Playing For The Other Team

When want becomes the sole basis of right, rights ends up being determined solely by who has the greater force to enforce their wants.

In that vein, here is the story of two Manitoba girls bravely struggling against reality to satisfy their want to play on a boy's hockey team:

The Manitoba Human Rights Commission is hearing the complaints of two hockey-playing sisters who were denied the right to try out for the boys team at their high school — solely because the school had a, much weaker, team for girls. Identical twins Jesse and Amy Pasternak, 17, said they were shocked to be told they couldn't compete for the senior boys hockey team at Winnipeg's West Kildonan Collegiate when they entered Grade 10 in the fall of 2004.

The two were shunted to the girls team at the school which they described as "a joke."

Amy testified some girls on the team had their skates on the wrong feet or didn't know how to stop on the ice. The sisters have played hockey since childhood and have played on boys junior hockey teams outside school. Amy plays goal, while Jesse plays defence.

The Manitoba High Schools Athletics Association (MHSAA) stepped in when it learned the girls wanted to play on the boys team and forced the sisters to play on the girls team.

One wonders whether boys who weren't good enough to make the cut, but still want to play, will have the same right to play on the girls team? Not that any of them are that wussy.

And who would want to play with a couple of girls whose parents put them up to suing their way on to the team, anyway?

Source: CBC