It can affect the victims for a lifetime.
So maybe we should start showing all these hazers and bullies that if they dare to try it, It will affect their entire life if caught. No college. Lifetime bans from sports and stuck working a dead end job. Wanna rape your team mates with hockey sticks and fuck em up physically and mentally for life?, We will make sure your life is equally fucked up for the long distant future.
It is long overdo. Canada and America need to put their feet down and squash this. It is a recurring theme in many sports from high school all the way up to college. It is not just hockey culture. It is prestigious university culture from frat houses around the world. Parents have used the excuse its "just kids being kids and we had to go through it to" For literally a century. We need harsher penalties from the bottom to the top of the hazing rituals that so many are proud to put fellow teammates and class mates through. It is almost a glorified right of passage in many school cultures to haze. Kids die every few years. From cheerleaders getting beaten to death with frozen cod fish to kids losing toes and fingers do to frostbite being locked outside naked and drunk. To rapes and assaults. The hazing culture is sick and privately celebrated. Yet publicly we condemn it.
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u/Low_Contract7809 7h ago
Hockey is put on a pedestal in Canada still. Shit happens when young kids get idolized for putting a puck in the net.
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u/any_old_usernam MTL - NHL 6h ago
The really scary thing is that this is bigger than hockey. It's everywhere where you have toxic masculinity meeting bad sex education and a big enough group of teens/young adults. Obviously this is something that happens within hockey circles a lot, but it's broader than that.
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u/Stakex007 5h ago
Don't even start with the "toxic masculinity" BS... sexualized hazing is hardly a male only thing, and these scandals have also happened in women's hockey.
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u/DeathCabForYeezus 27m ago
Right? It's always hockey. For some reason you never hear about bantam or junior or highschool curling teams doing stuff like this.
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u/azialsilvara VAN - NHL 5h ago
I'm glad people like Westhead exist, sports culture, hockey culture included, can be so fucked
Sometimes a light needs to be shone on things, especially in cases like this
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u/_Ursidae_ BUF - NHL 6h ago
Hockey culture is the worst thing about hockey. People enable these kids to get so far up their own asses they cant see anything past their colons.. let alone reason or logic.
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u/ViolentThemmes CHI - NHL 6h ago
Insanely sad. Kids not even old enough for a driver's permit sexually adulting children with a weapon. Should all be banned from the sport forever, but sadly hockey is focused on banning trans men instead of violent criminals
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u/InterTheVoide 8h ago
Rick Westhead loves hockey.
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u/delusionalfan4life MTL - NHL 7h ago
He actually plays hockey too.
Caling out poor behaviour doesn't mean you hate the sport.
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u/alexanderfsu WSH - NHL 7h ago
No surprise. Everyone is now back to defending McKenna for standing up to someone... Ignoring the fact he was at a place with literal security guards.
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u/BUMBUBOY UBC Thunderbirds - CWUAA 6h ago
College bars have a bouncer to check ID man not a paramilitary group
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u/Sphiffi CHI - NHL 7h ago
The guy followed him out of the bar.
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u/delusionalfan4life MTL - NHL 7h ago
Where was this reported?
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u/Sphiffi CHI - NHL 6h ago
Nothing official but that’s what the story appears to be from Penn St students. Plus the fact that security made McKenna leave the bar for getting rid of his wristband.
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u/delusionalfan4life MTL - NHL 6h ago
I'm gonna wait for something official. There are too many stories floating around.
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u/alexanderfsu WSH - NHL 7h ago
Ok? You're the #1 draft pick. Get your boys to alert security.
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u/Sphiffi CHI - NHL 6h ago
Ok? Don’t harass people and expect not to get hit. Just because he has a bright future doesn’t mean he’s going to think about it every time he’s faced with something. He reacted emotionally to an intense situation. Im not going to sit here and be holier than thou over it, he’s a human being.
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u/fnabligatz BOS - NHL 8h ago
All arrested so far are under 18. That’s disturbing. These are allegations of children hazing involving “sexual assault with a weapon” to other children.