Hazing Investigation Ends Season for Canadian Women's Hockey Team at Dalhousie University

We've never heard of Dailhousie and will frankly probably forget it after we post this story, but it is important to note that at least north of the border some universities are not afraid to hand out season-ending punishments for cases of sports hazing. Will it end all hazing at the school? Probably not, but it will probably make some jocks there think twice the next time they consider continuing a "team tradition." The ladies on this hockey team have probably worked a good part of their lives to be able to play at this level and now it's all gone . . . for what? The superstition that humiliating your younger teammates into drinking too much and making fools of themselves will make you a better team?

The Dalhousie women’s hockey team will forfeit the rest of this season’s games after the entire team — with the exception of its first-year players — was suspended Thursday in the wake of a hazing incident. The team’s captains will also be removed from their positions, effective immediately. The hazing incident came to light in mid-October when a parent of a team member raised concerns to the coach about how players were treated at a house party in mid-September. Dalhousie University spokesman Charles Crosby wouldn’t provide details on what happened at the party. “In the interest of privacy of everyone involved, I don’t want to get involved into the particulars of it,” Crosby said. “We know that it involved excessive drinking, intimidation, humiliation, personal disrespect — in short, bullying.” In an email to The Chronicle Herald, he said, “Many players were put in harm’s way — both physically and psychologically.” The severity of the hazing incident was worse than anything he had previously heard of at Dalhousie, Crosby said. “I’ve heard of nothing along these lines, in terms of this level of hazing. I’ve been at Dal for 10 years and nothing like this has come up.” Of the team’s 24 players, five were rookies. “That’s the reason why the remainder of the games will be forfeit, because obviously we couldn’t fill a team with a handful of first-year students,” Crosby said. “It is the majority of the team.”

Dal women forfeit hockey season for hazing | The Chronicle Herald