A hockey player was found guilty in youth court Friday of assault with a weapon while he was on the ice.
The young man, who is now 18-years-old, cannot be identified because he was 17 when he committed the crime.
The offender tried to provoke another player into a fight by repeatedly pushing him in the chest with his hockey stick.
He then hit the other player in the face, causing the other player to collapse on the ice.
The attack inflicted serious facial injuries and required stitches.
Justice Jacques Nadeau ruled that the player's stick was used as a weapon, and he described the attack as "unprovoked, unfair, excessive, dangerous, and outside the immunity of the game, and outside the fair play of a hockey game."
Prosecutor Ellen Beaulne said the player's actions could not be dismissed as part of an ordinary hockey fight.
"It's not because we're on the ice that we can do anything, and no matter which circumstances, we have to be careful," she said.
But defence lawyer Richard Shadey criticized the judge's ruling, and asked for a lenient sentence.
"What he did is no worse than what happens between a Montreal-Boston game during the playoffs. We've seen far worse in the NHL," said Shadley.
In response, the judge noted that society no longer tolerates sucker-punches against players who refuse to fight.
Shadley's client will return to court in December to receive his sentence, but it is unlikely that he will spend any time in jail.
Effective crackdown?
In 2001, a jury found Boston's Marty McSorley guilty of assault for attacking Vancouver's Donald Brashear with his stick.
Gordon Bloom, who conducts research on violence and aggression in youth hockey for McGill University's Department of Kinesiology & Physical Education, told CTV Montreal he believes that the crackdown on excessive violence in sports is already making a difference in minor hockey.
"Now we see it opening the door. If those things happen another time, we have a case now that was brought to justice," Bloom said.
