Young ones leaders in protests against racism in Saskatoon

Protesters march at the “Justice for George Rally” on Thursday in Saskatoon.

    “I understand that I will never understand. However, I stand.”

    I wish I could say I thought that up.

    That is a message I’ve seen on a handful of social media accounts of young friends usually aged 18 to 24 over the last handful of days as protests against racism continue across North America and dare I say the world.

    The demonstrations were triggered due to the death of African-American George Floyd on May 25 after he was arrested by police in Minneapolis, Minn.

    Video of the arrest showed Floyd being pinned on the ground with a police officer identified as Derek Chauvin driving his knee into the back of Floyd’s neck.

Young adults made up most of the crowd at the “Justice for George Rally.”

    Four officers were fired over the incident including Chauvin, and at first, Chauvin, who is Caucasian, was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter over Floyd’s death. The charges against Chauvin were increased to second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter on Wednesday.

    The three other officers - Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao – were charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

    Being a middle aged person who can get jaded from time to time due to seeing my share of bad happening to good people in this world, I thought this would be another one of those things that would blow over, which is awful to admit. I didn’t think it would get the momentum that it did.

Some of the protesters who took a knee at Kiwanis Park - North.

    That changed on Tuesday after I opened up my person Instagram account in the morning. The first thing I saw on my newsfeed was a post from Ryan Fontaine, who was a star goalie for the Prince Albert Northern Bears female under-18 team from 2015 to 2018.

    Her post was a blacked our screen with the hashtag phrase #blackouttuesday.

    The next thing that crossed my mind was, “Wow, I didn’t know she was engaged with that.”

    Right after seeing that posts, I saw similar posts from Parker Kelly, who is an alumnus of the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders and forward with the AHL’s Belleville Senators, and Tristen Robins, who is a star centre with the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades.

A protester with a bike takes a knee at Kiwanis Park - North.

    As I continued to go through all my social media accounts, I found similar posts from current players from the Raiders, Blades, six time defending CJFL champion Saskatoon Hilltops, defending WWCFL champion Saskatoon Valkyries, members of various teams of the SFU18AAAHL, from the various University of Saskatchewan Huskies teams in U Sports and Saskatchewan based players who play in the NCAA.

    At that point, I decided to follow the lead of my young friends on my social media accounts hoping to be a show of support that they were doing the right thing.

Thursday’s “Justice for George Rally” in Saskatoon had a massive turnout.

    Clavet product Willow Slobodzian, who stars on defence for the Cornell University Big Red women’s hockey team, was constantly upgrading her Instagram story feed with education items regarding racism and news items about what various people were trying to do to address the issue.

    One of the best social media posts came from Jadyn Pingue, who finished up his five-year career playing linebacker for the Hilltops being named the CJFL’s most outstanding defensive player. On Thursday, Pingue, who is African-American, put together a well written post about black men building up other black men.

    The post included a strong portrait type picture of Pingue.

View this post on Instagram

WE are BLACK MEN!..... We BUILD .... We NEVER TEAR DOWN other BLACK MEN! .... We have felt the pain of being torn down and we have decided we will be deliberate about building others! All too often, we men find it easier to criticize each other, instead of BUILDING each other UP. With all the negativity going around let's do something POSITIVE!🌟 Upload 1 picture of yourself...ONLY YOU. Then tag as many brothers as you need to do the same. Let's BUILD ourselves UP, instead of tearing ourselves down. Be PROUD of who you are, PEACE & LOVE. 🖤✊🏾🙏🏾✊🏾🖤 COPY AND PASTE 🖤 📸: @dankaroundtheworld Agency: @masalamodeltalent

A post shared by 𝑷𝑰𝑵𝑮𝑼𝑬 (@pinguexo) on Jun 4, 2020 at 4:47pm PDT

    I found out later on Thursday the care and passion for this issue wasn’t limited to young athletes on my social media feed.

The crowd at the “Justice for George Rally” begins to march again.

    At 6 p.m., I saw two different newscasts doing live video of a rally against racism, where everyone was gathered at Saskatoon City Hall. I decided to head downtown to check things out.

    When I got to downtown, I met up with the rally as it had moved to the Saskatoon Police Station. I was floored by how many people I saw.

