Beyond the worrying figures concerning violence against referees revealed Wednesday by HEC Montreal, the general director of Hockey Quebec, Stéphane Auger, is delighted to have scientific data to tackle the problem.
Appointed interim head of the federation after the resignation of Jocelyn Thibault in February, the former National Hockey League (NHL) referee was officially appointed to his position on October 2.
There are many files on his desk. But the study led by Professor Éric Brunelle, director and founder of the HEC Montréal sports center, offered Hockey Québec a credible platform to address a major problem in minor hockey.
This is candy to me,” Auger said of the study Thursday. My passion is refereeing — hockey, but also refereeing. Having the HEC interested in arbitration is fun. There weren’t a lot of studies and data on refereeing. I see that in a very positive light, and we will use it for the future.
One of the conditions of my hiring was that arbitration become an entity in itself [au sein de Hockey Québec]. Refereeing has always been put aside a little bit. I think it’s a super important part,” he continued.
Nearly 85% of referees surveyed as part of the study revealed that they had been victims of verbal violence, and 45% of them had received threats or experienced physical violence.
This violence causes exhaustion, a reduction in well-being and a disengagement which pushes some of them to abandon refereeing, we can read in the report.
One act of violence towards a referee is already too much. The numbers are…the right word, it’s scary, Auger said. The difference from the normal working world makes no sense. I think over the years, people have trivialized it a little. It is up to us to give referees and stakeholders the tools to improve the climate.
Possible solutions
The study proposes 15 avenues for concrete solutions grouped into three recommendations: strengthen organizational support, support the community of referees and promote the resilience of referees.
A whole range of measures are already in place at Hockey Quebec, but Auger believes that the study will help guide his organization’s action plan a little more.
We had already started by setting up a refereeing department at Hockey Quebec with a structure that will really allow people on the ground to be directly linked to the federation, he explained. They [les recommandations] come to solidify what we are currently doing, but beyond that, it is about prioritizing the way in which we are going to do it.
Here we go and we are working with stakeholders to move things forward. We are doing it as necessary, we are not rushing anything, since we want to ensure that this reform, which is quite major, works, he added.
One of the premises of this study is the shortage of referees in Quebec. If the problem has been somewhat resolved under the measures recently implemented by Hockey Quebec, a problem remains: many referees leave the field after a few years.
Young referees register. The challenge we have is that they don’t stay, Auger lamented. Nearly half leave after a year or two. Therein lies the problem: the turnover rate.
Refereeing isn’t just about learning the rules; it takes time. It’s mileage. You don’t become a good referee overnight. If you start over all the time with new people, it’s difficult to develop expertise.
Obviously, it affects the level of the game and the entire development of hockey, he summarized.
Governance and women’s hockey
Two other priorities will mark Auger’s mandate at the helm of Hockey Quebec: governance and women’s hockey.
When Thibault left his post, he sent a very clear message to his successor. Some regional association leaders want nothing to do with changes in governance.
For Auger, the project is only just beginning. The positive reception within the project associations for a refereeing department seems to be a positive first step in relations. The general director believes that the associations have adhered to the plan and that things are going very well.
Regarding governance, Auger believes that he does not have all the data in hand to make a decision. At the end of July, Hockey Quebec announced that it had commissioned the firm KPMG to carry out an audit of its Sport-études programs and the 14 regional associations.
The regions have gotten on board with this, he said. What we told them was that we would like to have a picture of the situation. We want to see what the problems are. The process is in place, and so far everyone is participating well.
It’s hard to take action when you lack information. There, we will have a general portrait, he explained.
Auger mentioned that he would pay particular attention to the development of women’s hockey during his appointment. He quickly moved from words to action by setting up a women’s hockey department and making Stéphanie Poirier its director.
“It was the first thing I did in office,” Auger said proudly.
We need more players. There are approximately 8,100 players in Quebec, and there are more than 50,000 in Ontario. Obviously, there is a culture, a development that has taken place there and which, for all sorts of reasons, has not reached the same level here, he concluded.
