‘Heartbreaking’ racial slur hurled at 13-year-old Indigenous soccer player

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A mother has made the difficult decision to speak out after her 13-year-old Indigenous son was the target of racial slurs at a Vancouver Island soccer field.

“You can hear the man say ‘he’s probably running from the cops like that,'” Sarah Russ said, referring to the insult that was picked up during a livestream. “Insinuating that my kid is a criminal and the only reason my kid is so fast is because he’s running from the police.”

Russ says the comments were made during a semi-final in October by a spectator supporting the Saanich Fusion team.

Russ is a proud member of the Dididaht and Skidegate First Nation. His son is from the Cowichan tribes. She says it’s not the first time her family has felt discriminated against in sport, but says this case was the most direct and heartbreaking.

“It should be a safe space,” Russ told CHEK News. “Now I have to figure out how to tell my son that I can’t fully protect him in sport.”

The Lower Island Soccer Association (LISA), the Cowichan Tribes and representatives from Saanich Fusion and the Gorge football team of which his son is a member met in November to discuss the incident.

“It was very obvious that there were discrepancies between BC Soccer’s policies and the policies that clubs and associations were actually adopting and enforcing,” Russ said, recalling the meeting.

“They explained that members of the club association are volunteers and they cannot hold them responsible for following the policy if they are volunteers. So they don’t have a racial policy, which is very upsetting.

In a statement to CHEK News, BC Soccer states that “all members and affiliated organizations of BC Soccer must comply with the statutes, rules, regulations and policies of BC Soccer”.

‘It is concerning to hear the allegations you describe and suggest that anyone experiencing this should file a complaint to be reviewed by the independent process.’

Russ says she filed a formal complaint on Nov. 9.

Over the past month, LISA has sent out a statement to its members calling for “an immediate end to incidents of racial abuse.”

In the statement, LISA made four commitments:

Ongoing conversations with local minority groups to ensure safe participation An immediate review of LISA’s internal policies and procedures Exploration of opportunities for internal diversity self-assessment Other ways to further support our member clubs in the areas of diversity, equity and inclusion.

“There has been no follow-up from the Lower Island Soccer Association as to what steps they are taking to ensure these policies are followed,” Russ said.

Russ also fears there has been no real recourse for the man who made the comment, other than being banned from games played against his son’s team.

“How do we make sure no one else has to go through this?” said Russ, who fears the man may make further comments to other children of color while playing.

When asked, LISA said the changes she’s committed to “will take time to achieve.”

Thirteen-year-old James didn’t hear the onlooker’s racist insult, but as Russ goes public, the difficult conversation she protects him from threatens him.

“I’m very worried that the words will stay with him,” Russ said. “I had similar experiences and I still hear them today. I worked very hard to break the cycles [and] to try to make sure he is not exposed to this. I feel now that no matter how hard I work, unfortunately, we still live in a time where these views are present.

She asks LISA to consult with her and her son’s lived experience to help inform this next process that the football association is committed to.

“It would, I think, also help my journey to feel better about the experience that happened to us. I think it would also help my son. Learning to stand up for himself as a young native man,” Russ said.

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