The Ontario Minor Hockey Association is facing a deluge of criticism for slapping a coach who protested a racial slur with a full-season suspension.

“Greg Walsh was dealt with too harshly, and his suspension should be minimized,” said MPP Paul Miller, NDP sports critic and a former OMHA referee.

On Thursday, the association suspended Walsh until April 2011 over his decision to take his Peterborough midget house league team off the ice when an opposing player levelled a racist barb at one of his teenaged team members and no one apologized.

Miller said the association should revisit its punishments for using discriminatory language. The opposing player and two of his coaches received three-game suspensions and are back on the ice.

The decision has also prompted threats of a boycott of the OMHA’s three major corporate sponsors: Maple Lodge Farms, Pizza Pizza and Chrysler’s Dodge Caravan Kids.

Meanwhile, the organization Artists Against Racism will give Walsh its 2010 “Take A Stand” award. “He’s a great role model, and if we don’t recognize him, people won’t have the strength in the future to take a stand,” said executive director Lisa Cherniak.

In a statement Friday, the OMHA said it takes the use of racial slurs seriously, but “issued the necessary suspension based on the criteria set forth within the regulation.”

Walsh faced an automatic, temporary suspension for “refusing to start play” after he forfeited the Nov. 15 game, pending a hearing to decide on further penalty. The OMHA could have suspended him for up to a year.