Date Archives → November 2022

Email to Families | Week 8 Update

Dear Families,

We have a few pieces of news and reminders to share.

1. Rebalancing

After the first few weeks in the season, it is sometimes necessary to re-balance teams. The league does this to keep games fun for kids by making sure that no team is winning or losing all the time.

Please join us in giving a warm welcome to T and L. They will be with us for the rest of the season. We’d like to thank S and T for being great team mates on and off the ice. We are sad to see them go and wish them well on their new teams.

2. Covering zones and playing positions

Here are a few videos on playing positions in the defensive zone that have been selected by Coach Matt. All players should watch these videos. This might be new information for some and a reminder for others. In either case, it gives our team a common foundation that we can build on.

Overall defensive zone coverage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9r9AJx2jKo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzh7D768sVA

Coverage for each position
Defence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aXsrNrT5RI
Wing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikqt_iY4nSA
Center: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1BN-Om5i6Q

3. Expectations for players

To ensure that practices and games run smoothly, we have some basic expectations for players.

* Put on equipment independently.
* Arrive 20 minutes before the start of a game
* Take off equipment independently.

Many thanks to the players and families who are already meeting these expectations. If your child is not meeting these expectations, they may need some support from you to get there.

The changing rooms are small, so we’d like parents to wait outside. With the exception of tying skates and putting on goalie equipment, players at this age are capable of dressing on their own. If a player needs help with skate tying, they can ask for help or they can come out of the dressing room to ask a parent.

We need players to arrive early for games, so that we can have a team meeting. At that time, we review the lines and points of performance for the game. The coaches need to prepare a roster on paper for the game officials. It’s stressful for players and coaches when some kids don’t show up until the last minute. Also, this is why we ask that you keep your availability up to date on TeamSnap. If a player arrives after the game sheet has been submitted, they may not be able to play in the game.

Ideally, the players go on the ice as soon as the zamboni leaves the ice, so they can have a good warm up.

4. Positive reinforcement

I’d like to wrap up with comments on things that have been going well.

We had a great practice last week. We worked on skills and every player who was there improved significantly. I was delighted because one of my goals is for players to learn and grow.

So far this season, we’ve had 6 different players in net, including one person who had never been a goalie before. I’m really proud of our kids for stepping outside their comfort zone and trying something new. These are the kinds of lessons that we can take from the ice into life.

As parents, it’s important for us to provide positive reinforcement to the kids. About 70% of kids drop out of sports by high school, because it stops being fun. Many kids find the ride home particularly miserable, because parents like to provide “constructive criticism.” The most important things we can say to them are “I’m proud of you when you play hockey” and “I like watching you play.” I know how challenging it is to make this change, because I did it. But the results have been worth it.

Thanks to you, the families. We wouldn’t have a team without you. If you have any questions or concerns, we are here to help.

Best,

Susan

Arena Notes | What to do about huddle puck?

When young children first start playing organized soccer, they play “huddle ball.” The energetic players all start following the ball around the field. Although, there are positions, such as forward, half back, and full back, nobody is playing them. This phenomenon can be attributed to lack of knowledge, lack of maturity, and simple enthusiasm. Kids start playing positions as they grow older and taught a better way. They become more skilled at passing the ball, so chasing is less effective. Also, a full-size soccer pitch is large, so it’s not feasible for player to follow the ball.

The same evolution happens in hockey. Kids start out playing huddle puck. They need knowledge, skill, and trust to play positions. There are a few factors working against us in house league.

  • There’s a lot of variation in skill level. Some kids can’t skate fast enough to keep up with the action. Some kids are highly skilled and are capable of carrying the play themselves.
  • The playing surface is smaller and skating is easier than running, so kids receive less negative reinforcement for chasing the puck constantly.
  • There’s a lack of trust in playing positions. They don’t trust the system. The kids don’t trust each other to be in the right place to take advantage of the positions.

Our team is playing huddle puck, and winning games. I’m worried about how long this will last. We are going to start losing to teams that play positions.

