Anishinaabekwe appointed to Hockey Canada’s advisory group

By Sam Laskaris

BARRIE – Laura McPhie is hoping she can help make a difference in the hockey world.

McPhie, a citizen of Algonquins of Pikwàkanagàn First Nation, is one of 11 individuals who have been appointed to Hockey Canada’s inaugural Indigenous Advisory Circle (IAC).

The group had its first meeting in Toronto on Nov. 12.

Hockey Canada established the IAC to help inform its organizational programs, policies, and practices that relate to the Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, as well as other initiatives that further the work between the sport’s national governing body and Indigenous peoples.

“For me, it’s really interesting,” McPhie, who lives in Barrie, Ont., said of her appointment. “I think that sport itself right now is going through a bit of a reckoning of the stories that have been hidden and have been pushed aside.”

McPhie was a swim coach for more than 15 years, but walked away in part because of the harm in sports.

“If we can’t change hockey, I don’t think we’re going to change the rest of the sports system,” she said. “So, we have to start with the hard job first.”

Indigenous individuals from across the country were asked to submit their interest in joining the IAC.

“Being on this is really a space to be able to see if there’s a way to envision a different sport world in Canada,” McPhie said. “And that’s why I wanted to try it out.”

McPhie was primarily a swim coach in Guelph; however, she also had a stint coaching a Toronto club.

She stopped coaching in 2018.

McPhie is currently the senior advisor of Indigenous relations for Sobeys. And she has worked extensively with various national and provincial sports organizations, including being an advisor for Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment.

McPhie, however, does not have any experience working in the hockey community.

“My partner’s family loves hockey,” she said. “And when I met them, I started paying more attention to it. But my expertise is in sport in general and also in child safeguarding and diversity, equity, and inclusion, and what safety means in different contexts.”

McPhie admits hockey is not her favourite sport.

“I would not even say that it’s always been a sport that I look to because, quite honestly, as a young person in sport, I knew some of the harms and some of that culture that didn’t fit me,” she said. “So, I didn’t go towards it very often.”

McPhie though is confident she can make some solid contributions to the IAC.

“I know a lot of policy and procedure,” she said. “And sport is really nuanced. It is complicated. The jurisdiction is complicated. And so, we need really creative solutions… We need to know that part of Hockey Canada is the relationships they hold with the provincial sport bodies and territorial sport bodies, but also with the professional leagues as well. So, if we want to make change, we have to make change across the ecosystem. And that’s something that I have a unique knowledge about. So, my hope is to be able to add that context.”

McPhie anticipates members of the IAC will hold a minimum of 3-4 meetings each year, but is unsure of how often meetings will be.

“They’re doing an interesting approach,” she said. “It’s not mandated. We’re going to design that piece. So, for the advisory circle, the next step is to have that conversation around how frequently [we would meet] and what would be the most useful for moving forward.”

The IAC’s next meeting might be in January.