‘Big Boy Bullying’: The Interrelationship of Hazing, Masculinity and Consent in the Canadian Hockey League

Abstract

In 2020, former Major Junior hockey players filed a lawsuit against the Canadian Hockey League (CHL), its three regional affiliates and each of their teams. The statement of claim (Carcillo v. CHL, 2020) alleges rampant institutionalised and systemic abuse shaped by a toxic environment that enables abuse, discrimination and other harmful conduct to continue. In response, the CHL commissioned an independent review panel (Thériault et al., 2020) to investigate the abuse allegations. The panel concluded that the culture in the CHL has allowed abusive practices to become a cultural norm. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an understanding of player perceptions of hazing in the context of an environment that is typically understood as hypermasculine to the point of enabling abuse and the vitiation of consent. Drawing on a content analysis of affidavits from the Carcillo lawsuit as well as semi-structured qualitative interviews we conducted with former CHL players, we discuss the findings that suggest that CHL teams and leagues have often fostered a culture that can facilitate dangerous hazing practices for which consent is not always authentically obtained.

Citation

Dennie, M., MacDonald, C. and Sutherland, A. (2024), "‘Big Boy Bullying’: The Interrelationship of Hazing, Masculinity and Consent in the Canadian Hockey League", johnson, j. and Chin, J.W. (Ed.) Cultures of Sport Hazing and Anti-Hazing Initiatives for the 21st Century (Research in the Sociology of Sport, Vol. 23), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 83-102. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1476-285420240000023006