    A couple of reports said the gathering included about 2,000 people, but it seemed larger than that. The next thing I noticed was how young the crowd seemed to be.

    I estimate that at least 95 per cent of the people at the rally were aged 18 to 24, and it seemed like a lot of those were U of Saskatchewan students and students from out of town universities, who were home for the summer.

Thursday’s “Justice for George Rally” contained a diverse cultural crowd.

    I noticed some in the crowd were members of Huskies teams. It was visible to see the crowd contained high school students too.

    I later found out the rally was organized by Braydon Page, who is an African-America young man, and the rally was called the “Justice for George Rally.”

    On a Facebook page, Page invited people from all cultural backgrounds to attend. Canada has had challenges to say the least with racism issues with First Nations, and there were a number of signs in the crowd that referenced that fact too.

    The crowd that gathered was as culturally mixed as I’ve seen from any gathering in Saskatoon.

The protesters at the “Justice for George Rally” near Saskatoon City Hall.

    The young ones were passionate too, and it was obvious they believed they could make a difference.

    They had a Kevin Garnett “Anything is possible!” feeling to them.

    It was a feeling I could relate to thinking back to my university days at the University of Regina from 1995 to 2001.

    Most in the crowd were wearing protective masks due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has engulfed the world and certainly North America since around March 11.

    The crowd knelt at the police station for eight minutes and 46 seconds, which was the time Floyd was pinned on the ground before he died.

The crowd at Saskatoon City Hall shouts a number of chants.

    The crowd proceeded to do a march looping south to Midtown Plaza before heading east on 22^nd Street to Kiwanis Park – North. Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark marched with the young crowd too.

At the park, the crowd once again took a knee for eight minutes and 46 seconds.

    After that knee, the march returned to city hall, where the people took another knee for eight minutes and 46 seconds.

    The rally continued for a bit with speeches and chants including “black lives matter,” “I can’t breathe” and “no justice, no peace.”

At least 2,000 turned out for Thursday’s “Justice for George Rally.”

    The whole event was peaceful. The Saskatoon Police Service ensured streets were blocked off, when the crowd marched.

    A few police officers took a knee with the protesters at the police station. I think they came away being impressed with the youngsters too.

    When it comes to the issue of racism, it felt like the young adults and the teenagers that took part in the “Justice for George Rally” were the adults in the room.

    All of us in the older generations bluntly haven’t got the job done on this front, if the past two weeks have shown us anything.
    For myself, I am ill-equipped if I tried to put together a column regarding racial issues.

In Saskatoon, the young generation leads in the protests against racism.

    Back in my university days, I saw my friends from different races and cultures as buds. Looking back, I think I had a naïve quality that everyone would somehow live together in harmony.

    The protest that took place on Thursday night in Saskatoon was ultimately a civil rights type rally.      In my lifetime, that was the first time I saw one of those live and in person.

    It was cool to see the young people take the initiative to lead the way. The rest of us would be wise to follow.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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Gordie Howe Sports Complex revamp in home stretch

Premier Scott Moe speaks at the Gordie Howe Sports Complex.

    Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe hopes the revamp of the Gordie Howe Sports Complex will clean up an oversight.

    The 46-year-old product of Shellbrook was speaking at a press conference at the Saskatoon sports facility on Wednesday, and he told a story about playing in a fastball provincials at the complex, when he was growing up.

    Moe’s team was down by one in the bottom of the seventh inning with two runners on and two outs. One run was need to force and extra inning and two runs were needed to win.  If his team won, the squad would go to nationals.

    “A pitch came in, and I got a hold of it,” said Moe. “It was going out to right field and went to the warning track, and it was just five feet short from clearing the fence and us going on to nationals.

    “I think it is quite obvious this being Phase 3 of the renos at Gordie Howe Bowl that I hope that if it wasn’t fixed in Phase 1 or Phase 2 that the right field fence on Diamond 1 is obviously 10-feet too far. I would hope in Phase 3 that would certainly be rectified.”

    Politicians from the federal, provincial and municipal levels of government were on hand to confirm funding that will help finish the massive renovations going on at the Gordie Howe Sports Complex in Saskatoon’s Holiday Park neighbourhood. The complex is in a final Phase 3 of a master plan.

