Part 1

Steve: Now, is hockey only a man's game Jill? Are women interested in, do they follow the Stanley Cup? Do they only follow the girl's Olympic hockey team? Jill: Well, I like hockey. I'm interested in hockey. I used to get ice packs which were, you can buy 11 or 15 games every year so you got to see a good number of games. I did that for a couple of years. I have some good girlfriends who are more interested in hockey than some guys that I know, so I think in Canada there are quite a few girls who are interested. I'm not interested in playing it, I think there aren't very many girls who are interested in playing ice hockey, but there are lot's who are interested in the sport and cheering their team on. I don't think it's just a man's game. Mark: Well, I know in the paper today they had, there's two twins in Winnipeg that want to play on a boy's team and I didn't really read the article but they are in some kind of human rights tribunal thing. That's an interesting issue. I was thinking about that. You kind of see both sides. I'm not really sure where I sit on it. Jill: Well, I know that I have a young cousin who, when I was younger, he's older than me but we were younger and he played hockey and there way one girl on his team and this was back in the '80s. There was only one but she was very good. She was big and she was a very good player and she was just as good as the boys and she was on the team. I think I heard this story on the radio this morning and I think their issue is if the girls are just as good then why are they not allowed on the team. Who is there to say, you know, if you're not just as good you can't be on the team, who's there to measure how good somebody is. Steve: Well, I think another consideration is, you know, are we going to make this a human right? In other words, if I'm running the boy's team and I don't want two girls on my team, have I got the right to say no, I don't want you? Because the other side of the coin is if, say, I'm a hockey player; I'm 16 years old and I can't make the boy's team. I'm going to try out for the girl's team. Why can't I play on the girl's team? That's my right? Girls can play on the boy's team, why can't I play on the girl's team? So all of a suddenly there is no more girl's team because all the boys that aren't good enough to play on the boy's, with a few exceptions, a few very gifted girls who will play and all the, it's a bit like this Nichelle Lee situation. If the female player can play in the male golf then whey can't the males go down and play in the female golf? It can get quite complicated.

Sean: The biggest problem is the weight classifications. When you're teenagers everybody is close to the same and you get a few bigger guys, but as guys get older we get bigger than women generally so it makes it more difficult for them to compete without getting hurt, so perhaps instead of having girl's and boy's leagues they should do weight classifications like they do in boxing. Steve: Ah, but I don't agree with you there. I think that the boys will be physically stronger in most cases and you can have a very wiry, tough guy, and in most cases he's going to be more muscular and even if he's the same weight or even smaller. I don't think that's a, no, I don't think that's a, I mean as a scale issue, sure there's a weight issue. The bigger issues is, is this a basic human right? How far are we going to stretch the definition of human rights? I have a right to play on the boy's team. Well, no. In some areas the coach is saying great, and somewhere else they say no.

I think that the local team should be allowed to decide that without getting involved in this great, now they got lawyers, it's in front of the judge. I just don't think it's a basic right. That's my take on it. And I think people should decide.