The controversy surrounding Dean Lapierre, the beleaguered president of the Windsor Minor Hockey Association continues.
The Windsor District Labour Council has announced a new forum to help create positivity in the local sports community.
Organizers say the forum was triggered by the actions of Windsor minor hockey's president.
But the goal is not to focus strictly on the negative, but rather the promising practices in sport.
“There's often a trigger event that gets you thinking of why did this happen, and how can we prevent it in the future," says Marge Holman.
In January, Lapierre posted derogatory comments on Facebook, calling Canadian women who participated in the women's march on Washington "dumb bitches."
After a suspension, he's back as president of the association.
Instead of taking a "blaming and shaming" approach, the labour council wants to take a step back and look at promising practices for all organizations to adopt.
“It's time to step forward and develop some preventative measures that will hopefully change," says Holman.
Members of the local sports community, from the boards to coaches, volunteers and parents are invited to take part in the forum, which aims to build safe, inclusive and equitable sport organizations.
“I would like to see some work on the constitution of bylaws so that sport orgs reflect the kind of values that we think are important in this kind of community," says Victoria Paraschak, a professor in the Department of Human Kinetics at the University of Windsor.
She hopes the round-table discussion will hone in on the "strength in hope" framework -- and draw on each others strengths -- as opposed to focusing on the negatives.
The roundtable discussion takes place next Wednesday, May 3 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Ciociaro Club.
Everyone is welcome, but organizers really want to have a good showing of men and women in the local sports community.
