Volunteer hockey league coaches with the Ontario Hockey Federation (OHF) are required to address gender diversity with children players who are between five and 18 years old.

A July 31 memo obtained by CityNews and sent to coaches specifies that the coaches underwent e-learning training and that they are required to have a “pre-season chat” with the children at the start of each season.

The memo includes a checklist of what the coaches need to do, including introducing themselves and their gender pronouns to the team. A sample in the checklist reads “I’m [name] and I go by the pronouns [insert pronouns].”

The OHF has also provided the coaches with a glossary of terms, including terms such as LGBTIQ2S, transgender and intersex. The glossary also includes the chart, below, which lists the personal pronouns specified as “common” and “currently in use.”

“As a volunteer, I’d be questioning, wait a minute, I didn’t sign up for this,” Dave Croutch, president of the Victoria Village Hockey Association told CityNews. “As a parent I’d be concerned about said volunteer entering into a dialogue that the province just terminated an entire curriculum on. I don’t know if they are trained properly. I believe there are probably better ways of facilitating this message than having volunteers do it.”

Phil McKee, president of the Ontario Hockey Federation, said about 40,000 volunteers were trained last year through online learning. He said the training consisted of two modules which take about 45 minutes to go through each. The first is on gender identification and expression and the second, on the federation’s policy on accommodating players in dressing rooms.

The training is a requirement under a settlement reached with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. In 2013, Jesse Thompson, who is transgender, filed a complaint after a league official forced them to change in a separate dressing room. Thompson felt “outed” and exposed to harassment and bullying. The league’s policy then was that players aged 11 years and older had to change in separate dressing rooms, based on sex. The policy was applied based anatomical sex, not gender identity.

The league has since changed the rules so that players can change in dressing rooms according to their gender identity. But part of the settlement was the education component and audits to verify that the education is actually being completed.

McKee said they’ve developed an audit checklist, but wouldn’t disclose how exactly the OHF plans on ensuring every player has been briefed. He also wouldn’t provide details of the education component and didn’t respond to our request to access the training materials.

Education Minister Lisa Thompson also refused to comment on the training.

Charlene Weaving, a university professor who has written a book about sport and gender, said education surrounding gender should start at home.

(The process of coaches talking about it) “is a step to create change, but everyone has to be on board,” she said.

“Parents also need to be part of that education process to make a difference.”

The Ontario government recently cancelled the 2015 sexual education curriculum that addressed gender diversity, with Premier Doug Ford citing complaints from the public as the reason for scrapping it.

Memo – Ontario Hockey Federation by CityNewsToronto on Scribd

Pre-Season Chat Checklist – Egale Canada Human Rights Trust by CityNewsToronto on Scribd

LGBTIQ2S Glossary of Terms – Egale Canada Human Rights Trust by CityNewsToronto on Scribd