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You are on the [cover page] of folder [Media 2009-2010]Media 2009 - 2010
See also Media 2008-2009 and Media2007-2008.
posted on June 15, 2010
Tougher bodychecking rules weighed for young hockey players
Study shows 11- and 12-year-olds in leagues that allow hits nearly four times more likely to suffer a concussion
By: Dawn Walton and Anne McIlroy
Published: Jun. 08, 2010
Source: The Globe and Mail"The national body that presides over 580,000 young Canadian hockey players is considering beefing up its bodychecking rules in response to a new study that shows 11- and 12-year-old athletes in leagues that allow hits are nearly four times more likely to suffer a concussion than players where the practice is banned.
Paul Carson, Hockey Canada’s director of development, said there are inherent risks due to the nature of the game, but bodychecking remains a contentious issue. The organization plans to review the study and see what, if any, changes to policy need to be made. "
posted on May 23, 2010
And The Winner is: Public Relations
By: Christie Blatchford
Published: May 21, 2010
Source: The Globe and MailBumbling Bureaucracy Aided Iceless Waifs, But Wait, It Was All Fiction
How could I have missed the announcement?
Oh yes, I'm writing a book. That's why. My life at the moment consists of rocking in the fetal position, typing frantically, sobbing, walking the dog and occasionally bathing.
None of it is pleasant, even the walks I normally adore with the dog I utterly worship.
Obie, the white bull terrier, has developed an intense dislike of the new harness I got for him a couple of weeks ago, and now lies down every two or three feet, back legs stretched out like a frog behind him, and refuses to budge.
posted on April 26, 2010
Star investigation: The high cost of sports charities
By: Robert Cribb
Published: April 24, 2010
Source: The StarMore than half the money raised in the name of charity by Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment was spent on fundraising and administration last year.
And the story is much the same at many professional sports foundations across Canada, a Star investigation has found.
Lavish gala dinners, golf tournaments and lotteries held by Canadian NHL club foundations routinely eat up between 40 and 65 per cent of revenues — and as much as 80 per cent in the case of the Edmonton Oilers’ foundation in 2008 — intended for disadvantaged children and community development.
posted on February 27, 2010
Porter: Sharpen up our rinks with 'wild imaginings'
By: Catherine Porter
Published: February 27, 2010
Source: The StarWallace Emerson was the last rink house I visited this week. I barely made it. It was dark and the snow was whipping. I was on my fifth streetcar of the afternoon. It meant getting off and waiting for the Dufferin bus.
But it was worth it – even the delicate wobble over snow-covered ice around the building to reach the rinks at the back. (I later discovered the route through the community centre. Next time.)
posted on February 25, 2010
There's a will to fix up 'The Duff.' Why won't city find a way to help?
By: Catherine Porter
Published: February 23, 2010
Source: The StarThe first sign of despair is taped to the smudged glass doors.
It reads: "This door is out of order."
Inside, the pop machine is adorned with two "Out of Order" signs, just for good measure. It hasn't worked for years. There's a dented garbage can, a shuttered snack bar – also closed for as long as anyone can remember – and two sets of lost mittens sitting forlornly on the ledge against the dirty windows. A lone employee, tattoos on his neck, works his BlackBerry on a bench, dying of boredom.
posted on February 16, 2010
Cooler heads in the city's ice issue
Boards remain in control of arenas, for now
By: Peter Kuitenbrouwer
Published: Thursday, February 4, 2010
Source: The National PostAt 11 a..m. yesterday, 140 people crammed into Committee Room One at City Hall -- many of them in business attire -- a sure sign that our elected officials are meddling in sensitive territory.
And in Toronto, nothing is more sacred than a sheet of ice on which to skate.
Laura Wilson provided my favourite tear-jerker moment. Her son plays in the Greater Toronto Hockey League. Her younger daughter plays in the Toronto Leaside Girls Hockey Association. Her elder daughter wanted to join Leaside Girls, too, but that league, citing a lack of ice, couldn't accept her.
posted on February 16, 2010
City proposal to allocate ice time would put arenas in the red, say critics
By: Kelly Grant
Published: January 29, 2010
Source: Globe and MailSome say city is overreacting to threatened human rights complaint from Toronto Leaside Girls Hockey Association who claimed girls weren't getting their fair share
Toronto's community-run arenas may be Stanley Cup-calibre when it comes to managing finances, but not when it comes to satisfying municipal equity guidelines: Seven of eight missed the target this season. So Toronto's parks boss is recommending the city take over allocating ice time.
