“I decided to do this magazine after learning that fellow hockey scholar Dr. Courtney Szto does something similar in her Kinesiology course at Queen’s University,” Dennie explained. “I followed Courtney’s lead because I thought it was really cool that students were able to showcase their hard work with a tangible research output at the end of the course that they can share with family, friends, and employers.”

Dennie, who joined the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Law in 2021, holds a BA in law and justice from Laurentian University, a JD from the Université de Moncton, a Master of Arts in Sociology from Laurentian University, and is currently completing a PhD at the University of Calgary. Her doctoral research, funded by SSHRC and Sport Canada, is an examination of participant liability and compensation for intentionally or negligently injured hockey players.  She has published in this area with articles touching on ice hockey violence, legal complexities of sports injuries, as well as articles related to multiculturalism and ice hockey. She started teaching the Sports Law course in the winter term of 2023.

Articles included in the magazine come from class assignments that first underwent rigorous peer review of classmates. Even the reviewing was part of the coursework, with each student responsible for reviewing four to five articles written by their peers before publication in the magazine.

“I thought it would produce high quality work since they knew their magazine contributions would be made public and I can honestly say any expectations I had going in were greatly exceeded,” said Dennie. “There was a lot of excitement around this in class and so many great ideas were shared among the class that culminated into the magazine you see now.”

The project was funded through the Law Endowment Fund and the Desautels Centre for Private Enterprise and the Law to help with costs of design and printing. “I remain grateful for their support,” said Dennie.

The inaugural issue of Robson Rundown: Navigating the field of sports law is now available for download from Dennie’s sports law research blog, Sports and the Law in Canada.

The term hazing brings to mind the high-profile cases of physical or sexual assault and forced alcohol consumption that often make the news but the prevention playbook defines hazing much more broadly as “any activity expected of someone joining a group that humiliates, degrades, abuses, or endangers, regardless of that person’s willingness to participate.”

The sun won’t rise for another hour, but one of the 75 staff members who will work on this day unlocks the door and lights up the Wayne Fleming Arena, clearing the way for a recreational group skate at 6:30 a.m.

It’s the first in a laundry list of activities and events that takes place on the Fort Garry campus each weekend. Everything from community pickleball to wall climbing, to badminton, to dance class will run before the day ends.

Read more

You can watch former Bisons football player, David Onyemata on TSN in a feature that tracks his path from never having played football in his birthplace of Nigeria, to his time at UM and then his success in the NFL.
You may even see a guest appearance or two from Coach Brian Dobie.

Watch on TSN Sports Centre 

Want to hear more of David Onyemata?
Listen to recent Atlanta Falcons’ podcast.

“We are so thankful that the University of Manitoba has opened its state-of-the-art facilities to the Games for some of our most popular sports. Knowing that we have this premier venue it will deliver a fantastic athlete experience,” says Mike Edwards, Chief Operating Officer for the Games, who also added that off-duty firefighters, police, first responders, paramedics, corrections officers will not be in uniform, but coming as athletes from more than 60 countries from around the world.

WPFG will feature 63 sports at venues across the city including The Forks, which will also be the home of the athlete’s village and entertainment venues. Events on UM’s Fort Garry campus will be at the Frank Kennedy Centre, Active Living Centre, the Investors Group Athletic Centre and the University stadium.

Organizers say they want to ensure the Games are inclusive and appropriately acknowledge Indigenous Peoples, cultures, and customs. They created an Indigenous Advisory Committee to align with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action 87-91: creating sports programs that are inclusive to Indigenous communities, including Indigenous culture and ensuring proper representation and observance of Indigenous protocols at sporting events.

Elder, Order of Manitoba recipient, Board Member and member of the World Police and Fire Games Indigenous Advisory Committee, Barb Nepinak, at the handover to Winnipeg in Rotterdam in summer 2022.

“I’m pleased to see the Games putting Reconciliation into action by including elements of Indigenous design in official branding, including cultural aspects and representation to opening and closing ceremonies and really working to ensure that the Indigenous community feels accepted, safe, and comfortable in the spaces created by the Games,” said Barb Nepinak, in June. Nepinak is an Elder, member of Pine Creek First Nation, recipient of the Order of Manitoba, Board member and member of the Indigenous Advisory committee for the Games.

