Surrey Minor Hockey parents outraged after beloved coach let go

Parents of a minor hockey team in Surrey are outraged after a beloved coach was let go by the Surrey Minor Hockey Association without any explanation.

The parents say the move came after a successful season during which the U11 A1 team won a league division banner. They say they’re concerned about the “complete lack of information” coming from Surrey Minor Hockey about the decision.

The parents believe the decision was related to a suspension that head coach Brian MacGillivray received at a tournament over the Family Day weekend in Coquitlam.

Parents told CityNews that players — who are majority South Asian — were being called racial slurs on ice. They say the kids were called “banana,” “monkey,” and the “N-word.”

“They were put in a position where they felt unsafe. As a coaching staff, we decided that we needed to remove those kids from that situation,” MacGillivray said.

“We tried to resolve it with talking with the other coaches, we tried to resolve it by talking with the referees. Nothing was happening. We had kids crying on the bench. I did what I would do every single time, I decided that we were not going to continue to play.”

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Under Hockey Canada rules, refusal to play results in a mandatory, indefinite suspension for the coach until a hearing can be held to look into the matter.

MacGillivray was given a 30-day suspension for refusal to play, and BC Hockey says an independent third-party investigation into the allegations of racism is ongoing.

He says he’s calling for BC Hockey to make a change to the suspension rules surrounding situations like this.

“My frustration is that BC Hockey didn’t look at the bigger picture,” MacGillivray said. “Going forward, BC Hockey needs to have a plan in place so that — God forbid this ever happens again — that it’s handled in a better way than it was.”

CityNews did speak to parents on the opposing team about the allegations. They deny racial slurs were used.

Instead, parents say the word “banana” was being used as a code word to identify when a particularly skilled player was on the ice. The parents were adamant that they would not tolerate any racism on their team.

Surrey’s assistant coach, Justin Sayson, says the whole ordeal has sent the wrong message to the young players.

“That’s what hurts us the most. These kids are now going and thinking we did the right thing, we stood up for ourselves against racism, and we were the only ones that got punished — and Coach Brian got punished the worst for doing the right thing,” Sayson said.

Surrey Minor Hockey says decision to let coach go not related to suspension

BC Hockey CEO Cameron Hope tells CityNews he stands by the decision to suspend MacGilivray.

“Across Canada, tens of thousands of games happen every weekend. One thing that has to happen is that those who are in a position to put either their team on the ice or not put them on the ice have to be judicious about any situation where they deprive all participants of being able to play for any reason,” Hope explained.

“As a group of adults, if they felt that there was something unsafe about proceeding, you would hope they would all together make that decision,” he added. “In this particular case, this coach made the decision on his own without the support of the other adults. And that’s okay … but there are consequences to that.”

Hope says if teams experience incidents like this, the proper way to deal with it is to make the complaint to the referees.

If it can’t be dealt with in the moment, he says the complaint has to go to BC Hockey for further investigation.

Meanwhile, Surrey Minor Hockey Association President Jeff Shelton says the association stands behind MacGillivray “100 per cent” in how he handled the Family Day incident.

Shelton says the decision to let MacGillivray go was not related to his suspension. He adds the association just chose to go in a different direction for the next season.

After all of this, MacGillivray says he would come back and coach the team again if he was asked to.

“I would come back just for those kids and those parents who have supported me… I’m going to coach for a long, long time. Whether it’s in Surrey or not that remains to be seen. But it’s overwhelming to me the support these parents have shown me. I feel like I owe it to those kids and their families to give the best in me to help develop them into good citizens, good young men, and kids who want to carry out their dream to wherever that may take them in their hockey careers.”