Introduction

• Published date: 28 September 2018
• Date: 28 September 2018
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78743-753-120181001
• Pages: 1-9
• Author: Helen Jefferson Lenskyj University of Toronto, Canada

INTRODUCTION

As an activist on gender and sport issues since the early

1980s, I had my first brush with ‘the law’in 1986 when

I participated as an expert witness in the case of Justine

Blainey, a 12-year-old ice hockey player in Toronto, Canada.

Blainey had tried out for a boys’team and had qualified,

but was barred because the Ontario (men’s) Hockey

Association (OHA) prohibited girls from playing with boys.

The Ontario Women’s Hockey Association also objected,

predicting that mixed gender teams would signify the end of

girls’hockey as we know it. Unfortunately for Blainey, the

1981 Ontario Human Rights Code did not protect the rights

of female athletes; Section 19.2 specifically exempted sport/

gender complaints.

The legal battles began at the Divisional Court of Ontario,

which ruled against Blainey, but in 1986 the Ontario Court

of Appeal struck down Section 19.2 on the grounds that it

contravened the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

OHA persevered in an unsuccessful appeal to the Supreme

Court of Canada, and, in 1987, the Ontario Human Rights

Commission ruled that OHA and Blainey’s club had violated

the (revised) Code (Vella, 1989). Despite these changes, the

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