A mother is refusing to back down after her son’s soccer club downplayed an assault by the leader of a group of pre-teen players who demanded her son to repeat the phrase: “Free Palestine.”
A group of five boys chased, surrounded and bullied an 11-year-old club mate from River Heights after a practice on April 16. I confirmed the ugly details with officials of the Winnipeg South End United club, which operates program development and youth division teams in assorted age groups through a $1 million budget.
WSEU president Dale Friesen was asked about the antisemitic overtones of the incident as there are Jewish children in their soccer program.
“We are navigating through this situation with the assistance of the parents for the children involved,” he wrote me. “The challenges that these children face here are outcomes of global situations created by adults that have nothing to do with youth soccer.”
Whatever challenges kids growing up in Winnipeg face because of a war in Gaza, how it’s related to them ganging up on another child who doesn’t support their cause isn’t clear.
There are two videos of the post-practice dust-up, one filmed by the ringleader himself. Soon to be 12, he had already been given a warning after intimidating the victim over an incident between them last season. After a recent practice, the victim noticed he was being followed and filmed by his antagonist.
The discipline of WSEU players falls under the Technical Director, Haydn Sloane-Seale, who confirmed what I saw on the videos.
As the victim walked beside the field to go to his mother waiting in the car, one kid stood in his way while the others caught up and surrounded him.
“What’s going on here?” said the victim.
Their voices rose four times saying: “Free Palestine.” Then, “get that through your head. Say: Free Palestine.” The victim bolted through them, blurting “I support Israel.”
Sloane-Seale agreed the victim was then chased, surrounded, restrained, and bullied into repeatedly saying the phrase: “Free Palestine.”
“Good boy. Yeah, that’s what I thought,” his tormentors replied.
“There’s an accusation the kid filming punched the victim,” Sloane-Seale added. “At some point, I’m going to assume they all knew it was on video.”
The governing rules for local youth soccer require “respect to individuals regardless of ethnic or racial origin, nationality, national origin, religion, religious belief, and political belief,” and “refraining from any behavior that constitutes harassment,” as well as “verbal abuse and threats.”
By any measure, a number of those lines were crossed.
“He came into the car in tears,” the worried mother said. The instigator was already warned about his behavior, and was now recruiting allies. She mentioned no one wanted to talk about “where is this kid getting this stuff, where is it coming from?”
Similar acts of bullying and taunting Jewish kids have been widely reported in North America high school and youth sports in the last few years. She wondered if kids are emulating antisemitic harassment that’s posted on TikTok and seen at local “anti-Israel” protests in River Heights and other south-end neighborhoods.
“Free Palestine? It doesn’t make sense,” she said. “My assumption is these kids think he’s Jewish because why else would you do this? The kids are all Middle Eastern. That is my assessment from the video.”
“It’s politically motivated bullying. How is this being addressed?” She asked.
That’s where the soccer club goes offside.
Sloane-Seale confirmed the leader of the pack was only suspended for two practices and one game, and required to write an apology letter.
As for the rest who chased, obstructed, bullied and humiliated their target, “we’ve spoken about their behavior with them and their parents.” No other consequences are being imposed. The rationale, however, seems weak.
“These are 12-year-old boys, we don’t know what the precursor was,” Sloane-Seale said, telling me a couple of the attackers alleged the victim said something about Palestine during practice. Since they don’t practice on the same team as the victim, that sounds like made-up victim blaming.
I asked if the antisemitic overtones had been addressed with the kids and the parents. “Yes we spoke to them about what they were saying,” he replied, but then admitted he did not use the term “antisemitism” with the parents or the children.
“Anti-Jewish? I’m not sure that a 12-year-old kid has the ability to recognize or separate their knowledge… I don’t think a 12-year-old boy tries to be racist, if that’s what you’re getting at.”
I can say from personal experience growing up in the North End, that’s dangerously naïve.
The victim’s mother, with the father in full support, is not accepting the club’s decision.
“No one seems interested in the potential racial or political side of it. This isn’t kids who had a disagreement, it’s more important than that. 100% this kid had organized this, you can see one is following filming and another is waiting for him up ahead. They’re treating this like a kids’ thing, this is the beginning of racial gang violence.”
After one week, no one from WSEU had spoken with the victim to ask if he had said anything to somehow provoke being bullied, as if that would justify the mob’s actions.
“My son doesn’t feel safe,” the mother told me. “He’s very anxious about continuing to play with this kid but doesn’t want to miss the season.”
His feelings seem to come second to soccer officials not wanting to properly engage the offenders and their parents.
She noted that Jewish kids active in youth soccer leagues are at risk.
“If this is how they’re acting at age 11 or 12, what happens next? Especially if there is no repercussions. If you’re running youth sports, you’re responsible for protecting our kids. Unfortunately this is politically inconvenient for them.”
“We are making efforts to assist both the children and parents understand and deal with this situation in a constructive manner,” Friesen wrote.
It’s apparent his board needs to step in to assist his staff to understand and deal with this situation first.
And the kicker is? The victim isn’t even Jewish, but no one asked.
“I am sure if we were Jewish, I would probably be even more upset,” added the mother. “I don’t know why you would bring Palestine up if you didn’t assume that. What does my kid have to do with Palestine?”
On Wednesday, Premier Kinew announced enhanced mandatory Holocaust education for kids in Grade 6. WSEU needs to adopt a similar education initiative for their staff and teams about antisemitism and bullying, because by not confronting it head-on and enforcing consequences, we know what it leads to.
— Marty Gold is a Winnipeg journalist and a guest writer for the Winnipeg Sun. You can find more of his work at The Great Canadian Talk Show