All event sites are open to the public and spectators, but UM recognizes some people may not feel comfortable with WFPG at UM. Tina Chen, Executive Lead (Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) says people need to know there are open spaces available to staff, faculty and students.

“Migizii Agamik – Bald Eagle Lodge, the Indigenous Student Centre at UM, is open during the summer months and we want to remind students, staff, and faculty that there are supports available across the Fort Garry and Bannatyne campuses and online year round,” says Chen.

Around 200 athletes and spectators are expected to be on the Fort Garry campus over the 10-day period.

More than just a game, basketball has had a tremendous impact on Keegan’s life.  The community and the relationships he developed have been very positive. His gratitude for what the sport provided helped motivate Keegan to create Fitness Up North.

Bringing basketball programming to Northern communities

Fitness Up North organizes youth basketball camps in Canada’s north.  The program improves physical literacy in northern youth, and provides needed programming that builds community engagement and development. 

The idea came about fairly organically; Keegan explains that his sister was working in Moose Lake, MB at the time and told him, “The kids here love basketball. You should come up here!”  Not long after, Keegan arrived in Moose Lake and ran a 2-day basketball camp with help from his sister.   Over 100 kids signed up and their enthusiasm was evident.  He saw the need for this programming in Northern communities, and noticed that no one else was doing it so he started thinking about how he could run more of these camps.

Developing an entrepreneurship mindset

Keegan decided to connect with the Stu Clark Centre for Entrepreneurship to learn more about running a business. He developed a business plan and submitted it to the New Venture Championship competition and ended up winning first place and the People’s Choice Award.  He recalls, “The Stu Clark Centre validated my ideas, which made me believe in myself and gave me the confidence that Fitness Up North could really take off.”  He emphasized that any student can go to the Stu Clark Centre for help with their entrepreneurial idea, and said, “they have a coach to help you with anything you need.”

Building new skills

Keegan learned many skills along the way.  Above all, he learned that entrepreneurial thinking is about problem-solving, the ability to adapt and be resourceful when challenges arise.  He also developed his leadership skills, and encourages other, “Don’t be afraid to try! Failure is normal; your idea might just require some tweaks and modifications.”  Giving presentations, developing a budget, writing grant proposals were other important skills that Keegan developed along the way. 

Giving back to community

Keegan said it was great to be able to make a living doing something that he is passionate about.  He also met many wonderful people and visited new and beautiful places where many Manitobans haven’t experienced.  He felt gratified to help build up communities, and bring important resource to youth with limited opportunities.

While running basketball camps, Keegan also enrolled in UM’s Indigenous Governance program to learn more about the communities that he was working in. Learning more about residential schools and the 60s scoop increased his motivation to bring positive programming to Northern youth. “To be able to bring something good to the community, something that is going to have a positive ripple effect, is very meaningful,” says Keegan.

While Keegan is currently deciding what is next for Fitness Up North, he remains grateful for the memorable experiences and valuable learning that he gained throughout his entrepreneurial journey.

Get entrepreneurial at UM

To learn more about Fitness up North, visit their Facebook page.

For more information about how to bring an entrepreneurial mindset into your learning environment, get in touch with Janine Carmichael, Faculty Specialist: Entrepreneurship.

To spark your entrepreneurial spirit, visit the Stu Clark Centre for Entrepreneurship.

To move your invention or research into a practical application, visit Partnerships and Innovation.

Though the Olympics (both summer and winter) often conjure up an idyllic image of countries putting their differences aside and gathering for some respectful, cooperative competition, they also come with a robust and complicated history.

Thinking about the Olympics through a political lens, Dr. Russell Field explains, is necessary in order to understand their full significance. He says that the Olympics tend to be viewed as a “mechanism for smoothing out difference, by asserting that sport is apolitical, and by attaching national value to that.”

But, rather than buying into the utopian notion that sport can heal all difference, it’s important to recognize that international events like the Olympics are often where we see these differences play out. This doesn’t mean that sport cannot be a powerful tool to forge connections between nations and work for peace, but simply that it not always successful in doing so.

This year, the Bejing Winter Olympics are kicking-off under “diplomatic” boycott instated by allied countries, including Canada, in protest of human rights violations committed by China.

Regardless of one’s stance on boycotting the games, it’s worth considering the fact that the Olympics have been tangled in webs of personal, national, and international struggle since their inception.