The proposal has alarmed volunteer directors at some of the arenas, who call the idea an overreaction to a threatened human-rights complaint from the Toronto Leaside Girls Hockey Association.
posted on January 31, 2010
Ice storm over rink time captures all that is wrong with Miller's regime
By: Christie Blatchford
Published: January 30, 2010
Source: Globe and MailThe brouhaha over ice time at Toronto City Hall is a metaphor for all that is wrong with big government - probably all of them, but certainly Mayor David Miller's Toronto.
The mantras of Mr. Miller's government go roughly like this: Let us fix what is not broken and ruin what is working well; let us contrive to create a crisis where none exists; let us engage in a bogus "consultation" process when the fix is in; let us decry a lack of transparency in the enemy while working behind the scenes ourselves and, above all, let us give nary a thought to the poor, beleaguered taxpayer.
posted on January 20, 2010
City puts outdoor rink on ice
By: Julie Slack
Published: January 14, 2010
Source: Mississauga.comThe ice rink on Lake Aquitaine may look like a great place to skate, but plans for that have been frozen.
John Lohuis, the City of Mississauga's director of recreation and parks, says signs are being put up in the area warning people not to walk or skate on the frozen, man-made lake.
For the past month or so, children and their parents have been using a cleared portion of the Meadowvale lake as a hockey rink and skating area.
posted on January 14, 2010
A glimmer of reason on skating ban
By: Peter Kuitenbrouwer
Published: January 14, 2010
Source: National Post"In deciding the other day not to seek re-election, veteran city councillor Kyle Rae (Toronto Centre-Rosedale) blasted the can't-do attitude at City Hall -- particularly bureaucrats who are "more interested in risk management than delivery of programs."
Case in point: the city's Activities on Frozen Open Bodies of Water Policy, a dumb document produced by a risk-management culture. The policy -- which council never saw -- bans all skating on city ponds, forevermore."
posted on January 14, 2010
City parks chief wants skating on ponds, no matter what bureaucrats say
By: Kuitenbrouwer
Published: January 13, 2010
Source: National PostToronto parks department bureaucrats permanently banned all skating on city ponds without consulting any elected city officials, Councillor Paula Fletcher, the parks chief, said yesterday.
Ms. Fletcher (Toronto-Danforth) and the committee’s vice-chair, Karen Stintz (Eglinton-Lawrence), believe the ban on pond skating is wrong, and plan to bring the topic to the Parks and Environment meeting at City Hall this morning. Ms. Fletcher suggested yesterday people should continue ignoring the signs, as long as they believe the ice is safe.
posted on January 12, 2010
City needs to chill out
By: Peter Kuitenbrouwer
Published: Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Source: National Post"Toronto's biggest skating rink is now (unofficially) open for your winter pleasure.
Please ignore the City of Toronto's yellow plastic signs, fastened to trees and posts around Grenadier Pond in High Park, which read, "Danger. Ice unsafe. Keep off. Municipal Code #608."
The affirmation on these signs is false, as hundreds proved this past weekend when we piled onto the city's largest pond. Some cross-country skied. Some walked dogs. A photographer from a community newspaper got on to take pictures. One young man who had a thick Russian accent brought an ice drill and bored eight holes (the ice is about 25 cm thick) and sat down on his cooler to fish."
posted on January 04, 2010
Slippery start to new year at Kew Beach skating rink
Youths eager to play hockey squeeze through the
fence to get on to the ice. (Jan. 1, 2010)
JACK LAKEY/TORONTO STARBy: Jack Lakey
Published: January 02, 2010
Source: The Star"Who is the pinhead that locked up the Kew Gardens skating rink on New Year's Day, when a lot of kids and even adults were up for some shinny hockey?
The Fixer's 10-year-old son headed off with a couple of friends and their dad to the outdoor Kew rink, next to the Beaches boardwalk, at the foot of Lee Ave., to mix it up with the crowd that's been playing pickup hockey over the past week.
