GROSS MISCONDUCT AT LACROSSE CANADA

 by Pierre Filion  pierrefilion@bell.net

When good things are done it is important to salute those who have done it. So, congratulations to the Lacrosse Canada staff member who sealed a partnership with TSN+ and the NLL to promote the game and to create developmental programs. This is interesting and positive but, obviously, TSN+ (streaming) is not quite TSN. Lacrosse still does not have the major visibility and existence that would allow for a major partnership. But this one is positive even if it is limited in scope.

Now we need to address again a situation where Lacrosse Canada has so poorly again dropped the ball: the Canada Games.

Everyone connected with the game knows that Lacrosse Canada inherited a place in the Canada Games for political reasons. Some ministers felt that if one National Sport was in the Canada Games then the ‘’other’’ National sport should also be in the Canada Games. This was not at all what the Canada Games Society and Sport Canada had in mind. At the time (2020) lacrosse was not yet an Olympic Sport and its High-Performance programs were slightly deficient, especially in box lacrosse.

Lacrosse could not meet the criteria for inclusion into the Canada Games; it never has! Who can forget Stan Cockerton’s famous quote: ‘’Even if every kid in Canada played lacrosse, we still could not be included into the Canada Games’’. It was a cold case of not meeting the stacked criteria; lacrosse was an interesting folkloric domestic sport but it was not worthy of inclusion into the Canada Games.

Until interested and somehow militant ministers brought up lacrosse’s National Sport status; that changed the situation for lacrosse and the game’s inclusion was met with positive comments everywhere. Many hoped that there would be an Aboriginal content and great visibility for the game.

Provincial Sport ministers had to add lacrosse to their Canada Games funding and provincial teams were helped financially because of the game’s inclusion.

Everyone connected with the game knows that Lacrosse Canada and the lacrosse community had no input whatsoever concerning the game’s inclusion. Zero influence and zero lobbying.

The situation being what it was we would all have expected that Lacrosse Canada would be grateful towards the politicians who changed the course of our game. Somehow Lacrosse Canada would have built a strategy to show that our game was significant, that our game was great and that the political decision was the right decision. Great visibility for our game would also have sent a message to the Canada Games Society and to Sport Canada: lacrosse is a great game worthy of inclusion within ‘’our’’ Canada Games.

It would have sent a message to the Provincial Sport Ministers that funding lacrosse was the right decision and the correct way to go forward.

We all expected Lacrosse Canada to inundate political cabinets with information pertaining to the game, to the athletes in competition, to the emergence of lacrosse in two small provinces (PEI and NFLD) who both successfully were sending two teams each to the Games; Lacrosse Canada could have profiled the great coaches who would be attending the Games and promote the quality of its coaching programs; it could have profiled a great on floor official who would be in his first ever Canada Games; it could have informed the members of national and provincial ministerial cabinets of the game’s relationship with the history of our country and of its Aboriginal content. Pictures and drawing could have been sent along so the politicians would be talking about lacrosse and maybe interested in seeing a game in person or maybe want to meet the athletes, to see a stick and to try to cradle it…

We all expected that Lacrosse Canada would seize the opportunity to help politicians help lacrosse!

None of that happened because Lacrosse Canada does not care about the provinces. The Canada Games were just a low life interprovincial event; a non-significant event. It was ‘’just domestically provincial’’.

Lacrosse Canada’s website did not even mention the Canada Games; zero posts on the Canada Games. Absolutely nothing for the two weeks during which lacrosse was played in Newfoundland by men and women.

This was simply a gross misconduct; inability to see the political aspect related to lacrosse in the CanadaGames; inability to write ONE SINGLE WORD about the better athletes, the great teams, the performing officials and the dedicated volunteers managing each team. Even game results were not posted on the website and obviously the medal winning teams were never mentioned. As if the event never happened. As if Lacrosse Canada did not need to be grateful to the politicians who got the game into the Canada Games by sowing them, and everyone else, that our game was meaningful, that it was important to us and that it deserved to be in the Canada Games.

Lacrosse Canada treated lacrosse at the Canada Games as garbage that no one wants to see or even look at.

It was gross misconduct. Period. There are no other words to describe the unbelievable disdain that Lacrosse Canada showed towards the Canada Games and towards lacrosse itself. Lacrosse Canada elected to IGNORE its product and not even write a word about it on its web site. For two weeks.

Some at Sport Canada will probably say: ‘’There it goes again; lacrosse is shooting itself in the foot. We might just be in a position to take care of them’’.

Some in different provincial lacrosse associations will wonder what are the advantages of being paying members of a national association who ignores its members. Paying members who send 979,605$ good Canadian dollars to Lacrosse Canada as membership fees.

Some in the media will ask: ‘’Why should we cover lacrosse when lacrosse cannot even cover itself on their own website?’

Some in the corporate world, looking for visibility for themselves, will ask: ‘’Why should we partner with these guys who ignore their own members and their own product?’’