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London Knights overage forward Landon Sim was suspended five games by the Ontario Hockey League on Monday for referring to an opposing player as a Mennonite.
The 20-year-old was ejected and assessed a game misconduct at the end of the first period of London’s 5-1 London win at Sault Ste. Marie on Nov. 6. The OHL found Sim contravened the league’s code of conduct “intended to provoke an opposing player that was marginalizing on both religious and cultural grounds.”
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“He used the word ‘Mennonite,’ ” Sim’s agent Andrew Maloney of Maloney and Thompson Sports Management said. “He was insulted by a player on the other team, just regular back-and-forth banter. Landon used the word toward him. I think it was just something he said without knowledge behind it.
“Obviously, it’s wrong and inappropriate. It’s a teachable moment and something he’s not going to repeat now that he’s totally aware of it.”
The league reinforced, in an emailed statement to The Free Press, that a player may not target another member of the OHL community in an attempt to provoke them on the basis of their religious or cultural background.
“All forms of harassment and abuse including, but not limited to, taunts and slurs and comments based on race, age, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, creed, gender, sexual orientation, marital status or disability will not be tolerated and are completely unacceptable under any circumstances,” the statement said.
“This is a violation of the league’s code of conduct and it carries with it a minimum suspension of five games,” OHL commissioner Bryan Crawford wrote.
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Last Friday, the league suspended Sim indefinitely pending a review of the situation. After that investigation was completed, it ruled he will miss the next three games and be eligible to return Nov. 22 against Owen Sound.
No one argues the OHL’s policy that “all players have the right to participate in the OHL in a safe and healthy environment which promotes equal opportunities and prohibits discriminatory practices.” But does every single insult deserve the blanket five games and carry identical weight?
“The issue I have is the OHL has no layers to this rule,” Maloney said. “A player called a kid a monkey and got the same number of games (as Sim). Last season, a player told a kid he should go kill himself and got the same amount of games. There has to be layers to this rule. It’s not a bad rule, but when it’s interpreted in a one-size-fits-all category, it doesn’t work.”
This isn’t the first time Sim has been disciplined for a verbal altercation. Last spring, he missed the OHL final and was suspended five games for calling then-Saginaw captain Braden Hache a word that implied he was soft.
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The league, then under the leadership of former commissioner David Branch, was criticized for the length of that ban.
All OHL players and staff are educated with the league’s diversity policy during its mandatory players-first training ahead of each season. Rico Phillips, the OHL’s director of culture and community, will follow up with Sim to educate and prevent future occurrences.
Sim, a New Glasgow, N.S., native, has five goals and eight points with 28 penalty minutes in 10 games so far. This is his fourth season with the Knights.
rpyette@postmedia.com
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