Ah, the 1980s - when, should a girl wish to play on a boys’ team, with their longer, indoor, training sessions; using better equipment & receiving better coaching; a lower court ruling that this is bloody dangerous & NOT a human right wouldn’t come as a shock… It does shock me though, that in 1987, the Appeals Court flipped the decision: Blainey vs OHA. (A good summary of things is available here.)
This BBC reporting on Justine Blainey leaves a lot unsaid. If the author’s intent is to direct us to “this poor girl was bullied out of the sport she loves”; they don’t try to conceal (though they don’t allude to, either) the blindingly obvious reality that while she may have truly excelled; she was never going to be able to keep up with her male peers. They wouldn’t have to try to hurt her to do far more damage than they would to a male player. I’m not surprised that Canada’s Hockey governing body wouldn’t comment, given they might’ve had to account for their past dreadful transphobia &/or be asked why it’s now safe for children to play mixed sex sports if they’re called same gender sports 🤔
The bit where apparently nobody had thought substantially investing in women’s ice hockey might be a good & worthwhile thing between the 1950s & the 1980s was a bit staggering. “Fix your shitty unequal provision & investment” should have been the message - yes, it’s going to continue to be a male-dominated sport, but it is does not require a massive leap of reasoning to fathom that improving the quality of provision for the female game will increase the number of female players & the quality of their game.
In 2012, Blainey[-Broker] said she was glad she’d ended single sex sporting provisions. Because Equality. And feminism. 🤦♀️ This 2019 Grindstone article claims “Female players of today have Justine to thank in part for the vast improvement in the level of women’s hockey.” Yeah no. I think that would be the 1990 creation of the national women’s team & subsequent investment in women’s ice-hockey at all levels. Justine, who decided to decimate ALL girls’ sports in Ontario by getting the sex segregation provision removed because she didn’t like it, is not someone to thank. And it may have started when she was a teenager, but she’s still proud of herself now.
The Grindstone article links to others, including a 2017 “New York Times” one, (also available using archive.ph) where Blainey tries to claim the court case over the pay gap between male & female professional ice hockey players in the US is just exactly like when she decided to trash girls’ sports in Ontario to get what she wanted. Achieving equality would’ve been getting investment in the girls’ sport. A court case to force OHA to actually support girls’ & women’s ice-hockey; not literally freeze female players out of the sport? That would’ve been laudable. But no.
Of course, Blainey-Broker doesn’t talk about her decision having enabled males to move straight into female teams on saying The Magic Words. In fairness, I wouldn’t have expected her, as a teenager, to foresee that. As an adult she’s still actively choosing to yammer on about what a fantastic thing she did though. She’s seeing, still being involved in hockey, the consequences. Maybe she’d feel differently if her DD played hockey rather than figure skating & some great lad flattened her. Or maybe not. Because, you know, equality 🤦♀️