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Women’s basketball players at Columbia Bible College (CBC) in British Columbia, Canada, have signed a letter in response to an opposing team refusing to play against CBC because of alleged abuse against a transgender player.
This was announced by Vancouver Island University (VIU) on Thursday. will not play its two games against CBC this weekend following an incident during the last meeting between the two teams in October that alleged a CBC coach treated a trans athlete in a manner that violated the Coaching Code of Ethics. VIU asked its Pacific Western Athletic Association (PACWEST) conference not to penalize its team for forgoing games due to the nature of the situation.
Transgender VIU player Harriet McKenzie made public statements alleging offensive behavior by CBC coaches and players.
A letter from CBC players obtained by Fox News Digital condemns the VIU team for “personal attacks,” “defamatory comments” and even “comments that incite violence” against their coach.
“The videos and letters posted by members of the VIU women’s basketball team over the past three months directly violate several rules outlined in Article 17.2 of the guidelines. The various messages included “personal attacks,” “defamatory comments,” “a lack of respect for PACWEST,” and resulted in “comments that incite violence and/or hatred” directed at our coach, the letter said.
“Any and all allegations made by VIU players about our team and coach should have been made directly to PACWEST officials only, not publicly uploaded to social media.”
The statement letter even called the VIU players “misinformation.”
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“The attack on Coach Claggett’s character and the character of our team over the past three months was based on misinformation and one side of a complex scenario,” the statement said.
Mackenzie published video to the athlete’s Instagram page on Oct. 30, alleging that Columbia Bible head coach Taylor Clagett “cornered one of our athletic staff and went on a tirade about how I shouldn’t be allowed to play.”
Mackenzie said she was also intentionally knocked to the ground by a Columbia Bible player.
“I was thrown to the ground with two hands at number 13 without playing the ball and then you could see head coach Clagett applauding in support,” said the trans athlete.
McKenzie helped lead the Mariners to the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association national championship in the 2022-23 season. This season, the athlete ranks second in the PACWEST in scoring with 16.1 points per game and third in rebounding with 9.4 per game, while VIU is 11-1 in conference play. McKenzie is also second in the conference in field goal percentage at 49.7%.
“I believe that all trans people should be included in sports. But I’m particularly outraged by this because I’m playing — and being forced to play — at a very biological disadvantage,” McKenzie said in the video. “I never had male puberty. I only had female puberty. And I don’t have ovaries, I don’t have testicles, so I can’t make testosterone.’
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The players’ letters to CBC also allege that the VIU team violated standard procedure for canceling games and that PACWEST did not hold VIU to proper standards.
“In the past, if a team refused to participate and travel to a scheduled game, they received 0 points in the classification. By moving the games this weekend, the PACWEST went against standard operating procedure. No clear rationale was provided to our team. to justify this departure from normal procedures,” the letter said.
“Additionally, Article 13, Section 9.1.1 states that if a team is unable to play a scheduled game, the coach or athletic director must contact the opposing athletics director to ‘show cause for their inability to fulfill their scheduled commitment.’ To our knowledge, this requirement has not been met.”
The CBC players, who have remained silent until now, believe they can no longer.
“Until this moment, we kept silent. Over the past few months, we have shown respect to PacWest and VIU by staying off social media and expressing our concerns through official channels. The VIU women’s basketball team did not share the same respect for the PacWest or CBC and communicated primarily on social media,” the letter said.
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“Their behavior has been rewarded by the way their refusal to play this weekend has been treated. We are writing this letter to ensure that our voices are heard in this conversation and that the respect we show throughout this process is not mistaken for passivity. “
Since June 2017 everywhere in Canada, the Canadian Human Rights Act, equal opportunity legislation and/or anti-discrimination legislation prohibit discrimination based on gender identity or gender expression. This law protects the inclusion of all trans athletes in women’s and women’s sports.
In the US, President-elect Trump has promised to ban trans athletes from participating in competitions among girls and women. Trump has also repeatedly suggested that Canada join the US, possibly as the 51st state.
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