He called home not long after to say they had to sneak onto the ice because the doors and fencing above the rink were locked, adding the game was still on because so many scofflaws showed up and ignored a posted schedule saying it was closed on Jan. 1."
posted on December 27, 2009
Romancing the ice
By: Trish Crawford
Published: December 26, 2009
Source: The StarWhen Bob Poldon was a young man living in Ottawa, he would grab his skates in the worst weather and head for the Rideau Canal. "I would go out skating at night when it was minus 27 and windy. Beautiful."
In the next week or so, when we get a good stint of sub-zero weather, Poldon will be out in the cold again – this time clad in insulated boots and down coat as he makes a skating rink at his Etobicoke home. He wants his teenage boys to experience the dark, frigid beauty of a night-time skate and to brush up on their hockey skills.
posted on December 13, 2009
Leafs give back to Toronto community
By: LANCE HORNBY
Published: 9th December 2009
Source: SUN MEDIAThe Maple Leafs couldn’t land the NHL’s Winter Classic outdoor game for thousands of fans and millions of TV viewers, but an intimate outdoor practice for a few hundred school kids was just as meaningful yesterday.
The Leafs crowded on to the refurbished Ramsden Park rink, which MLSEL fixed up in conjunction with RONA hardware stores and the City of Toronto, the 10th such project in the past few years.
About 200 students from Jesse Ketchum Public School and Brown Jr. Public attended, along with Mayor David Miller and Leaf alumni.
Temperatures hovered above freezing, but some Leafs wore hats and hoods under and over their helmets.
posted on December 09, 2009
Synthetic ice means year round skating at Harbourfront Centre
New Toronto rink has eco-friendly and cost-effective benefits
By: Nicole Mcisaac
Published: 04 December 2009
Source: The Daily PlanetHarbourfront centre in downtown Toronto is installing a synthetic ice rink that will not only last 20 years, but will allow for summer skating. Robert Hodichak, Artifical Grass and Landscaping (AGL) sales rep said there is a 98 per cent resemblance to real ice.
AGL is the company that is installing the polyolefin rink today. The compressed plastic comes in one by two metre panels that have a tongue-and-groove construction and a notched hole that will keep the panels in place and prevent expansion or shifting.
posted on November 22, 2009
Porter: The power of soup, skates and simplicity
Jutta Mason helped ensure the rinks at Dufferin Grove Park
will open Nov. 21, 2009, a week earlier than last year
— and that the hot chocolate will be on.
CARLOS OSORIO/TORONTO STARBy: Catherine Porter
Published: November 21, 2009
Source: The StarIf you've been grumbling about the rain these past few days, blame Jutta Mason.
She's been praying for it.
Not one to leave things up to bureaucracy – even a celestial one – she's taken matters into her own hands. If you, like me, had reluctantly tugged off your pyjamas before midnight one night this week, pulled on your rain boats and ventured across the city to Dufferin Grove Park, you too would have found her beneath the foggy lights – oversized winter coat, canary-coloured mitts, struggling with a heavy industrial hose to flood the two rinks.
"If they knew I was doing this, they'd be completely aghast," she says, smiling mischievously. "What the hell? The problem is they're not doing it."
posted on November 16, 2009
Mayor's office should butt out of ice-time debate
Brouhaha over access by girls hocket teams to city-owned arenas isn't about gender discrimination, but an exercise by those with connections
By: Christie Blatchford
Published: Nov. 16, 2009
Source: The Globe and MailDespite the headlines and mayoral hysteria of last week, what this isn't is Title IX, Canadian edition.
The current brouhaha over access by the Leaside Toronto Girls Hockey Association to ice time at city-owned arenas is not a story of gender inequity or discrimination, as was the famous law in the United States, which in 1972 opened the doors to equal treatment for girls and women attending federally funded schools.
posted on November 16, 2009
An idea for solving two problems
By: Frank Boyce
Published: November 16, 2009
Source: The StarLast Friday's Greater Toronto section featured two adjacent articles. One bemoaned the lack of prime time ice for girls'/women's hockey and the other was on the City of Toronto's usual lack of foresight and creativity, finding itself suddenly now having to consider a $500,000 study "on how to create more office room."
