Charlotte County hockey referee quits after threats from angry fans

A minor hockey referee will no longer officiate games in Charlotte County after a "scary" incident where he and three other officials were trapped on the ice with irate spectators hurling threats and insults at them.

Jason Porter, the former referee-in-chief with the Charlotte County Minor Hockey Association, said he still finds it difficult to articulate how frightening the situation was for himand three other on-ice officials.

"It was a pretty scary situation. The fans were going, if I could say, crazy," he said on Maritime Noon.

"The screaming and yelling, the cursing and swearing, saying things that, well I don't want to repeat what they said and threatening comments toward us as well."

The situation erupted with 12 seconds to go in a Bantam C hockey game earlier this month. A Charlotte County team was down by two goals and pulled its goalie in favour of an extra skater.

A young official did not notice the goalie had left the crease and thought the team had too many skaters on the ice, so he whistled down the play.

The officials huddled at centre ice and before going to the bench to explainthe error to the coaches.

Once the game ended, Porter said he could see how upset many spectators were who lining the boards. So he advised the other officials to take the nets to the other end of the rink and he left the ice to try and get help to clear a path to the officials' room.

That's when he said he was grabbed, pushed against the glass and had a clenched fist raised against him. While he was off the ice, he had asked for someone to call the police, but no one made the call.

After he managed to get awayfrom the angry spectators, he got back on the ice to figure out how he and the other officials would escape

"I felt like we were caged animals on the ice," Porter said.

'Horrible and scary' situation

Eventually, the officials did get some help and they hustled off the ice into their dressing room and locked the door.

"I can't describe to you well in enough in words how horrible and scary the situation was. We kept the door locked, stayed in there, for about a half hour," he said.

After a half hour, the officials snuck out a side door to their cars.

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Porter said he's done refereeing in Charlotte County and he said the local hockeyassociation may have a difficult time attracting officials given this event.

The treatment of referees, he said, is "the worst that I've ever seen it.

"Over the last few years you can see it get worse and worse and worse," he said.

"I certainly won't put myself on the ice,not down here anyway again. Someone will get hurt unless something is done about it."

Porter said he hopes the hockey association's board of directors takes the situation seriously and finds a way to better protect officials.

The Charlotte County Minor Hockey Association posted a notice on its website saying it does not "condone the poor behaviour of our Charlotte County parents [or any parents, spectators]towards our officials."

The notice also apologized to the officials on behalf of the association.