In light of the opening of Beijing 2022, here is a short list of facts related to the history of the Winter Olympics, indebted to innovative research being done in the field of Olympics history in our faculty and across the world. These facts are offered as an entry-point and as an exploration of the social, political, environmental and economic conflicts that have arisen in the world of international sport, and to demonstrate the fact that the Olympics, whether we like it or not, have always been political.

Enjoy.

.      .      .      .     .

1. The founder of the Olympics was hesitant to endorse the Winter Olympic games

Vicktor Balck, who ran the successful Swedish Nordic Games (a winter sport competition) sat on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the beginning of the twentieth century and was adamantly opposed to the IOC getting involved in winter sport. His perspective likely influenced Pierre de Coubertin—the founder of the Olympics—and his good friend, who also opposed the integration of winter sports under the Olympics umbrella. It was only after Balck’s retirement from the IOC, that de Coubertin endorsed the first “official” Winter Olympics, which took place in Chamonix, France, in 1924. Researchers Pedro Perez-Aragon and Alejandro Viuda-Serrano work to uncover this history in their paper “the Icy Road towards the first Olympic Winter Games in Chamonix in 1924.”

2. Hosting the winter games can bolster international reputations, especially for non-Western countries

Winter sports come with more cultural and economic barriers than summer sports do. Jung Woo Lee writes that because of these barriers, the divide between the global north and south is much more apparent at the Winter Olympics, with Western countries tending to host these games. However, in recent years, non-Western cities have been chosen to host the Winter Olympics, such as Sochi in 2014, PyeongChang in 2018 and Beijing in 2022. Woo Lee’s research explores how the Winter Olympics have been leveraged as a political tool by “non-Western industrial powerhouses, to demonstrate their desire to be recognized as advanced cultural economies.” It is likely that something similar is happening this year in Beijing, as Chinese officials continue to deny point-blank that any human rights violations are being committed against the Uyghur ethnic community.

3. In the 21^st century, referendums with negative results are becoming more common

Referendums are held when there is a reason a city may not want to host the Olympics. The public is then given the chance to weigh in on the issue, voting for or against the bid. Jean-Loup Chappelet writes that when a public votes against hosting the Olympics, it generally has to do with one of the following issues: environmental costs, economic factors, or the changing image of the IOC. His research shows that since 1968, 31 referendums have been held for the winter Olympics, with 58% of them ultimately rejecting the bids. Looking at the 11 referendums that have happened since the beginning of the 21^st century, that percentage has drastically increased, to 78% of the referendums producing negative results.

Recently, Calgary was “planning on bidding for the 2026 games until two-years ago when a civic referendum voted against (it),” notes Dr. Field, adding that this is not the only Canadian bid to have been pulled. Banff bid three times in a row and were the favourites to win for the 1972 games, but ended up finishing second in that vote due to a series of environmental protests.

4. In 1976, Montreal added an extra tax on tobacco to mitigate their debt

Did you know that the huge deficit run up by the Montreal 1976 Olympics may have contributed to a reduced interest in hosting the winter Olympics across the globe (for a few years)? During the Montreal 1976 Winter Olympics, the Quebec government added a tax on tobacco to relieve some of the deficit that was being run-up by their Olympics infrastructure costs. Following this, there were only two bids (each year) for the 1980 and 1984 winter Olympic games!

5. Conversations about sustainability are creating division

The environmental impact of the Winter Olympics is something to be considered. Activists have pointed out the amount of water it takes to produce fake snow and the way carving ski/lunge/skeleton courses out on mountains can impact environmental health and biodiversity. There is also the issue of architectural waste—the huge arenas, freeways, and trainlines that are usually built to support the influx of organizers, tourists, and athletes. Recent games—such as the Tokyo 2020 summer Olympics—have made significant efforts to reduce their environmental footprints, by using renewable energy and recycling architecture, among other things, but environmentalists have called this “greenwashing,” arguing that these efforts are largely superficial.

“Environmental protest has increasingly become a feature of the games, right up to the 2018 games in PyeongChang where there were local protests over a sacred site in the mountains,” says Dr. Field.

Is it possible that the Olympics and sustainability are at the core, incompatible entities? Opinions on this are split, with activists claiming that such gargantuan projects cannot possibly be sustainable, while others suggest that bid supporters and game organizers have simply struggled to adequately explain (to an increasingly skeptical public) how these complex sustainability initiatives function.