Isn't there an obvious solution? The City could buy Maple Leaf Gardens, dedicating non-stop ice for the ladies and retrofitting the rest of the building for an apparent overflow of some of its departments and agencies (say Parks and Recreation).
posted on November 16, 2009
Ice those sexism charges
By: Marcus Gee
Published: November 14, 2009
Source: The Globe and MailYou have to give the Toronto Leaside Girls Hockey Association credit for political smarts. Finding itself fighting for ice time on the city's overbooked rinks, it pulled out that ace of aces, the sexism card.
The 900-member association wrote a letter to Mayor David Miller threatening to launch a human-rights complaint for sex discrimination unless the city makes sure the girls get their share of ice. The mayor rushed to the mikes to promise that he would correct this monstrous injustice, even if it meant taking the issue to a vote at city council.
posted on November 16, 2009
Women demand access to the national sport
As their game grows in popularity, women's hockey teams are forced to vie with long-established men's squads for scarce ice time
By: TU THANH HA AND HAYLEY MICK
Published: Nov. 13, 2009
Source: The Globe and MailFor the girls of the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, the winter rituals of the national game involved donning running shoes and practising in a gym.
"At least the girls don't lose their stamina and it's good for team spirit," said Josée Lebel, the league official in charge of girls' games in her region, north of Quebec City.
posted on November 16, 2009
Girls shut out for this season
By: Donovan Vincent
Published: November 13, 2009
Source: The StarA man carrying hockey gear enters Larry Grossman Forest Hill Memorial Arena. Public arenas might have to bump adult shinny ice time to help girls’ hockey, Mayor David Miller warns. (Nov. 12, 2009) CARLOS OSORIO/TORONTO STAR
Not one minute of prime time ice.
Officials from North Toronto Memorial Arena admit that's what girls' and women's hockey teams get right now.
And that won't change for the remainder of this season because contracts have been signed with the mostly boys North Toronto Hockey Association and that group's figure skating club, which is mostly girls.
posted on November 16, 2009
Miller names three rinks limiting access to women
Published: Nov. 12, 2009
Source: CTV"Faced with complaints from women's hockey teams who say they're squeezed for ice time, Mayor David Miller said yesterday three city rinks aren't allowing equal access.
His comments came after the 900-member Toronto Leaside Girls Hockey Association threatened to launch a discrimination complaint against the city over ice time.
Mr. Miller said boards at North Toronto, Forest Hill and Leaside rinks aren't following the rules. "The policies are very clear: Girls are entitled to access the rinks and entitled to equal access and they should be given it," he said. CTV"
posted on November 16, 2009
Discrimination on ice
Published: November 12, 2009
Source: The StarInspired by Canada's gold-medal Olympic women's team, Toronto girls are taking to hockey like never before. But their local league teams have been body-checked by public arena functionaries restricting girls' ice-time.
Declaring such discrimination "unacceptable," Mayor David Miller told the Star's Mary Ormsby yesterday that he would make sure the arms-length boards running the city-owned arenas provide equal time to female players in the future. Miller could hardly have said otherwise, given the city's policy for its arenas.
posted on November 16, 2009
Mayor blows whistle on arenas over girls' hockey
By: Mary Ormsby
Published: November 11, 2009
Source: The StarPeewee girls and one of their coaches practise at the Beaches Bubble at the Ted Reeve Arena in Toronto. (Nov. 10, 2009) STEVE RUSSELL/TORONTO STAR
Mayor David Miller says adult male shinny groups and players in the competitive Greater Toronto Hockey League will be moved out of publicly owned arenas or pushed to different time slots to accommodate the growing number of girls in the game.
posted on November 07, 2009
Hockey Night (in Punjabi)
; A distinctly Canadian game finds a whole new following
By: Joe O'Connor
Published: November 07, 2009
Source: National PostHis father drove a truck and his mother worked in a bottling factory. Money was tight and small luxuries -- such as a pair of squeaky new white running shoes with the coolest blue Velcro strap Parminder Singh had ever seen -- were items to be treasured.
And guarded with your life. But by then, hockey had already taken over Singh's life. He was nine years old and in love with a sport that was not even a sport where he came from in India. All he wanted to do was play shinny with his multi-ethnic stew of pals in a poor corner of northeast Toronto.
Content last modified on September 11, 2010, at 09:08 PM EST