Quebec soccer clubs use role-playing to prepare referees for abusive encounters
CBC
As the head referee for CS Saint Laurent, Christopher Quinn spends a lot of time worrying about the safety of his workforce.
"The last thing that I want is someone quitting and even more so if it's based on their security. It pains me when it happens," Quinn told CBC pitchside at a recent training course for new referees at the Saint-Laurent Sports Complex last month.
Safety has always been a concern for Quinn, but perhaps it's never been as much in focus as it is now.
With each viral video showing parents, fans, players or coaches verbally or physically abusing referees online, the focus on these interactions grows. Some soccer clubs have resorted to equipping refs with body cameras.
To help deal with that abuse, clubs like CS Saint-Laurent now include role-playing scenarios in their training.
"The first thing we tell them is you want to avoid it," Quinn said. "If you make a mistake on the field, you stick to it. The worst thing you want to do is let it linger. Because it just grows, grows, grows until some point or some call or whatever and the crowd or the coaches lose it. And that's what we simulate."
The club does not want a repeat of what happened at a game in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Que., in 2022.
In that case, cellphone video captured an adult coming down from the grandstands and punching a linesman.
In addition to the new role-playing training for referees, CS Saint-Laurent now offers sensitivity training for parents and coaches.
"It really went a long way. Last year our discipline issues were very minimal," said CS Saint-Laurent sporting director Rocco Placentino.
But for Quinn, even one incident is too many.
"These are people, these are kids. It could be your kid," Quinn said. "You need to have referees to have a club. There is no way around this."
Many in the minor soccer community don't believe that the situation is much worse for referees now than it was 20 years ago. It's just that the perception has changed because so many of these incidents are now caught on video.
"For me it's an ongoing factor. It's been here since the beginning," Placentino said.
Aggressive patients and lack of security are making nurses feel unsafe in a rural Western Manitoba emergency union, says the Manitoba Nurses Union.
Saskatoon resident Delynne Bortis knew her commute to work Tuesday morning would be particularly difficult.
WARNING: This story contains details of abuse and intimate partner violence:
The amount of money it takes for people to earn a living wage has increased across the province, according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
The new owner of Ontario steelmaker Stelco says his company "will not disappoint the people of Hamilton and Nanticoke," where the business's major facilities are based.
A Winnipegger is warning others about an intricate scam she says she almost fell for.
Fort William First Nation is opposing a planned redevelopment of the Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) 117 year old Kakabeka Falls Generating Station, which is located in their traditional territory.
A building that sits at the corner of Sussex Street and Brunswick Avenue has had many lives over the last century — being a church, a school and offices. Now it's set to become housing, at a time when the city sorely needs it.
A Waterloo, Ont., elementary school principal will be sentenced in the new year after pleading guilty to child sexual exploitation charges following a joint investigation that involved the London, Toronto and Waterloo police services.
Students at UPEI have let their student union know what they want from the province this fiscal year, and those priorities are reflected in a 2024-2025 advocacy document brought to the legislature on Wednesday.
Larger communities in the N.W.T. will soon see a boost in their territorial funding to maintain infrastructure and deliver services — like water and waste management — but the increase still falls short of what communities need.