More funding needed to teach young hockey players about consent: advocate

Teaching young hockey players about issues like consent will fix many problems within hockey culture, but consistent funding needs to be in place for the training to be truly effective, a Kitchener, Ont., advocate says.

Jacob Pries runs the Ontario Hockey League's Onside program for the Kitchener Rangers. Onsidewas developedto help OHL teams talk to athletes about topics like consent, health relationships, healthy masculinityand bystander intervention.

Onside was developed in partnership with the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region where Pries works as a projectfacilitator in the Male Allies Program the Kawartha Sexual Assault Centre, and the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres.

"Currently it's only asingle session with the OHL," Pries said of Onside during an interview on CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition. "We also have our Leading by Example program which is a little bit broader than that. It's a three-session program where we get to go a little bit more into depth with some of the key issues."

Pries spoke to CBCNews a few days after abrief court apperance for five former Canadian world junior hockey team players. The five players currently facecharges of sexual assault stemming from an alleged incident that occurredaftera Hockey Canada gala in London, Ont., in June 2018.

The charges are still before the courtsand a publication ban is in effect to protect the identitiesof the woman who is a complainant in the caseand two witnesses.

Players 'hungry for conversations'

Pries said the players who have gone through the programs have had positive feedback.

"I think players overall are really hungry for conversations about consent," he said. "They really want to know what consent means, how to sort of engage with it on a day-to-day basis to make sure they're not making mistakes."

He added, "We know the best way to sort of avoid that for folks is to have a really solid understanding of what consent is, how to practice it."

In fact, the Leading by Example program has expanded, and as part of a pilot project,training is now offered for players as young as 13 years old.

"Since the beginning of January we've been working with three local minor hockey teams to have those conversations at a bit of an earlier age," Pries said.

"When we were working with the older players and when we've been working with Hockey Canada, we heard from players that the majority of them had never done a workshop [on] consent with their team."

WATCH:Jacob Priesdescribeshow to teach young hockey players about consent:

This Kitchener, Ont., program teaches young hockey players about consent

8 months ago

Duration 1:31

Jacob Pries is a project facilitator in the Male Allies program at the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region and he runs the OHL Onside program for the Kitchener Rangers hockey team. Now, he's piloting a similar program with younger players to get them talking about consent.

Funding needed

And while Pries said a lot of issues with hockey culture can be fixed if players are given this kind of education at a younger age, they also have a big hurdle in that there's a lack of funding for programs like Lead by Example.

"Alot of our funding sort of comes here and there, small grants maybe from the region," he said.

"It's really frustrating when we knowHockey Canada does have a lot of money, [the] NHL has a lot of money that they could be investing in the players' futures,to making sure thatplayers have a solid understanding of these important pieces in their lives."

Pries said the lack of funding is not just an issue affecting the Waterloo region.

"We've hadother leagues and teams reach out, because their local centres don't have a lot of capacity," he said. "A lot of sexual assault centres across the provincedon't have the capacity to run programming in their community, unfortunately, and largely because there's been a lack of funding for for our sector."

Pries said the Ontario government cut $1 million in funding that was earmarked for 42 Ontario rape crisis centres in 2020.

Pries said healso had conversations about the issue with Kitchener Centre MP Mike Morrice, who forwarded a letter written by theSexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region to Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth, Marci Ien.

Morrice said he and Ien had "a good conversation" that also included then-Minister of Sport Pascale St. Onge, but the dollars weren't re-allocated in the federal budget.

"I don't think it's for lack of interest on behalf of the minister," Morrice said. "But when it came to the final decision in in the budget, that's where we see more progress needs to be made."

Morrice said he continues to advocate for groups like theSexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region toreallocate funding that had been paused for Hockey Canada which in past years was as much as $14 million a year and inthe most recent fiscal year with $7 million to programs like OHL Onside.

CBC News contacted Hockey Canada for comment on these kinds of programs, but did not receive a reply.

LISTEN|Pilot program talks to young hockey players in Waterloo region about consent:

The Morning Edition - K-W8:45Pilot program talks to young hockey players in Waterloo region about consent

Hockey players in Waterloo region as young as 13 have taken part in a program that talks to players about consent. It's similar to the OHL Onside program, which the Kitchener Rangers take part in. Jacob Pries runs the OHL Onside program for the Kitchener Rangers. He's also a project facilitator in the Male Allies program at the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region and explains how the program works for younger players.