The professional coaches are emphasizing individual skills, so they’re not covering this area. I asked Coach Matthew about this and he said that it takes a long time for kids to learn this. He kindly found some videos for me and the kids to watch.

Whether or not we are successful, we need to start setting the expectation that kids play the position that they are assigned.

I don’t know how to teach this skill. I don’t have the experience playing or teaching. Since, I don’t have anything better to offer, I’m going to leave things be. It’s especially hard to mess with a winning record.

Arena Notes | Week 6

I expected to be outside my comfort zone and I got that in spades, probably more than I expected. For the first couple of weeks of the season, I had trouble falling asleep after games because I re-hash all the things I got wrong. They weren’t big things, but it was uncomfortable not getting things right. It’s better now and I don’t have any trouble sleeping.

The experience has been simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar.

In my work life, I’m a woman POC in technology and I lead teams. I’ve always had to deal with unconscious bias and being the “only” in the room. That experience has served me well. I’m the only woman coach in our division. I haven’t met any other women coaches.

Being a coach who doesn’t play hockey is a lot like being a mid-level manager who doesn’t have the skill to be an individual contributor. It’s not so different from being a mid-level manager. I have to over-communicate with my peers to build relationships and present a vision for the team. My assistant coaches didn’t know what to make of me at first. They didn’t have any template for someone like me, so they didn’t know which way to jump. I hope they’re used to me now. I ask a lot of questions. I try get their input, though they don’t have a lot to say.

What has been unfamiliar are the practices and the kids.

During the on-ice practices, some of the coaches have been lovely and gave me things to do. Other times, I wander around aimlessly. I feel like I’m most helpful in trying to get things to go smoothly. I collect up pucks. I visit different drill stations and provide small bits of encouragement.

The kids are like space aliens to me. Although, one of them is my son, I feel like I don’t have a good mental model for their hearts and heads. When I talk to them on the ice, they give me strange looks. It’s like they’re here for the hockey, not chit chat. Most kids follow my instructions, because I’m an adult and they’ve been programmed to do that. A few of the select players don’t really respect me. They are slow to follow instructions and don’t make eye contact with me when I’m talking to them. I still need to win them over.

Whatever the struggles on my part, the team has a record of 4-1-1. The team will continue to be happy for as long as we’re winning. I don’t know how viable this is as a long term strategy, but that’s where we are in week 6.

We made the first trans woman at our church retreat cry

Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance. I’ve seen a lot of stories come across my social media feed this week. One of the observations was that if you don’t know any trans people, it’s probably because they don’t feel safe around you. That seems right.

I want to share with you a couple of my experiences in providing safety: one time I got it right and one time I fucked up. I realize that Transgender Day of Remembrance isn’t about me. It’s about those we’ve lost or harmed. As an ally, I’d like to add my voice to the chorus, so there aren’t so many losses.

When I lived in California, I attended a church that was “open and affirming,” which meant that we welcomed lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) members. We didn’t have a test of faith for membership or even tithing requirements. It was a progressive church and it’s where I learned to protest– against the war in Iraq, for Obamacare, for gay marriage– you name it. It was a comfortable moral and spiritual home for me. It wasn’t perfect, for example, on race issues, but it fed me emotionally and I needed that.

There was a young trans woman in our congregation. She joined before she started transitioning, so there was a before and an after. Let’s call her Chelsea. Her family had disowned her. She worked in a technical field, but the environment wasn’t great. She was on her own.

The church had an annual women’s retreat, where the women of the church went to a camp in the mountains for a weekend. (I don’t really know what the rest of the congregation did while we were gone. I never got to see it.) We sang, prayed, mediated, walked, talked, and ate. There’s an amazing labyrinth on the grounds for moving meditation. It was a lovely time and in two days, it we did feel like we were getting away.

On the Saturday afternoon, we were having a sharing circle. The retreat leader had given us an exercise and we were discussing our responses. Honestly, I don’t even remember the activity. We were nearly done the session when Chelsea started to cry. It started quietly, but got to the level of noisy sniffling. No ugly crying.

