Toronto hockey league regrets 'communication breakdown' with family of player subjected to racial slur

The head of the world's largest youth hockey organization says the league needs to do a much better job making the league's racialized players truly feel a part of Canada's game.

"We are not perfect. We're trying to get better every day," said Scott Oakman, executive director of the Greater Toronto Hockey League. "And we are committed to making our organization a place where every player, every family feels safe."

Oakman's comments come after the family of a young player who was the victim on-ice racial abuse say they were left in the dark for months about the league's handling of the incident.

Yonas Nicola-Lalonde, the only Black player on his Humber Valley team, claims he was called the N-word by an opposing player during a game last September. The league said it would look into the incident and after three calls with the investigator in early October, Nicola-Lalonde's family said they never heard from the league again.

"The league never gave us the conclusion on the investigation and they've never emailed us or let us know anything about anything to do with the investigation," 16 year-old Yonas Nicola Lalonde told CBC Sports.

"It's been complete radio silence since then," Nicola-Lalonde's father, Paul, said. "The league may have taken steps, but they haven't informed us in any way of anything happening." 

"This has been festering for months," his mother, Magda, said. "[Yonas] has felt like it was swept under the rug, that nobody has his back."

Oakman regrets the "communication breakdown" and said the offending player was eventually suspended. He said the league did inform Nicola-Lalonde's local organization but acknowledged the league never directly reached out to the family to inform them about the results of the