Hockey Diversity Alliance prepared for first WinterFest on Saturday

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Akim Aliu and the Hockey Diversity Alliance are ready for their close-up.

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That will come on Saturday when the HDA plays host to WinterFest at Trinity Bellwoods Park, a community event designed to shine a spotlight on the importance of diversity and inclusion in the game of hockey. 

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“We want to have an event where we want culture to meet sport and that is hockey, and I think that this is going to be an innovative event that we have not seen the likes of and it’s going to be a new way to market our game,” Aliu, the group’s co-founder and chairman, said during a recent interview. “People don’t really know the work we are doing behind the scenes.”

The festival, which is free to the public, will include youth ice and ball hockey competitions, a celebrity hockey game, a fan zone, on-site food trucks with an array of choices and a chance to win prizes. 

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The list of celebrities slated to take part include former National Football League running back Marshawn Lynch, TSN’s Raegan Subban, Tyler Stewart of the Barenaked Ladies, actor Adam DiMarco and former Leaf Nik Antropov.

HDA members Wayne Simmonds, Matt Dumba, Anthony Duclair and Trevor Daley also will be on hand. 

The festival is being held without collaboration with the National Hockey League.

Founded in 2020 by a group of current and former NHL players of colour with the purpose of eradicating systemic racism and intolerance in hockey, the HDA initially was working with the NHL before announcing later that year that it was cutting formal ties as it believed it was not getting proper support from the NHL.

The lack of a link with the NHL, which last June launched the Player Inclusion Coalition with the NHL Players’ Association, continues to be a source of frustration.

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“We are players that dreamed our whole life of playing in that league and that league has rejected us at every step when we say to them ‘these are the changes that we need to make, this is what we went through on a personal level,’” Aliu said. 

“I think unfairly, the HDA is looked at as a confrontational group because we call out the things that are wrong in the game of hockey and we are in the news. But, at the same time, as soon as anything happens in the game of hockey — may it be racial, may it be sexual abuse, may it be homophobic, whatever that is — people come to us directly.”

The HDA’s concentration for Saturday will be to continue to grow the game for underserved communities. In the Greater Toronto Area, the HDA, with the help of corporate partners such as Canadian Tire and Kraft Heinz, supports more than 700 kids in hockey with a waiting list of 250, and has plans to expand to Montreal, Halifax and Winnipeg later this year.

Recent expansion to Kingston has been a success, Aliu said.

“We are intentional about the communities that we work with, to be able to enjoy the game of hockey, where everything is free, ice time, coaching, transportation, meals, all those things,” Aliu said.

“We are excited to celebrate that, but also add a cultural aspect to it with all the activations that we are doing around the event, the talent we are bringing in from outside the hockey scope and to highlight some of our work.”

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