6. Canada has never fully boycotted the winter Olympics

Canada has been involved in boycotts of summer Olympic games—including the famous boycott of the 1980 Moscow games following the former Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan— but has never fully boycotted the Winter Olympics.

This year, however, Canada has already joined the United States, Australia, and New Zealand in a “diplomatic boycott” of the 2022 Bejing winter games, in protest of China’s human rights abuses against the Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang region. A diplomatic boycott means that no government officials will attend the event, but that athletes will still be allowed to play. This decision has been met with support from athletes and organizers who appreciate how it affords athletes the right to choose whether or not they will compete. A full boycott, in the eyes of many Olympic athletes, is complete devastating, and strips them of the ability to compete in events that they have usually been training for for many years.

Still, Canadian activist groups like Vancouverites concerned about Hong Kong and Vancouver Society in support of democratic movement are asking citizens not to legitimize the event by watching it.

7. An Indigenous winter games may be on the horizon

According to Dr. Field, “the potential is being explored of an Indigenous-led bid for the 2030 Winter Olympics.” An announcement of whether a formal bid will be submitted to the IOC is expected this coming fall, which is something to watch out for. The idea behind this bid, Dr. Field explains, is that “local organizers will not only work with First Nations (as they did in 2010)” but that Indigenous communities will be leading the charge with a reconciliation-focused concept. He notes that “Between Canada and Russia and the Scandinavian countries [there are] a number of Indigenous peoples who live in the north, who live in winter climates. The idea of an Indigenous Winter Games is interesting, not unproblematic, but interesting”

.       .      .     .

Evidentially, the Winter Games, like their summer counterparts, come with a series of political, economic, social, and environmental factors to consider. Though Olympic athletes are certainly to be praised for their prowess, and supported in pursuing their passions, it is useful to consider the ways that a utopian vision of the Olympics is inaccurate, at best.

“[The Olympics] are inherently political from the ground up,” explains Dr. Field. “from debates about who gets to play, what kind of access they have, where community centres are.” He adds that in some places, people have to pay to play sports whereas in others there is public access to recreation.

“We get excited, we get all ra-ra about sport, and we get upset when people step into that, and we say: ‘don’t take this away from us,’” he says, noting that many folks are resistant to critical conversations about the Olympics.

But, this is a big year for the collision of major sporting events and human rights injustices, he explains. “Between the Beijing Olympics and the Qatar Soccer World cup, we’ve got some regimes that raise major concern for human rights activists.”

Rather than ignoring the fact that international sports events are political, it’s time we acknowledge it, and start to learn more. If any of the research mentioned in this article sparks interest, please see the following links for additional reading:

• Pedro Perez-Aragon and Alejandro Viuda-Serrano’s research on the IOC’s hesitance to include winter sports in the Olympics here.
• Jung Woo Lee’s article on the non-Western host cities using the Olympics to bolster their international reputations
• Jean-Loup Chappelet’s history of Olympics referendums here.
• Article: Olympics and environmentalism to learn more about how sustainability fits into the Olympic image

This year, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics will be held February 4-20, while the 2022 Paralympics will run March 4-13.

Maybe.

In an interview with Global News:

“If we have all the checks and balances in place to make sure we can do accurate testing and identify cases as soon as they pop up, then I think it’s potentially feasible,” said Dr. Jason Kindrachuk, Canada Research Chair on viruses at the University of Manitoba.

There has been speculation among NHL owners that the league might be able to play in some selected cities, such as Edmonton, providing some amount of social distancing was possible, and if testing for the virus was robust.

Kindrachuk was cautious, however:

“We could start trying this and find out very quickly that the virus starts spreading amongst the athletes and have to shut down everything,” he explained. “If you have somebody that tests positive, you have to figure out who they had close contact with.”

Nevertheless, the possibility of having hockey being played in the near future is heartening to many fans anxious  to get their fix, even if crowds were not allowed to be in the arena to watch.

Read the entire Global News story here.

Among those cautionary voices is Dr. Jason Kindrachuk, UM medical microbiologist and Canada Research Chair in emerging viruses. In a story carried internationally across media, he is one of several experts who think planning ahead is not wise at the moment. While hopeful that a vaccine will be found within a year, he thinks the timeline is not set in stone.

