Parents, athletes, and coaches are invited to Roxy Theatre on Thursday for a discussion about consent and misogyny in the context of hockey culture.

The event will feature a showing of the documentary ‘Code of Misconduct’, and a panel discussion with subject matter experts to follow. The documentary is based inside a London, Ontario courtroom, where five former members of the 2018 Canadian World Junior hockey team stood trial in a sexual assault case.

Ashley Breeland is a Saskatoon social worker and hockey mom. She says the first time she watched Code of Misconduct, there were a few key moments in the documentary that stuck out to her.  

“The first one was at the beginning of the film, when a civil suit lawyer stated he would never allow his daughter to date a hockey player. I have a son. He’s eight. He loves the game of hockey, and he refers to himself as a hockey player, so this horrified me.”

She was compelled to take action and bring the discussion to her own community, hence Thursday’s event.

Breeland explains that this will not be a ‘feel-good’ event, and it isn’t supposed to be. 

“This is going to create a lot of discomfort. What I really encourage people to think about with this panel discussion is that we want to instill hope in that discomfort.”

Breeland says avoiding the use of dismissive phrases, starting consent conversations early, and teaching boys about healthy masculinity are all great ways to help prevent similar cases.  

“Dismissing harmful behavior such as ‘boys will be boys’, locker room talk, we can collectively as a team of parents, coaches, and affiliates can work together to really stop dismissing this harmful behavior.”

The showing at the Roxy Theatre gets underway at 6:30 p.m. Thursday. Ticket sales will be supporting the Saskatoon Sexual Assault and Information Centre.