Turning down hockey bronze a ‘reasonable’ measure, Team Nunavut says
Committee upholds Friday’s decision to prevent Under-18 boys’ team from collecting Arctic Winter Games medals due to ‘inappropriate’ actions of some team members
The Arctic Winter Games came to an end Saturday in Alaska. A controversy surrounding Team Nunavut’s under-18 boys’ hockey team continues. A Team Nunavut committee on the weekend backed up a decision made on Friday not to allow the hockey players to collect their bronze medals due to unspecified “inappropriate” actions by some the hockey team’s members. (Photo by Dustin Patar, special to Nunatsiaq News)
Team Nunavut stood behind a decision its chef de mission made Friday to disallow its under-18 boys hockey team from collecting their Arctic Winter Games medals because actions of some team members constituted “misconduct” under the team’s code of conduct.
Nunavut’s team won bronze on Thursday night, defeating Team Yukon, 6-2, to finish in third place in the hockey tournament at the weeklong Winter Games that ended Saturday.
But on Friday, chef de mission Mariele dePeuter said in a Facebook statement that the team members would not collect their medals because of “inappropriate actions” by some of the team’s members.
In a follow-up statement posted to Facebook Saturday afternoon, dePeuter said Team Nunavut convened a committee to review that decision calling it a “reasonable disciplinary measure.”
“Team Nunavut is committed to upholding the values of the Arctic Winter Games and upholding the highest standards of conduct,” she wrote on Saturday.
Saturday’s six-sentence statement did not say what the players’ actions were or how they violated the code of conduct.
The team is “committed” to reviewing the incident and how it was managed to improve the processes and how they are communicated in the fast pace of a major athletic games environment, it added.
On Friday, neither dePeuter nor the team explained what the players’ actions were that prompted them to prevent the hockey players from collecting their medals, how many players were involved, or whether those actions took place on the ice or after Thursday’s bronze medal game.
When reached by phone on Sunday, dePeuter would not comment about the incident, the decision to prevent the hockey players from collecting their medals or how the incident violated the team’s code of conduct.
She said she had referred Nunatsiaq News’ questions about the incident to Nunavut’s Department of Community and Government Services to respond to.
Good for you. I wonder how many others would have tried to brush the misconduct under the rug. I hope the team and the “offenders” have learned a valuable lesson there.
…. and the sponsors. I am sure they learned a lesson as well. Can’t be cheap to send a whole hockey team to Alaska for nothing.
“She said she had referred Nunatsiaq News’ questions about the incident to Nunavut’s Department of Community and Government Services to respond to.”
This whole affair just gets weirder and weirder.
I don’t think this is weird. Some of the team must have done something highly embarrassing and/or illegal. They censured the team as appropriate, but they have to uphold the privacy of the minors in question. They have to balance these two factors in dealing with whatever they had to. I think there is plenty in these statements sufficient to read between the lines.
This isn’t strange at all. The Chef de Mission is appointed by the Nunavut Government. CGS, through its Sport Nunavut division, is the lead for teams and contingents representing Nunavut at sporting events. The GN would have had Input into this decision, and more likely made the decision. The CdM is essentially like a communications director for sport Nunavut in this situation. She can make a statement based on the decision that has been made, but can’t really get into the process followed to get to the decision, or the event that prompted it.
Very good decision by Team Nunavut; as a past participant of AWG Team Nunavut , in numerous roles/capacities, I always believed strongly that the code of conduct was important and should be appropriately upheld; there were times when it wasn’t. This was a good call! Well done!
Engaging in collective punishment with children leads them to think it’s OK to punish the group for actions of a few. It’s not, and never will be.
Only those that engaged in the mysterious misconduct should have been considered for exclusion from the ceremony.
Was it just “a few”? Do you have some inside information that would support this idea?
Ok, fine – the story used “some” which I read to be a minority of the players. Had it been most of them, I’m sure the press release would have indicated that. But still, it wasn’t all of them, so Team Nunavut shouldn’t punish all of them; it sets a really bad example to punish people who did nothing wrong when “some” others did something wrong.
In the context of a ‘team’ I think it may be more appropriate though than general punishment to a larger group. Also, I suspect the rules of conduct are made clear to all participants before the event, they know they are breaking the rules and know the consequences, you are letting your team down. A penalty on the ice for example does not only punish the player who committed to offense but the entire team who is forced to play short handed for a period of time.
Win as a team, lose as a team, be punished as a team. Sets a great example for those youngsters who think their actions don’t affect others…
So in your theory. Then if a team wind gold/silver/bronze, shouldn’t only the ones who contributed points get medals? Not the whole team?
Or maybe those kids learn that sometimes one’s actions affect others and not just themselves, so maybe they should think about that before doing something dumb.
“Collective Punishment” team sports ARE collective undertakings. They win and lose as a team, and they are punished as a team when laws are broken.
I know for a fact that this is a first taste of accountability for many of these players.