“It is going to push the limits right up to the border of when the Olympics should be starting,” said Kindrachuk, who has worked on outbreaks of Ebola and SARS. “You want to get people vaccinated not right at the point of the Olympics, but a little bit beforehand, so they build up that protective immunity.”

Read the entire news article about delaying the Olympics here.

The following article from Lori Wilkinson, professor of sociology at the University of Manitoba, was published on The Conversation:

As the city of Winnipeg was preparing to host a large celebration to mark the beginning of the National Hockey League playoffs for its team, the Jets, a storm broke out over social media over a headline about the hockey street party.

A story that described the preparations for the outdoor public celebration during the playoff game in the Winnipeg Free Press included this headline: “Jets parties will turn downtown white again.” The original story ran with a photo of four men wearing all-white, hooded costumes. Both the headline and photo were later changed.

“Have a look at these photos from past Jets pandemonium/fan appreciation. The four men wearing all white Jets outfits with pointed hoodies … remind you of anything?”

On Twitter the group wrote:

“This headline can carry a very different meaning depending on who’s reading it …”

Many people reading the tweet from Black Space Winnipeg did not take the time to think about the original headline of the article before they hurled back angry, misinformed or racist replies.

Some examples: “Go back to playing basketball and leave hockey alone” and “its (sic) ok to be white,” a slogan made popular by white supremacist groups.

A Winnipeg White Out street party. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

Words and traditions change because our world is not static. We shouldn’t be afraid to institute change as we become aware of errors made in the past. Decisions made 30 or even 100 years ago have been challenged and changed. Sports have also changed. McGill University recently dropped the name of its sports teams, the Redmen, because as McGill University’s principal said, it is “widely acknowledged as an offensive term for Indigenous peoples, as evidenced by major English dictionaries…we cannot ignore this contemporary understanding.”

She said the name “is not one the university would choose today, and it is not one that McGill should carry forward.”

Winnipeg pride

Last year, the Jets won their first playoff series since the team returned to Winnipeg in 2011, making it all the way to the conference finals. This was a big event for the city. The parties attracted thousands of people to downtown Winnipeg. The crowds were loud and boisterous, but according to media reports, the atmosphere was friendly and a good example of the city’s community spirit in action.

For many Winnipegers, it was a positive image that helped to negate the often stereotypical images many Canadians have about their city as boring, cold as Mars (or hot and full of mosquitoes in summer), or one of Canada’s most violent communities.

“The whiteout” is a nickname for Jets street parties originated three decades ago. According to the CBC, the parties started as a response to the Calgary Flames’ “Sea of Red” during the 1987 playoffs. That was at a time when the Jets home colours were white, not blue as they now are, but the tradition has stuck. Although the Jets left Winnipeg in 1996, the “whiteout” resumed after the team’s return to the city in 2011.

Winnipeg is one of many NHL cities where fans uniformly dress in their team colours during the playoffs. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

On the surface, the term “whiteout” seems fairly benign and aptly describes the scene. Photos of the event confirm that it is indeed a sea of white. It looks like a blizzard, a phenomenon that naturally occurs in Manitoba winters.

It’s the second explanation — political correctness run amok — that is the most worrisome.

Concerns dismissed

Many fans dismissed the concerns of Black Space Winnipeg and others, rather than considering why the headline might have been offensive.

I read some of the over 450 replies on Facebook and over 400 replies on Twitter. Many of the responses gave nonsensical responses that showed how little the reader understood the issue and how little they valued the conversation on racism in their city centre.

To demonstrate how ridiculous they thought the issue was, a few posters submitted ideas like having a white refrigerator makes them a racist.

But the headline, along with the photo of men in white hoods, can be interpreted as “only whites are welcome” message. The intention of the message may be innocent, but the way it is understood by the people will depend on their social location.

In a city where racism often rears its ugly head, it is understandable that the seemingly innocuous headline can be understood to be threatening — especially by people who experience discrimination.

Black Space Winnipeg and other social activist organizations are asking Canadians to have conversations about race and to think about how we use language and how the way we label things and visualize them can unintentionally include and exclude groups of people.

Our current social climate in Canada, and in Winnipeg, has given space to more explicit expressions of racism, and therefore we — and our media outlets — need to think about the ways we use language and how that language may perpetuate bias.