    The federal government will be contributing just over $8.352-million, the provincial government $6.959-million and municipal contribution is slated for $5.568-million. The Friends of the Bowl Foundation will be fundraising the municipal contribution with the goal of hitting $6-million to cover any unforeseen expenses.

Federal minister Jonathan Wilkinson speaks at Wednesday’s presser.

     Friends of the Bowl, which is a not-for-profit corporation with initial roots dating back to 2011, was formed for the purpose of advocating and raising funds for the sports facility and has done just that.

    “The expansion involves adding a new multi-sport complex, an outdoor artificial turf field, an outdoor baseball training and practice complex, Nordic ski trails, as well as a new ticket booth and bleachers,” said former Saskatoon resident Jonathan Wilkinson, who is the minister of fisheries, oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard. “This project will have far reaching impacts not only for residents who will benefit from these modern sport and fitness facilities, but also for the city as a whole.

    “These new spaces will provide new opportunities to host a wide variety of events, which will help promote tourism in the area and events and services available to families in this community.”

    The announcement on Wednesday officially gave funding to 12 different infrastructure projects across Saskatchewan including the Gordie Howe Sports Complex through the Integrated Bilateral Agreement. Dignitaries were on hand representing various communities that will benefit from these projects.

Bryan Kosteroski gets set to speak at Wednesday’s presser.

    Overall, Wednesday’s announcement provided a function where members of all three levels of government could bask in the spotlight with positive news. It marked a short and happy time for celebration.

    For those that have overseen the developments at the Gordie Howe Sports Complex over the long haul like Friends of the Bowl chairperson Bryan Kosteroski and board member Johnny Marciniuk, Wednesday’s announcement was a big reward for countless hours of hard work. Kosteroski reflected on part of that journey during his speech at the presser.

    “Going back eight years to now, this project has been in our hearts,” said Kosteroski. “The partnerships and the collaborations we have seen and the growth of partnerships and people working together in Saskatoon has been tremendous.

    “There are nine sporting organizations working together right now. That is unheard of. If you would have said eight-and-a-half years ago that softball would be talking to baseball or football would be talking with lacrosse, that is unheard of.

    “Now, it is a common thing. It is like we are family. Everybody works together.”

Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark speaks at the Gordie Howe Sports Complex.

    Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark recalls getting constant comments that dumped on the facility eight years ago, when he sitting with the Saskatoon city government as a city councillor.

    “We had delegation after delegation come to the city and say the field sucks, the dressing rooms suck (and) the stands suck,” said Clark. “Basically, it was getting beat down, because there was so much football being played at this facility, and players are getting injured and we’re embarrassed.

    “To be honest, it took a few starts to even get things going.”

    Clark enjoys seeing the progress that has been made since that time.

    “It is an incredible thing for kids to be able to have access to this,” said Clark. “We look forward to hosting kids from across the province and across the country and top class athletes to put on great performances and to help inspire the next generation and to build sport in our community.”

    Moe touted that the provincial government was pleased to play a part in revamping the Gordie Howe Sports Complex.

    “The Government of Saskatchewan is proud to be on the funding team alongside the Government of Canada and alongside the local community,” said Moe. “When completed, this project will surely live up to the Howe’s namesake, whose iconic #9 has been memorialized in the logo of the Gordie Howe Sports Complex.”

Greg Yuel speaks at Wednesday’s press conference.

    Originally when the revamp got rolling in 2011, the hope was to refurbish Gordie Howe Bowl, which was an eyesore. The refurbishment began on that facility in 2014, and it was renamed Saskatoon Minor Football Field.

    The success on that front created momentum to get the wheel in motion on improving the rest of the Gordie Howe Sports Complex.

    When the master plan of the complex in complete, a total of $62-million will have been put into renovating and improving the complex. As of July of last year, $42-million was raised towards that goal.

    Greg Yuel, who is the chairperson of the fundraising committee for Friends of the Bowl, was pumped at how close Wednesday’s funding announcement gets the project into the home stretch.

    “It is a game changer for all youth and athletes across Canada,” said Yuel. “This is huge milestone in our campaign.

