Akim Aliu had high hopes for Kim Davis — especially after their early dialogue.
The NHL’s executive vice-president of social impact, growth initiatives and legislative affairs seemed open, Aliu thought at the time, to ideas put forward by the Hockey Diversity Alliance, an organization started by a group of current and former players of colour looking to share their experiences in hopes of bettering the sport.
Aliu, one of those founding members, said the tone quickly changed. And he believes Davis has fumbled her chance to make an impact.
“Extremely disappointing,” Aliu said in a recent interview. “Kim Davis without (NHL commissioner) Gary Bettman on the call versus Kim Davis with Gary Bettman on the call are two different people.
“She has missed a massive opportunity to come in as a woman of colour and, for once, be in a position of power in hockey.”
Davis, who started with the NHL in 2017 and has been at the fore of its diversity and inclusion initiatives, declined to address Aliu’s criticism when contacted by The Canadian Press.
“I’ve been in the business of change work in major corporations for over 40 years,” she said. “I don’t need to be affirmed by Akim. What affirms me is progress.
“The point at hand is young people and growing the game. I thought that’s what (the HDA) was about, not talking about what I am or am not doing.”
The links between the HDA and NHL frayed after 2020’s initial push. The league launched — or relaunched in the HDA’s eyes — its Player Inclusion Coalition in June with the NHLPA to “advance equality and inclusion” in the sport.
The HDA, which includes current NHLers Nazem Kadri and Matt Dumba, felt betrayed, said Aliu.
“Zero relationship,” Aliu, the HDA’s chairman, said of the NHL. “They actively tried to silence us.”
Aliu was born in Nigeria before his family eventually relocated to Toronto.
A journeyman pro hockey player who appeared in seven NHL games, Aliu revealed in November 2019 then-Calgary coach Bill Peters bullied and directed racist slurs at him in the minors a decade earlier. Peters resigned and the league instituted a personal conduct policy in hopes of tackling racism in a traditionally white-dominated sport.
So where did things go wrong for the HDA and NHL?
“Just as they’re doing with other individuals … they essentially bring you in and buy you, in a way, to silence you,” Aliu said. “We were a group that would not be silenced.”
The HDA — which Aliu said is supporting more than 700 kids in hockey from underserved communities across the Greater Toronto Area, and has plans to expand programs to other cities — is hosting its first-ever WinterFest this weekend.
The event aimed highlighting the importance of diversity and inclusion in hockey is set for Toronto’s Trinity Bellwoods Park as the NHL is holding its all-star festivities in the city.
“We’ve been looked at for a long time as a group that’s confrontational,” Aliu said. “We’re the only group that calls out the hockey establishment, but it’s important to highlight all of the work.”
Aliu was also critical of the NHL Player Inclusion Coalition.
“Nothing happens,” he said. “Essentially they’re giving each one of the players a sum of money to put into a cause that’s important to them. It’s not necessarily a cause to grow the game.”
Davis and the NHL pushed back on that sentiment, pointing out that along with funding, there have been eight player-led initiatives since last summer, including learn-to-play clinics, ball hockey programs and mentorship sessions.
“Diversity is not a monolith,” Davis said. “Diversity has many tentacles. I honestly don’t know what the disconnect is.”
The NHL is also holding several community events during all-star week, including its “hockey rink for all,” a youth jamboree and an all-star Pride Cup.
“Is everything perfect? Of course not,” Davis said. “But I think we’re putting the tools and the policies and the accountability elements in place. This is a long game.”
Aliu said one area where he’s seen change is the media being more aware of what he called “performative” gestures.
“Within the communities and the few people doing this work, it’s a nice sight,” he said.
Aliu added that while there has been progress, in his view the game has taken a step back.
“Let’s just cancel all the Pride jerseys because seven guys didn’t want to wear them,” he said of the NHL’s decision to ban LGBTQ+ warmup threads. “They can go around and have all their slogans.
“People actually doing the work know it’s an act.”
TORONTO ALL-STAR
Canada’s largest city, which last hosted the NHL’s big bash back in 2000, has welcomed other sports’ big events in the interim.
The NBA all-star game was held at Air Canada Centre — now Scotiabank Arena — in 2016. Major League Soccer held its showcase at BMO Field in 2008 when England’s West Ham United met the MLS all-stars.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 31, 2024.
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Joshua Clipperton’s weekly NHL notebook is published every Wednesday.
PARIS (AP) — French judicial authorities are investigating the disappearance of two Paralympic athletes from Congo who recently competed in the Paris Games, the prosecutor’s office in the Paris suburb of Bobigny confirmed on Thursday.