It was hard to know what to do. Was it something we did or said? None of us were really close to Chelsea. I was easily 10+ years older than her and the rest were even older.

When I get nervous, I tend to get quiet. I went and sat next to Chelsea. I think I touched her on the arm or shoulder. We communicated a lot with our eyes.

“Happy tears,” she said and I understood. This was her first women’s retreat. She came and she was treated the same as any other participant. The night before, we wore pyjamas together. Nobody questioned whether she should be there. She wasn’t silenced or ignored.

I’m proud of the safety that we provided Chelsea, not just that weekend, but also after. She eventually formed a chosen family with church members. When Chelsea had her gender-affirming surgery, a woman from the retreat went with her. My part in this was tiny and it wasn’t hard. But it meant a lot to someone who had experienced a lot of rejection.

So, let me tell you about a time when I didn’t make it safe for a trans man.

Several years ago in Toronto, I was teaching an undergraduate class in computer science where students had to work in teams. From my own experience, I knew that it was miserable being the only woman in a group. So when I formed groups, I made sure that there were at least two women in each group. Groups with only men were unavoidable and acceptable. To achieve this distribution, I had students fill out a form that asked a bunch of questions, including gender.

When it came time to create this groups, I didn’t have forms for every student. They could have missed the class or just neglected to fill out the form. I sometimes had to check the university database of student records or even LinkedIn. Having pronouns in your profile was not common then, so it wasn’t that helpful.

I had one particular student who answered “male” on the form that I provided. Let’s call him Tom. But in his university record, his sex was “female.” He presented as male on his LinkedIn profile. I placed him in a group as a male.

At the end of the next class, Tom came up to me and asked why I was looking at his LinkedIn profile. He was friendly and not confrontational. I said that I was trying to confirm gender for creating the groups and I was confused by the university records. You can see where this is going.

Tom was taken aback and said that it was a ridiculous mistake on the university records. I commiserated.

Later, he sent me an email. He was trans man. Although he was comfortable with his status, he told me that I should be more careful about outing people. I had a sick feeling in my stomach. He was absolutely right and I apologised.

This was a good lesson for me. I was trying to solve a problem for women and it didn’t even cross my mind how my solution would scale to transgender individuals. I think if I were doing this again, I’d be more explicit about my intentions to handle inequality and get students to help me arrive at the solution. It’s patronizing and infantilizing to do otherwise.

The second occasion happened after the first, so it’s not like I didn’t know what good looked like.

On this Transgender Day of Remembrance, I’m thinking of you, Chelsea, Tom, Tami, Hunter, Alex, Veronika, and June. Thanks for the lessons that you taught me and are teaching me about how to be a better person. I’ll still get things wrong, like pronouns and anti-oppression, but you have my support.

It’s a process and here’s what I commit to do. Be humble. Educate myself. Listen. Do my best. Expect to get things wrong. Ask for forgiveness. Accept feedback.

Email to Families | Week 5 Update

Hello Families,

We are heading into our fifth weekend of the hockey season. It’s been good to see hockey legs start to come back and new skills being polished. We have a couple of requests for the parents, so our game nights run more smoothly.

1. Keep TeamSnap up to date with your child’s availability. We use this information when assigning kids to positions for a game. If something comes up at the last minute, you can send a message through TeamSnap.

2. Be dressed and ready to go 15 minutes before a game. We need the time before the game to familiarize the kids with their lines and talk about how they are going to play their positions. As well, the team will be able to make the most of the warm up time on ice before the game starts.

3. Finally, we have a general request, not just for game nights. We’d like to work towards players getting dressed and undressed independently, with the exception of tying their skates. We’ve seen the players being kind and helping each other in the dressing room, so this is an opportunity for learning and team building.

Thank you so much for your support, as always. We wouldn’t have much of a team without the families behind the players. If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know. Looking forward to seeing you this weekend.