    “It isn’t done yet. We have a few more million to go before we finish it off and put a ribbon on it. Please don’t hesitate to tell your family and friends and reach into your own pockets and help us finish this off.”

Various dignitaries pose for a photo at Wednesday’s press conference.

    If anyone wants to still get in with a donation to refurbish the Gordie Howe Sports Complex, they can do so by clicking right here.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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    If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.

New University of Saskatchewan rink finally becomes a reality

Ground-breaking ceremony held for Merlis Belsher Place

Dignitaries break ground at the site of Merlis Belsher Place.

    It was actually happening, and you were surprised it didn’t fall through.

    On Friday afternoon just south of the fieldhouse on the University of Saskatchewan campus, the ground breaking ceremony was held for Merlis Belsher Place, which will be the new twin-pad hockey rink facility that will replace the ancient Rutherford Rink. It is estimated the multi-sport complex will be open for the start of hockey season in October of 2018.

    One of the ice pads will be used by the Huskies men’s and women’s hockey teams for games and practices. The second rink will mainly be used by the Saskatoon Minor Hockey association, which will gain 1,500 additional hours of ice time per year.

    Two NBA-length practice gymnasiums, which are also part of the project, will be ready for the Huskies basketball teams in 2019.

Merlis Belsher hangs with a couple of young hockey players.

    While the benefits of the new facility are many, there was still doubt in the back of the mind that it was going to be a reality. Even on the drive to the campus for the ground-breaking ceremony, you almost thought something was going to happen to call everything off.

    Back in 1997, then Huskies athletic director Ross Wilson said he was actively pursuing a new rink for the U of S campus, and the Rutherford Rink needed to be replaced at that time. Since that time, the process to replace Rutherford has had many stops and starts. Those stops and starts provide ample justification for doubt.

    Upon arriving at the ground-breaking site, it was clear the new rink was really going to happen this time. Members of the Huskies men’s and women’s hockey teams were play street hockey with youngsters on a paved stretch of road beside the ground-breaking site.

    Many dignitaries were there including Fred Sasakamoose, who was the first First Nations player to play in the NHL, Saskatoon mayor Charlie Clark, U of S president Peter Stoicheff, Ken Cheveldayoff, who is the MLA for Saskatoon Silver Springs and Kelly Boes, who is the executive director of the Saskatoon Minor Hockey Association.

Members of the Huskies women’s hockey team took in the ground breaking.

    Merlis Belsher was also there and his leading gift and largest donation from an alumnus or individual in the university’s history of $12.25-million kick started the fundraising efforts for the facility. Thanks to Belsher’s donation and leadership, it was determined the new facility would be named after him.

    The list of dignitaries included Ron and Jane Graham, who have been long time supporters of the university and donated $4-million for the gymnasiums to be added to the facility last December.

    Beauty speeches were also given by Kohl Bauml, who is a star forward with the Huskies men’s hockey team, and Libby Epoch, who is the standout point-guard for the Huskies women’s basketball team.

Kohl Bauml, right, speaks to the dignitaries at the ground breaking.

    When you saw the gathering of many individuals from all walks of life, you realized that this was actually going to happen. The choreographed photo opportunity for the sod turning seemed surreal. For the gathering of just over 100 alums and stakeholders, there was pure joy in the moment.

    At this moment in time, everything finally fell into place to allow the new rink on campus to be built. The Huskies hockey teams will only have to play through one more season of “rust breaks” at the Rutherford Rink, which is approaching its 88^th birthday, before finally skating in a state of the art new home.

    Some current and even former players at the gathering joked that Huskies men’s hockey head coach Dave Adolph often promised a new rink was coming when he recruited new players, and now that recruiting ploy would finally have some real staying power.

Mascot Howler meets the people at the ground-breaking ceremony.

    In total, the new facility will cost $42.9-million. Originally, the cost was pegged at $41-million, but the architectural plans for the main rink at Merlis Belsher Place have been enhanced to increase seating. The original plans called for 2,357 seats, while the new one allows for 3,437 seats creating the increased cost.

