I understand The News has unpublished its Nov. 21 article titled “Pictou County referee-in-chief struggles to get on-ice officials”.
The referee-in-chief position, appointed by Pictou County Minor Hockey, currently assigns not only PCMH games, but also grammar school, high school boys and girls, major bantam, Atlantic Hockey Group/spring hockey, Nova League, Westville Gentlemen, Pictou County Oldtimers, and other hockey. It is a paid position.
Not all games are paid at the rink. In some cases, the RIC invoices the hockey groups involved, and then distributes the funds to the officials. For instance, the final day of the 2019 Bantam Memorial tournament, Spring Hockey, PCMH tryouts, Fundy Highland Female Hockey tryouts, and many other games fall in that category. Hockey groups are generally very good to pay promptly when presented with their invoices.
By late November, referees were owed money back to February, April, May, and September regarding games assigned across a variety of hockey groups. My daughter and I were among those owed money.
For many kids, officiating is their part-time job, and in many cases, their only job. In most cases, they also play minor hockey. They need that money. They shouldn’t have to wait for months on end to be paid. Reading that Nov. 21 article saying kids aren’t treating officiating like a job and aren’t reliable didn’t sit well with me.
I had already approached the RIC, PCMH, and a representative of the HNS officiating program regarding monies owed. On the night of the article, I escalated the matter as I felt something had to be done.
There were positives that resulted from me coming forward. PCMH reacted fairly quickly to canvass people and get them paid for PCMH tryouts. And a representative of the HNS officiating program acted to get people paid for their February Bantam Memorial games. But as of writing this letter, my daughter and I, and I suspect others, are still owed for games dating back to September.
The downside of coming forward has been that I was blacklisted from officiating hockey for the past two months, something that I love to do. In this day and age, in my opinion, penalizing a whistle blower (pardon the pun) for coming forward, especially in a not-for-profit environment, with what they perceive to be legitimate concerns, is unacceptable. What kind of message does that send to people with future concerns? I exchanged e-mails and texts with PCMH starting in November, also approaching the HNS officiating program. The RIC was looking for me to apologize before assigning me any games. PCMH advised me on Jan. 16 and previously that they had asked the RIC to insert me back into the rotation. I asked that part of the RIC’s monthly assigning fees be handed over to me as compensation, to be donated back to PCMH, but I have not heard back on that point. As of writing, I am still waiting to receive assignments similar in number and type to those applying pre-Nov. 21. Instead, the RIC has begun to assign me to grammar school and Atom C games.
I feel we deserve so much better.
Thanks,
Darryl Wilson
New Glasgow, NS