Best,

Susan

A line in the sand

Image of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Source: Government of Canada

When I was a teenager, I had the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms on my bedroom wall. It had pride of place right next to pinups of Duran Duran and Corey Hart. As an immigrant and racialized person, it appealed to me. The idealism of everyone being equal and having the same rights made sense to my analytical mind and stood in contrast to the baffling prejudices I experienced in my daily life.

Although Canada was founded in 1867, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was patriated only in 1982. It was authored by the first ministers– the Prime Ministers and Premiers of the ten provinces. Of course, the final deal was determined by a group of white men ensconced in a room. In this case, the room where it happened was the kitchen of a conference centre.

The Prime Minister in 1982 was Pierre Trudeau, father of our current Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. 

A key part of the deal was the inclusion of Section 33, the notwithstanding clause, which allows parliament, provincial or territorial legislature to declare a law to be exempt from the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It was added because provinces did not want their authority diminished. As envisioned, Section 33 would be used only in exceptional circumstances after fulsome debate about the trade offs between group and individual rights. It was a compromise– not ideal, but it got the job done. I’m confident that Charter would not have passed without it.

Yesterday, the Ontario government passed legislation to prevent a labour union from going on strike. As I wrote previously, Bill 28 preemptively invokes the notwithstanding clause. In other words, the government knew that the law violates the rights in Sections 3, 7, and 15 of the Charter, and they were going to do it anyways.

The Section 2 rights being infringed were “freedom of peaceful assembly” and “freedom of association.” Section 7 provides legal rights and “…the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.” Section 15 provides equality rights, and the protected categories are: race, national or ethnic origin; colour; religion; sex; age or mental or physical disability.

The bill was rushed through in less than a week. There was no court challenge. There was no public debate. They hadn’t even exhausted all of the mechanisms for bargaining with a union. It was just bullying. The government has crossed a line in the sand.

So you can see why a kid who was enamoured with the Charter had to show up to protest. Normally, labour negotiations are messy. If the answer was clear, the dispute would be resolved before there’s any coverage in the media. But the invocation of the notwithstanding clause changed the calculus of the dispute. Whereas percentage wage increases are negotiable, charter rights are fundamental.

If Charter Rights and Freedoms can be taken away when they are inconvenient for a government, then no one is safe.

Today’s protest included parents, children, and representatives from many unions, including 5 unions that endorsed the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario in the last election in the spring. The atmosphere was festive– there was music, an African drum circle, a conga line, and an activity tent for kids. There was a picket line around Queen’s Park and eventually traffic was stopped entirely on Queen’s Park Crescent. I saw Fred Hahn and got to talk to Laura Walton.

Forty years later, the Charter does show its age. For example, the opening sentence is: “Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law…” If we were writing the Charter today, we probably wouldn’t use this language.

More significantly, we collectively have changed. Politics is less collaborative, and more about scoring points. Disputes were more genteel in the 1980s and 1990s. It felt like parties across the political spectrum were working towards a common goal of a better Canada. We might disagree on how to get there, but at least we agreed on the project. When a right-of-centre party was elected, it didn’t feel like an existential threat. It felt like letting another member of the family choose what we were having for dinner. It sounds quaint now.

I don’t even know how to charitably describe right-of-centre parties today. It’s not just that they have different ideas about fiscal policy or the speed of social change, but rather we are living in different worlds with alternative facts, personal attacks rather than policy proposals, and different bounds of good behaviour. To be clear, I’m talking about only Canada in the current article. But this fracturing is playing out all over the world.

We probably wouldn’t be able patriate a Charter of Rights and Freedoms today. Or even amend it to remove the British monarchy as the head of state, to add protections for sexual orientation, or to remove the notwithstanding clause.

This dispute will play out in the coming days. The union called the gather today a political protest and not a strike. No one has been charged under the new law. Prime Minister Trudeau has expressed his disapproval of the law. It may be referred to the Supreme Court of Canada. Separately, a transit union has called a strike for Monday. The hashtag #generalstrike was trending on Twitter. Stay tuned.

