Star columnists wonder: Is minor hockey child labour?

An article published by Nathan Kalman-Lamb and Ian Kennedy on Thursday said the "work" of minor hockey players is "another form of child labour" which "arguably flourishes in plain sight."

#Opinion: We need to genuinely reflect, across sports, about what high-performance sport demands of our children and what lessons it teaches. https://t.co/QV4oW4qbnU

— Toronto Star (@TorontoStar) March 9, 2023

One of the main contentions of Kalman-Lamb, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of New Brunswick and Kennedy, a journalist and Professional Hockey Writers' Association member, is that elite-level minor hockey coaches in the Greater Toronto Hockey League (GTHL) can earn more than $100,000, which amounts to "directly profiting from economic value produced by children."

#Opinion: We need to genuinely reflect, across sports, about what high-performance sport demands of our children and what lessons it teaches. https://t.co/QV4oW4qbnU

— Toronto Star (@TorontoStar) March 9, 2023

But, if hockey parents remain unconvinced that the thousands of dollars they pump into the sport and the early morning hours spent in the rink are oppressing their children by allowing them to play the sport they love and achieve their goals, the duo argues that minor hockey is also part of a toxic masculine culture:

In fact, this is not the full extent of exploitation, for this term should also account for unfairly distributed harms. It is increasingly clear that Canadian hockey culture is a site of systematic harm given that hazing, racist abuse and toxic masculinity have become endemic features of the sport. This means participation in high performance youth hockey, such as the GTHL, may expose children to such forms of harm in exchange for the value they produce for adults