Toronto Star: Hazing or team building? New playbook aims to help coaches understand where to draw the line

The term hazing brings to mind the high-profile cases of physical or sexual assault and forced alcohol consumption that often make the news but the prevention playbook defines hazing much more broadly as “any activity expected of someone joining a group that humiliates, degrades, abuses, or endangers, regardless of that person’s willingness to participate.”

That includes activities routinely brushed off as traditions or pranks such as demeaning nicknames, forced singing in public or wearing embarrassing clothing. Even singling out rookies by making them set up equipment or do laundry for senior players can be a form of hazing, said jay johnson, a University of Manitoba professor who started researching hazing in the 1990s.

“It’s bound up in a lot of what we’re describing now as toxic masculinity and having to prove yourself,” he said.

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