There is a scene in the final minutes of the documentary, Black Ice, where Wayne Simmonds is talking to a group of kids about racism and hockey and how the two always seem to intersect.
But what he’s really talking about is belonging.
Or rather, the feeling of not belonging in a sport that is inherently Canadian, but still predominantly white.
“This sport we play, some people don’t want us to play this sport,” said the Toronto Maple Leafs forward. “But we’ve got news for them: this is our sport. We go all the way back to the 1800s and to the Coloured Hockey League back in Nova Scotia, so I don’t want anybody to ever tell you that this is not your sport. This is exactly where you’re supposed to be. Exactly.”
That message is at the crux of Black Ice, which debuts at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday.
Featuring everyone from Willie O’Ree to Simmonds to women’s national hockey player Sarah Nurse, the documentary traces hockey’s history back to the early days of the underground railroad and is meant to inspire a generation of black players into playing a sport that is literally their birthright. But at the same time, it offers a sobering look at the barriers that have existed — and continue to exist — in a sport that tends to mirror society’s issues with race and inclusion.
While there is an underlying current of hope running throughout the documentary, this is not necessarily a feel-good film. The first-hand stories of racial abuse are difficult to hear. It forces the viewer to look inwards and ask some difficult questions. Some of those questions, such as whether you can really be accepted as Canadian if you’re not even accepted as a hockey player, don’t have easy answers.
“If we’re really talking about the black experience in hockey, then in a roundabout way we’re talking about the black experience in Canada,” said Vancouver-based director Hubert Davis, whose last documentary, Giants of Africa, looked at Raptors’ executive Masai Ujiri’s basketball without borders program. “I wanted there to be inspiration and a feeling of hope, but I also wanted people to recognize that there are problems and they are not going away.”
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Those problems, like the time a fan threw a banana at Simmonds during an NHL exhibition game in London, Ont., include overt racism, the kind that we can see and react towards. But even worse are the unseen examples of systemic racism and the general indifference to a problem some are blind towards or refuse to accept exists.
“Our hope is that our film creates a conversation,” said Toronto-based producer Vinay Virmani. “We’re fans of the sport. I love the sport. I never want you to think we’re here to disrespect or do a hit job on the sport. There are great things in hockey. But we also wanted to expose the other side of it. But I think it can be that much more open. I think it can be much more diverse. And that’s only going to help the game grow.”
There is no overstating what this documentary could mean to the next generation coming up. On one hand, seeing so many NHLers realize their dreams provides reinforcement that black players belong on the ice and in the dressing room. But in hearing the stories from Simmonds or O’Ree or a 17-year-old Mark Connors, who at the age of 12 was the subject of racial slurs at a peewee game, it’s also a recognition of the shared experiences that so many players of colour routinely face.
“When I was younger, it was a struggle to find someone in the game who looked like you, who gave you that extra kind of push. For kids to see it now is just huge,” said Simmonds. “My younger self, being a black kid watching a movie about black hockey players I would have loved this. I remember watching every single hockey movie that came out and no one looked like me.
“You watched the Mighty Ducks and you had a couple of guys who were black. But those movies weren’t realistic. This is real and genuine. This is only going to improve things and create way more young black hockey players. That’s only going to help the game.”
Beyond that, there’s the historical nature of the film.
Simmonds always knew that there was a Coloured Hockey League that used to operate in Nova Scotia during the late 1800s. But it was only during the filming of the documentary that he met with historians who were able to trace his family’s lineage not only back to Nova Scotia, but back to the actual league.
“That was so cool. If I saw this when I was young it would have given me more fuel,” said Simmonds. “You’ve got to know your history. Without knowing it, there’s no way of knowing where you’re going to go. We’re part of the fabric of hockey. We were there from the start. We’re not going anywhere.”
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