"How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in't!"

This is minor hockey in the GTA:

During the league's 2008-09 season, players as young as 13 were assessed a dramatically increasing number of penalties for "discriminatory slurs" from insults about sexual orientation to players calling their opponents offensive racist terms.  League records also reveal startling cases of violence on the ice committed by repeat offenders.

This is the next generation.  These kids will be casting their votes in a few years, influencing policies that will shape our country.

What are we doing wrong?

Experts say anti-social on-ice behaviour in minor hockey is rooted in deeper social problems - from stresses at school or at home to overly aggressive coaches and imitating National Hockey League heroes.

"This is about the way society is going," says John Gardner, president of the GTHL, the largest and most competitive minor hockey organization in the world, with about 500 teams and 8,000 players.

Despite commercials, ads, the odd convention, we are heading backwards because words alone don’t fix the problem.  We should show zero tolerance for such attacks, and it is even more important to get that message across to kids.

"We don't tolerate it in minor hockey. ... It's still a damn good game. The benefits still outweigh the problems," (says John Gardner)

Really?  The standard is a minimum three game suspension, even for kids who have repeated violent and racist behaviour over a dozen times.  Some adults running the mess are also encouraging it.  Even death threats have resulted in only a three game suspension.

Coaches and players lashing out at officials with verbal and physical abuse, including head-butting and death threats.

The basis of the violence and racist attacks may be social, outside the rink, but tolerating this for the sake of the game - and a three game suspension is tolerating it especially when stats show a mind boggling increase of such incidents over the past two years - sends a clear message that such behaviour is acceptable in certain situations.

It is never acceptable.  Ever.  If we seriously want to address racism and violence, then we can’t shove it aside when it interferes with sports, or entertainment or...anything.

Kick the little shits off the team - permanently.  Fire the coach.  Ban the parents from the games.  Oh, if anyone thinks this is unfair to the kids and interferes with their healthy activity:

Players as young as 11 are suffering concussions serious enough to have lasting health effects and end their hockey careers.