“This guy was throwing ice balls, calling us names and pushing us.”
That was Liam Lamrock’s experience of bullying.
But on Nov. 24, he joined his Truro Bearcats team mates in wrapping pink tape around his hockey stick, before they faced off against their Cumberland County Ramblers opponents in a symbolic game against bullying.
“I don’t really like that, could you please stop,” said Lamrock, from Truro, when asked what he would say to his tormentor. “I don’t think bullying is okay.”
The game at Truro’s Rath Eastlink Community Centre began with a ceremonial puck drop by RCMP Const. Tammy Wade.
Before the two Atom A teams began warming up, they watched a short video explaining the Pink Tape Campaign, now a province-wide push against bullying in hockey.
The campaign began when Cole Harbour hockey coach Blair Dole, who is also a RCMP officer, learned of a bullying incident on his team last season. Then, he used pink tape to start a conversation among his players and help them address the issue.
Players in Truro and elsewhere wrapped their sticks in the tape and donned helmets sporting Pink Tape Campaign stickers, in a campaign backed by both the RCMP and Hockey Nova Scotia.
“I definitely think we need to be talking and communicating and educating children and parents on the effects of bullying,” said Robbin Ward, whose son Carter Worr played for Truro on Nov. 24.
Just one day before the game, the Valley native was hit and called names by another child at school.
While Carter himself was somewhat reluctant to talk, it was a message that resonated with parents and children from both teams.
Some of the Truro Bearcats’ Amherst opponents are also bullying survivors.
Player Evan Bird remembered other children making fun of his voice, “saying I sounded like a five-year-old girl and it’s happened plenty more than once.”
When he was eight, he attended a camp with children who were 11 or 12, all of whom ganged up on him.
“It sucks to get bullied and I think it’s great that everyone in this league has to have pink tape, to stand up for these kids who got bullied when they were younger,” said Bird.
His father Robert Bird said that hockey rinks – which often see players behaving badly on the ice – should instead be safe and fun places for young players.
“I’m very proud of him, he’s wise beyond his years,” said Robert of his son. “We’re really happy to be participating in this today. The awareness is great, but there needs to be some positive action come as a result of this and if even just one kid learns that when they see something that’s wrong to step in and go get an adult, it will all be worthwhile.”
Truro won the game against Cumberland 7-1.