Crossing the Line: Violence and Sexual Assault in Canada's National Sport

Janet Money, a former sports editor of the Woodstock Daily
Sentinel-Review, is a London-based freelance writer.

When National Hockey League player Sheldon Kennedy accused his junior
coach Graham James of hundreds of sexual assaults, the Canadian hockey
world reacted with horror. As this compelling book makes clear, there is
far more wrong with junior hockey in Canada than one coach who abused
his power. Hazing rituals, sexual abuse by coaches, and sexual assaults
on women by players are described in shocking detail by Robinson, a
freelance journalist and former national team cyclist and skier.

How have things gotten this bad? Robinson explains the business of
junior hockey. The game has evolved from outdoor rinks where little
could be hidden from the community to indoor arenas with dressing rooms
and cubicles. Moreover, the junior leagues are a major source of NHL
players, which results in youngsters moving hundreds of miles away from
their families in pursuit of a dream of playing professional hockey.
Robinson describes the Tilbury, Ontario, Junior C team’s infamous
hazing rituals, which resulted in criminal charges but only two minor
convictions. Just as disturbing as tales of abuse and intimidation by
coaches are accounts of players sexually assaulting and gang-raping
young women who follow the teams.

Crossing the Line is a grim indictment of a system that has for too
long been held up as an exemplar of athletic wholesomeness.