Xenophobia in Sport
The problem of racism in Canadian sports may not be as serious as in Europe, but it certainly exists. In 2018, during the Chicago Blackhawks-Washington Capitals game, Devante Smith-Pelly of the Capitals, who is black. During the game, 4 Blackhawks fans started provoking him by chanting "basketball, basketball, basketball". This clearly indicated that Smith-Pelly was playing the wrong sport because of his skin color. While playing junior hockey, he also heard similar comments.
In 2019, Jonathan Diaby, a 24-year-old black quarterback for the North American Hockey League semi-professional team Marquis de Jonquière from Quebec, was subjected to racist abuse. Moreover, the fans also insulted the father and girlfriend of the hockey player. Similar cases also occurred during the same period in the junior and children's hockey leagues.
Another object of hatred in Canadian sports are representatives of sexual minorities. Current scientific evidence shows that athletes from LGBTQ+ communities are regularly discriminated against in their sport based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. The international study Out on the Fields, published in 2015, found that 82% of participants who self-identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual reported having witnessed or experienced homophobic activity in their sport. Moreover, the 2019 European OUTSPORT survey revealed significant differences within LGBTQ+ communities. Transgender people were found to be three times more likely to report negative experiences with sports and were more likely to feel excluded from or stop playing certain sports because of their gender identity than lesbian, gay or bisexual people.
