Black Ice film explores Black hockey players’ history, experiences in Canada 

Saroya Tinker has built a successful career in professional hockey, now as a Premier Hockey Federation player, but she faced a tougher battle than most in Canada’s sport to reach this level.

She faced overt, and covert, examples of racism along her journey, the Toronto Six defender says.

“I always felt like I had to take a piece of my Blackness out to fit in with my team and my teammates and the sport in general,” Tinker said.

Her story and the experience of other Black hockey players in Canada are at the centre of Black Ice, a documentary by director Hubert Davis and Uninterrupted Canada. The film, sponsored by Scotiabank and now streaming on Crave, explores the journey of Black hockey players past and present. From the creation of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes to the modern-day NHL, the documentary highlights their contributions and delves into the challenges Black hockey players at all levels continue to face.

These issues must be raised and discussed to make the sport better for future generations, Tinker said at a recent screening and panel discussion with Davis and others involved in the film.

“Have those conversations, educate your children on these histories of hockey and make sure that everybody's being included in the conversation,” she said during the event at the Scotiabank Conference Centre in Toronto.

“Hockey has such an insular nature to it and it doesn't have to be like that. I think that we can be more inclusive than we have been, and I think that involves getting uncomfortable and really pushing the conversation.”

This documentary sponsorship is part of Scotiabank’s hockey for all  initiative, which aims to make the sport more diverse, inclusive and accessible.

“We are proud to support this film to help sustain the important conversation around diversity and equity in hockey,” said Laura Curtis Ferrera, Chief Marketing Officer at Scotiabank. “It is also important to highlight the Black community’s historical contributions to the game while also pushing for positive change to make hockey more inclusive for future generations.”

The film screening and panel for Scotiabank employees — moderated by Chris George, Senior Wealth Advisor and Portfolio Manager at Scotiabank and advisor and corporate ambassador to the Hockey Diversity Alliance — was also part of a broader push at the Bank during Black History Month and beyond to support the Black community and highlight Black voices.

Davis, whose earlier documentary work has been nominated for both an Oscar and an Emmy, hopes Black Ice can open up new dialogue and educate Canadians on the key role Black people play in hockey’s history.

“The Black experience has always been integral to Canada,” he said during the panel. “I never really knew that growing up and I think that makes a big difference. When you understand that you are actually an integral part of the story as opposed to an outsider who's kind of like on the margins.”

Black Ice takes a close look at The Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes (CHL), an all-Black men’s hockey league founded in Halifax, N.S., in 1895 —  a time when Black people were generally prohibited from participating in Canadian sports.

The documentary also features descendants of CHL players, former professional players including Akim Aliu, as well minor and junior hockey players speaking about the racism — including racial slurs — that continues to occur.

The film is an eye-opening look at the sport, but is also a celebration of the beauty of hockey and an effort to save the game, said Uninterrupted Canada’s Chief Content Officer Vinay Virmani.

“We made this film because we love the sport. There’s a lot of great things about the sport and I truly believe there are more good people than bad in hockey as well,” he said.

“This is a love letter to the game, and not all love letters have to be sweet and beautiful and nice and polite and whatever. Love letters can be complicated.”

The documentary also shone the spotlight on efforts underway to change the sport, including by Kirk Brooks, who in 2020 co-founded Seaside Hockey, a non-profit that provides opportunities for racialized and marginalized youth to play the sport in a hockey-based mentorship program. The Black-run initiative runs in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough and takes its name from the Africville Sea-Sides, a team that played in the CHL. Brooks’ family has roots in Africville, a thriving predominantly Black community in coastal Nova Scotia that was later destroyed, and its residents displaced, to make way for Halifax’s economic expansion.

For Brooks, the Black community has always been integral to the sport.

“We’ve never thought that we’re not part of the game. And one of the things I talked to Hubert about… I said to him that this story was so important and I wanted to make sure he understood how important it was to us, the Black hockey community, that this information get out there and that the story be told properly.”

Seaside is a Hockey Canada certified community organization, Brooks notes, which is key to help facilitate change. He has been trying to ensure that there is a proper disciplinary process, and resources available, to deal with racially charged incidents that young players still encounter today. The documentary showed the story of one young Black hockey player who was called a racial slur and had been waiting for months for a resolution.

“We thought it was really important that we had a voice at the table so that we were able to now try to push other organizations,” Brooks said. “And they've been working with us now to change those rules.”

Tinker’s work mentoring young girls of colour who play the sport was also highlighted in the film. She says she did not see herself represented in the sport growing up – Canadian hockey trailblazer Angela James retired in 1998, the year Tinker was born – and being a role model for the next generation is important.

“These girls need a physical manifestation of what they want to be,” she said.

Tinker founded the Canadian chapter of Black Girl Hockey Club, which aims to inspire passion for the sport within the Black community.

Black Girl Hockey Club Canada provides financial aid and scholarship opportunities, as well as mentorship and community spaces to give Black women and girls access to hockey.

For example, the club recently had an event at Scotiabank Arena that included a tour of the Maple Leafs dressing room and an on-ice clinic, said Tinker.

Jael Richardson, the author of The Hockey Jersey — a children’s book about a young girl as she plays her first hockey game — read the story to the event participants, who were also given a copy. The book aims to help all kids from diverse backgrounds see themselves represented in hockey and was commissioned by Scotiabank.

“It's the girls connecting with one another and realizing that other little Black girls love hockey just as much as they do, and that it's the norm,” Tinker said. “They're around people of colour. And I think that's really what we're aiming to do, is diversify the sport.”