Prosecutors opened the investigation on Sept. 7, after members of the athletes’ delegation warned authorities of their disappearance two days before.
Le Parisien newspaper reported that shot putter Mireille Nganga and Emmanuel Grace Mouambako, a visually impaired sprinter who was accompanied by a guide, went missing on Sept. 5, along with a third person.
The athletes’ suitcases were also gone but their passports remained with the Congolese delegation, according to an official with knowledge of the investigation, who asked to remain anonymous as they were not allowed to speak publicly about the case.
The Paralympic Committee of the Democratic Republic of Congo did not respond to requests for information from The Associated Press.
Nganga — who recorded no mark in the seated javelin and shot put competitions — and Mouambako were Congo’s flag bearers at the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games, organizers said.
An investigator gave the World Anti-Doping Agency a pass on its handling of the inflammatory case involving Chinese swimmers, but not without hammering away at the “curious” nature of WADA’s “silence” after examining Chinese actions that did not follow rules designed to safeguard global sports.
WADA on Thursday released the full decision from Eric Cottier, the Swiss investigator it appointed to analyze its handling of the case involving the 23 Chinese swimmers who remained eligible despite testing positive for performance enhancers in 2021.
In echoing wording from an interim report issued earlier this summer, Cottier said it was “reasonable” that WADA chose not to appeal the Chinese anti-doping agency’s explanation that the positives came from contamination.
“Taking into consideration the particularities of the case, (WADA) appears … to have acted in accordance with the rules it has itself laid out for anti-doping organizations,” Cottier wrote.
But peppered throughout his granular, 56-page analysis of the case was evidence and reminders of how WADA disregarded some of China’s violations of anti-doping protocols. Cottier concluded this happened more for the sake of expediency than to show favoritism toward the Chinese.
“In retrospect at least, the Agency’s silence is curious, in the face of a procedure that does not respect the fundamental rules, and its lack of reaction is surprising,” Cottier wrote of WADA’s lack of fealty to the world anti-doping code.
Travis Tygart, the CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and one of WADA’s fiercest critics, latched onto this dynamic, saying Cottier’s information “clearly shows that China did not follow the rules, and that WADA management did nothing about it.”
One of the chief complaints over the handling of this case was that neither WADA nor the Chinese gave any public notice upon learning of the positive tests for the banned heart medication Temozolomide, known as TMZ.
The athletes also were largely kept in the dark and the burden to prove their innocence was taken up by Chinese authorities, not the athletes themselves, which runs counter to what the rulebook demands.
Despite the criticisms, WADA generally welcomed the report.
“Above all, (Cottier) reiterated that WADA showed no bias towards China and that its decision not to appeal the cases was reasonable based on the evidence,” WADA director general Olivier Niggli said. “There are however certainly lessons to be learned by WADA and others from this situation.”
Tygart said “this report validates our concerns and only raises new questions that must be answered.”
Cottier expanded on doubts WADA’s own chief scientist, Olivier Rabin, had expressed over the Chinese contamination theory — snippets of which were introduced in the interim report. Rabin was wary of the idea that “a few micrograms” of TMZ found in the kitchen at the hotel where the swimmers stayed could be enough to cause the group contamination.
“Since he was not in a position to exclude the scenario of contamination with solid evidence, he saw no other solution than to accept it, even if he continued to have doubts about the reality of contamination as described by the Chinese authorities,” Cottier wrote.
Though recommendations for changes had been expected in the report, Cottier made none, instead referring to several comments he’d made earlier in the report.
Key among them were his misgivings that a case this big was largely handled in private — a breach of custom, if not the rules themselves — both while China was investigating and after the file had been forwarded to WADA. Not until the New York Times and German broadcaster ARD reported on the positives were any details revealed.
“At the very least, the extraordinary nature of the case (23 swimmers, including top-class athletes, 28 positive tests out of 60 for a banned substance of therapeutic origin, etc.), could have led to coordinated and concerted reflection within the Agency, culminating in a formal and clearly expressed decision to take no action,” the report said.
WADA’s executive committee established a working group to address two more of Cottier’s criticisms — the first involving what he said was essentially WADA’s sloppy recordkeeping and lack of formal protocol, especially in cases this complex; and the second a need to better flesh out rules for complex cases involving group contamination.
The French league’s legal commission has ordered Paris Saint-Germain to pay Kylian Mbappé the 55 million euros ($61 million) in unpaid wages that he claims he’s entitled to, the league said Thursday.
The league confirmed the decision to The Associated Press without more details, a day after the France superstar rejected a mediation offer by the commission in his dispute with his former club.