    The Home Ice Campaign to raise funds for the new facility was looking to hit a goal of $29-million. Currently, $28.4-million has been raised in the last year to meet the fundraising goal. That included a donation of $2.51-million from the Huskie hockey alumni in early April and the City of Saskatoon’s additional $3-million commitment in February.

Courtney Cormack (#16) plays street hockey with some youngsters.

    Home Ice Campaign chairs Dave King, who is a former legendary coach of the Huskies men’s hockey team, and Tim Hodgson, who is a men’s hockey alumnus, have to be given credit for bringing individuals of various backgrounds together to help make the new rink a reality. All the individuals that contributed to the effort to build this new facility should be applauded for their leadership and for seeing a vision of the future.

    Besides having a rink to benefit the Huskies, Saskatoon will now be able to hold national events like the Telus Cup midget AAA hockey championship, the Esso Cup female midget AAA hockey championship and the U Sports women’s hockey national championship tournament. The city had been without a mid-sized facility that could accommodate these events.

    A lot of wheels had to work together to make Merlis Belsher Place a reality. When its construction comes to a completion, it will leave a legacy to be enjoyed by generations for decades to come.

Bears make impact with Esso Cup trip

So like this girl came up to me and told me... "You are Jordan Ashe, and you are my favourite bear" #4thekids pic.twitter.com/TSs2CDkDKA

— Jordan Ashe (@jordanashe04) April 21, 2017

    The Prince Albert Northern Bears were already winners before they went to Esso Cup, and all one had to do was look at the Twitter account of defender Jordan Ashe to confirm that observation.

Jordan Ashe follows through on a shot for the Bears.

    During a fundraising and send off barbecue that was held for the team in Prince Albert before leaving for Morden, Man., Ashe, who turned 17 in March, posted a Tweet that a little girl came up to her and recognized her. The little girl said Ashe was her favourite Bear. Ashe posted a picture of the pair.

    That moment showed the power that the Bears playoff run had. In capturing their second Saskatchewan Female Midget AAA Hockey League championship and winning their first Western regional playdown series, little girls in Prince Albert and area saw what they could possibly do one day.

    In this particular case, this little girl saw a hero she could watch play in her own home city in Ashe, who is a tough stay-at-home defender that can chip in key points offensively.

The Bears had many memorable moments this season.

    During the post-season run, the Bears players will always remember the huge crowds they played in front of at the Art Hauser Centre when they swept the best-of-three Western regional playdown series against the Hartney, Man., based Westman Wildcats. An estimated crowd of 1,000 showed up for the Bears 6-4 win in Game 1 on March 31, and an estimated crowd of 1,200 watched the Bears 7-6 victory in Game 2 on April 1.

    On Thursday, the Bears closed play at Esso Cup downing the Sherbrooke, Que., based Harfangs du Triolet 3-2.
    Captain Brooke Hobson, Jadyn Kushniruk and Alli Soyko each had singles for the Bears. Brooklyn Elek turned away 28 shots to pick up the win in goal.

The Western regional win was a first for the Bears.

    Megan Bureau-Gagnon and Sandrine Veillette replied with singles for the Harfangs, while Melyann Daigneault turned away 36 shots to take the loss in goal.

    The Bears closed the round robin portion of the tournament with a 2-3 mark to finish fifth in the round robin standings and just miss qualifying for the playoff round.
    The Pickering, Ont., based Durham West Lightning finished fourth with a 2-3 mark, but they claimed the standings tiebreaker with the Bears posting a 5-1 win in a head-to-head match on Monday.

    The Harfangs won their semifinal game on Friday 2-1 over the host Pembina Valley Hawks and will face the Alberta based St. Albert Slash in Saturday’s championship game.

Camryn Amundson and the Lanchbery Family Trophy.

    The Bears had their most memorable campaign in team history which included posting a team record 22-6 mark in the regular season, and an 11-0 run through the SFMAAAHL playoffs and their regional series win.
    In the SFMAAAHL title series, they swept the Saskatoon Stars, who were the two-time defending league champions and had defeated the Bears in the 2015 league championship series.

    They graduate Hobson, Elek and forwards Ireland South and Sierra Parenteau, who all left big impacts on the team.

    On top of everything else, the Bears allowed little girls from Prince Albert and area to dream big dreams.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.