BC junior hockey colour commentator apologizes for racist remark

A home colour commentator who was pulled mid-broadcast after he made a racist comment during Friday night’s game between the Alberni Valley Bulldogs and Langley Rivermen has apologized over Twitter.

Alberni’s home commentator Bruce MacDonald said in a Twitter statement, “I’m deeply sorry for the hurt that I have caused Owen Kim, his family, and anyone else who was affected by what I said. Racism has no place in hockey or anywhere else in the world.”

To @BCHockeyLeague @LangleyRivermen @AVBulldogs @Hebbsy @HamWilder @dpmichaud pic.twitter.com/2595GbbRes

— Bruce MacDonald (@brucemacpro) April 23, 2022

During the second period of the game, players including the Rivermen’s Owen Kim got into a scuffle, MacDonald then directed a comment at Kim asking, “Does he speak English? Maybe that’s the problem.”

MacDonald was immediately taken off the air during the second intermission, and the league issued an apology.

In an emailed statement to CityNews, Brad Bakken with the BCHL says MacDonald has issued an apology personally to Kim and the Rivermen organization, and Bakken was pleased with the swift removal of MacDonald.

“By no means should a person with employment in the BCHL use the league’s platform to make degrading or racially fueled comments about a player. We heard the comments live on hockey TV and first contacted Owens family to make sure they could communicate to us about any grievances and feelings they were having.

Bakken spoke on behalf of Kim, as the teenager is preparing for game six in Langley, and Bakken says 17-year-old Kim “plays a hard game” and antagonizing his opponent was no reason to subject him to MacDonald’s comments.

“He plays a hard game and he is supposed to antagonize his opponents, get under their skin and make the game hard. He does a very good job of this which can make him a target in the eyes of spectators.”

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Dan O’Connor, the director of broadcasting with the Vancouver Giants says although he is glad the league responded to the comments swiftly, he hopes the affect of MacDonald’s words doesn’t impact players’ psyche in the long run.

“They’re here to play a game and they should just be able to focus on the task at hand. Not having to worry about comments from fans, comments from broadcasters, comments from opponents. I’d love to just see the sport get to a position where this just doesn’t even have to be a topic of conversation,” O’Connor told CityNews.

O’Connor says he hopes the league is taken by example in the way they reacted to the comments.

“The comments were totally inappropriate and and the league pretty much made the immediate decision to remove the individual from the broadcast. And we’re very swift in their response. And that, to me, is the encouraging part about it, is that you know, it wasn’t just let’s all talk about it after the fact rather, there was swift immediate action.”

BCHL and Alberni Valley Bulldogs statement regarding a racist comment on tonight’s broadcast. pic.twitter.com/X23QvZYnaF

— BCHL (@BCHockeyLeague) April 23, 2022

Due to his comment, MacDonald is banned from broadcasting with any team in the league.

– With files from Angela Bower, Tarnjit Parmar, and Nikitha Martins