Another woman goes over the glass cliff

Last month, we saw Liz Truss go over a glass cliff. She was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for a tumultuous 45 days.

A glass cliff is tendency to promote women into a leadership role during a time of crisis when there is a high risk of failure. This promotion is typically followed by spectacular and public failure.

Research on the glass cliff has focused on women, and that bias is present in this article. The findings are likely applicable to gender non-conforming individuals and members of other underrepresented groups. For instance, Truss’s successor, Rishi Sunak, is the first British Asian Prime Minister and he might be headed over the same glass cliff. In addition, an individual who is at the intersection of multiple underrepresented groups may experience a geometric increase in challenges.

Michelle K. Ryan and S. Alexander Haslam were the first to characterize the glass cliff. They found that women were more likely to be promoted during a crisis for multiple reasons.

  1. There was strong association between female management and failing companies.
  2. There is a perception that women have better “soft skills” which are needed during a downturn, which is a kind of benevolent sexism.
  3. Women have fewer advancement opportunities and are more likely to accept a position with a high risk of failure.
  4. Men protect other men from high risk positions, a phenomenon called “in-group favoritism.”
  5. Women are viewed as more expendable.
  6. Appointing a woman leader can signal that drastic action is being taken.

Ryan and Haslam found that 52% of men questioned the existence of a glass cliff, while only 5% of women expressed doubts.

Looking specifically at large cap tech companies, Douglas Branson wrote in his 2018 book about eight women CEOs who got the job during a crisis or downturn. (There were only an additional 4 women tech CEOs in his study who were not glass cliff hires.) As the list below shows, some women do succeed despite being hired during a crisis or downturn.

  • Carleton Fiorina, HP, 1999-2005. Fiorina’s time included acquisitions, layoffs, operating losses, and falling stock prices. At the end, she was forced to resign by the board.
  • Safra Catz, Oracle, 1999-present. During Catz’s tenure, Oracle’s market share went from over 40% to 0.41% for cloud services.
  • Anne Mulcahy, Xerox, 2001-2009. Mulcahy oversaw thirteen consecutive quarters of losses and a stock price drop from $10.05 to $6.82. Mulcahy was named CEO of the Year before her retirement.
  • Patricia Russo, Lucent Technnologies (later Alcatel), 2002-2008. Russo returned Lucent to profitability in 2004 after three years of losses and subsequently took the helm at the post-merger Lucent/Alcatel.
  • Carol Bartz, Yahoo!, 2009-2011. Despite making cuts to the work force, reducing costs, and restructuring the organization, Bartz wasn’t able stop the losses and take Yahoo! in a positive direction. She was removed from the role by the board.
  • Meg Whitman, HP, 2011-2017. After three years of losses, layoffs, and a 62% decline in stock price, Whitman broke up the iconic company.
  • Marissa Mayer, Yahoo!, 2012-2017. Every move that Mayer made as CEO was under the microscope, and there was a lot of second guessing in the media coverage. When she wasn’t able to turn around the Internet giant, she was dismissed by the board, following a sale to Verizon for $4.8 billion, a fraction of its peak value of $125 billion
  • Virginia Rometty, IBM, 2012-2020. Rometty oversaw five years of quarterly revenue declines before she retired.

Today, among Fortune 500 companies, 32 (6.4%) are women and 1 transgender woman (Sue Nabi of Coty). This group includes five in tech: Safra Catz (Oracle), Shar Dubey (Match Group), Christine Leahy (CDW), Lisa Su (AMD), and Jayshree Ullal (Arista Networks).

But in the four years since Branson’s study, I haven’t seen anything that would suggest a decrease in glass cliff promotions. The technology sector has largely been on an upswing. In the last six months, many tech companies have laid off staff and tightened budgets. We are now entering an era when tech companies are contracting, and one might occur.

Glass cliff promotions are not limited to the C-suite. To my knowledge, I’ve not had the opportunity to be a glass cliff promotion. But I have seen a woman head a death march project.

How about you? Have you experienced a glass cliff promotion? How did you cope? How did it turn out?

