Women's rights advocate speaks about Logan Mailloux
Montreal Canadiens prospect Logan Mailloux recently had his suspension lifted by the OHL. This allowed him to return to the London Knights for the first time this season after missing 26 Games. Mallioux is prepared to make his season debut Friday against the Flint Firebirds.
There has been a lot of criticism of the OHL, the Canadiens and Mallioux, but Ken Campbell of Hockey Unfiltered was able to capture a unique perspective on the subject. Campbell interviewed Jessie Rodger from Anova, the organization formerly known as the Sexual Assault Centre in London, Ontario.
Rodgers shared the following perspective when asked about the situation.
«I think of the victim. Mailloux is going to be fine. This is not about not wanting this guy to have a career. He's going to have a career. Cancel culture is not a thing. He's going to be OK. But I don't know how this young woman is. I also know there are going to be other young men who see what happened to Logan and are they going to take it seriously?"
Rodgers takes a very reasonable response to the situation and one we should all be aware of. This conversation should be centered around the victim and how we can take this situation and ensure that other young athletes have the tools and information to learn from these mistakes.
Rodgers went on to offer her thoughts on the OHL's statement about Mallioux bring forth some points that the league could learn from:
"I did not see anything about sexual assault (in the league's statement). I did not see anything about healthy masculinity. There are a few key things that I would have thought would have been important to mention that I did not see.»
All of these are great points and should be recognized as an opportunity for growth when looking at not only handling, but preventing these situations in the future.
Rodgers also continues to discuss opportunities to help young athletes who are often thrust into the spotlight without any training or life skills.
"And I think that hasn't been done yet. There has to be an honest conversation on how we're going to support young men in understanding how they want to walk in the world.»
Rodgers finished with the following statement which puts everything into perspective perfectly.
"I don't think anyone has to be punished in perpetuity for a mistake or really bad judgments. He doesn't need forgiveness from me. There just needs to be accountability and that's going to be subjective and the first place we go to with that is the survivor. All of this happened to her."
"But you can't do that if the person who did it to you takes doesn't take responsibility in a way that feels right and authentic to you. That's why I think Logan has a really amazing opportunity here.»
This interview provides a great perspective that I think a lot of individuals, myself included can try to understand.
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