Putting children first

The Ontario Legislature is currently debating Bill 28, Keeping Students in Class Act, 2022. The purpose of the bill is to prevent education workers from going on strike and imposing a settlement on them. The worst parts of this bill are 1) preemptively invoking the notwithstanding clause of the Canadian constitution and 2) circumventing the Ontario Human Rights Code. This is no way to run a government. It’s not how the notwithstanding clause was meant to be used and human rights aren’t limited to when it’s convenient.

If you want to learn more about the labour conflict, there’s lots of material. If the government wants to put children first, the solution is easy: pay fair wages, so schools can hire and retain qualified people. Of course the government should be responsible holders of the public purse. So that means staying at the bargaining table and making reasonable offers. Not by fast-tracking legislation that a priori takes away rights.

Why shouldn’t we use the notwithstanding clause?

Section 33 of the Canadian constitution allows governments to exempt laws from the Bill of Rights. Since Sections 2 and 7-15 of the charter protects individual rights, it was felt that some kind of mechanism was needed to supersede individual rights in an exceptional circumstance after careful consideration. The Province of Québec has been a heavy user to shield their language laws. The constitution probably would not have ratified without it

33 (1) Parliament or the legislature of a province may expressly declare in an Act of Parliament or of the legislature, as the case may be, that the Act or a provision thereof shall operate notwithstanding a provision included in section 2 or sections 7 to 15 of this Charter.

Unfortunately, the clause is being used like a cheat code when the game of governing gets to be too hard. This is the third time that the Ford government has attempted to use it.

What can I do?

Rather than ranting on social media, here are a few actions you can take. Actions at the top of the list tend to be more effective and less effort. Do one or more than one. It’s up to you.

Option 1: Contact Premier Ford, Minister Lecce and your MPP

Call Premier Ford: 416-325-1941
Call Minister Lecce: 416-325-2600

You can email too, but call is better. Premier Ford pays attention to the feedback that comes in each day and his phone is answered 24/7.

If you are just as stunned by @fordnation & @Sflecce‘s use of the Notwithstanding Clause to trample education workers’ rights, don’t just tweet. Call them.


Ford: 📞416-325-1941
Lecce: 📞416-325-2600


I am a parent. I want my child in class as much as anyone else. Not like this.” — Danyaal Raza (@DanyaalRaza) October 31, 2022

When you call, make your points and be polite. The people on the phone are just doing their jobs.

Here’s what I said.

“I’m concerned about Bill 28, Keeping Students in Class Act. It uses the notwithstanding clause of the Canadian constitution and sets aside the Ontario Human Rights Code. This is not a good law. The government should get back to the bargaining table and give education workers a fair deal. Their wages should keep up with inflation and schools should be able to hire qualified people to do the work.”

You can also contact your MPP by phone or email. You can find your MPP by using your address. If your MPP is not a Conservative, it’s less effective, but still worth doing.

I emailed using basically the same words as I did over the phone.

Option 2: Write to Prime Minister Trudeau and your MP

The federal government can disallow a law passed by a provincial government. It hasn’t been used for many years, but in the past it was used a lot. Bill 28, if it’s passed, would set a bad precedent and it’s worthwhile putting up a fight.

Comment
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intoronto

Option 3: Donate your “Catch Up Payment”

The Ministry of Education has a one-time program to give parents $200 per child ($250 for a special needs child) to help them “catch up” on learning gaps that came about as a result of the COVID pandemic. The program cost $365 million. As an individual parent, I can’t move the needle on three years of pandemic schooling with $200. But imagine what a teacher could do with $5400 or what an entire school could do with $140,000.

Apply for the payment and donate it.

I suggest CUPE, as they will be facing fines and legal fees. Email for Interac is info@osbcu.ca. You could also donate it to an opposition party. Or your favourite teacher.

Option 4: Join a picket line

Join a picket line to support them.

“Find a picket line here: cupe.on.ca/dontbeabully/” Source: @Yoequality on Twitter

I did.