Centre Events
Upcoming Events:
November 18th, 2024: Mental Performance Series Workshop 1
The Scott McCain & Leslie McLean Centre for Sport, Business and Health is pleased to announce that we, in collaboration with Athletics, will be hosting a Mental Performance Consultant, Simon Taylor, to facilitate workshop sessions offered to current Saint Mary’s University varsity athletes! Simon is an award-winning Mental Performance Consultant with the Canadian Sport Psychology Association and a service provider for the Canadian Sports Institute Atlantic.
He will be joining us for 3 in-person sessions throughout the 2024-25 year. The first workshop is scheduled on November 18th, 2024, from 5:30-6:30pm in the Sobey’s Building, room 255. The topic of the first workshop will include time management: balancing sport, academics, and self-care. Workshops are free to attend. Sign-up is required.
November 19th, 2024: Women in Sport Business Speaker Series- Shireen Ahmed
Shireen Ahmed will be joining us on Tuesday, November 19th, 2024 at 7pm AT as the second speaker in our online Women in Business Speaker Series, titled She Leads the Game: Women Shaping Sport Business.
Shireen is an award-winning Senior Contributor with CBC Sports, TEDx speaker, mentor, and internationally recognized sports activist. A global expert on Muslim women in sport, she focuses on racism and misogyny in sports. Co-creator of the “Burn It All Down” feminist sports podcast and National Ambassador of Sakeenah Canada, she also teaches Journalism and Sports Media at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Topic: Maintaining Authenticity.
Register for this free online speaker series here.
If you missed any of the previous talks in this series, visit our YouTube channel to find the recordings!
December 17th, 2024: Women in Sport Business Speaker Series- Ann Pegoraro
Ann Pegoraro will be joining us on Tuesday, December 17th, 2024 at 7pm AT as the third speaker in our online Women in Business Speaker Series, titled She Leads the Game: Women Shaping Sport Business.
Ann Pegoraro is the Lang Chair in Sport Management at the University of Guelph and Director of the International Institute for Sport Business and Leadership. She holds a BA, MBA, and PhD, with research focused on gender, marketing, and communication in sport. A lifelong sports enthusiast, she has transitioned from athlete to coach and educator. Ann also serves on the boards of True Sport Foundation and Ontario Soccer, contributing to the development of sport in Canada.
Topic: Busting myths about women in sport: what the research tells us.
Register for this free online speaker series here.
If you missed any of the previous talks in this series, visit our YouTube channel to find the recordings!
January 21st, 2025: Women in Sport Business Speaker Series- Cheryl MacDonald
Cheryl MacDonald will be joining us on Tuesday, January 21st, 2025 at 7pm AT as the fourth speaker in our online Women in Business Speaker Series, titled She Leads the Game: Women Shaping Sport Business.
Cheryl is the CEO of Sport New Brunswick and research associate at Saint Mary’s University, has studied gender in ice hockey for 15 years and frequently appears in media discussing gender equality in sport. A dedicated community volunteer, she has organized major events like national university championships. In 2021, she co-edited Overcoming the Neutral Zone Trap and was named a leading social change advocate by The Hockey News Magazine.
Topic: Transitioning from academia to industry.
Register for this free online speaker series here.
If you missed any of the previous talks in this series, visit our YouTube channel to find the recordings!
February 18th, 2025: Women in Sport Business Speaker Series- Isabelle Germain
Izzy Germain will be joining us on Tuesday, February 18th, 2025 at 7pm AT as the fifth speaker in our online Women in Business Speaker Series, titled She Leads the Game: Women Shaping Sport Business.
Izzy is originally from Ontario, moved to Halifax for university and played competitive hockey for 20 years before stepping back due to a concussion. She broke barriers as the first female play-by-play announcer for a men's university hockey game and PA announcer at the World Junior Championship. She has also worked with the Halifax Mooseheads, served as Director of Hockey Operations for PWHL Boston, and organized events for Olympic athletes.
Topic: Life after competitive sports: from athlete to behind the scenes.
Register for this free online speaker series here.
If you missed any of the previous talks in this series, visit our YouTube channel to find the recordings!
March 18th, 2025: Women in Sport Business Speaker Series- Lindsay MacPhee
Lindsay MacPhee will be joining us on Tuesday, March 18th, 2025 at 7pm AT as the sixth speaker in our online Women in Business Speaker Series, titled She Leads the Game: Women Shaping Sport Business.
Lindsay (she/her) is an enthusiastic advocate for authenticity and well-being. A former chemical engineer turned entrepreneur, she founded The Floatation Centre Health and Wellness in 2015, promoting floatation therapy, meditation, and mindfulness. Lindsay enjoys encouraging others to prioritize self-care and live a life of service. She also co-owns Dee Dee’s Ice Cream, spreading joy through homemade treats while navigating her own entrepreneurial journey.
Topic: The benefits of floatation therapy and holistic wellness for athletes.
Register for this free online speaker series here.
If you missed any of the previous talks in this series, visit our YouTube channel to find the recordings!
2024 Events:
October 15th, 2024: Women in Sport Business Speaker Series- Lorraine Lafrenière
Lorraine Lafrenière joined us on Tuesday, October 15th, 2024 at 7pm AT as the first speaker in our online Women in Business Speaker Series, titled She Leads the Game: Women Shaping Sport Business. She discussed strategies to foster a holistic view for life and career.
Lorraine is the CEO of the Coaching Association of Canada, Lorraine leads Canada's Coaching Education Partnership and the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP), with a focus on Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Safe Sport. With over 30 years in national sport, she has held leadership roles at Canoe Kayak Canada, Cycling Canada, and the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Committees. Lorraine has served on Federal, Provincial-Territorial Sport Committees and was part of the Minister's Gender Equity in Sport advisory. She is an advisor at the Tannenbaum Institute and serves internationally with the International Council for Coaching Excellence and Panam Sports.
If you missed this talk or any other talk in this series, visit our YouTube channel to find the recordings!
October 3rd, 2024: 50 Years of Women in Varsity Sport at SMU Documentary Premiere
The Scott McCain & Leslie McLean Centre for Sport, Business and Health proudly presented The First 50: A Half Century of Women’s Varsity Athletics at Saint Mary’s University, a documentary as part of SMU’s celebration of 50 years of women’s sports. Created by Robbie Loughery, this 20-minute documentary highlights Saint Mary’s University’s distinctive history of women’s sports over the past 50 years, including the stories of present and former coaches, athletes, and key contributors who played pivotal roles behind the scenes. This film not only reflects on the evolution of women’s athletics at SMU but also serves as a testament to the dedication and resilience of those who helped shape its legacy.
If you missed the premiere, check out our YouTube channel here for the full film.
September 18th, 2024: Film Screening- Athlete A
The McCain McLean Centre teamed up with the SMU Sexual Violence Support Centre to host a screening of Athlete A.
Athlete A is a film that followed the Indianapolis reporters that broke the story about USA gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar’s abuse and the stories of gymnasts like Maggie Nichols.
We were joined by Elana Liberman, the Safe Sport Lead with Sport Nova Scotia, to learn more about Safe Sport.
September 4th, 2024: Katie Pegg's Paralympic Games Watch Party
Wednesday, September 4th, 2024 the McCain McLean Centre, along with Canadian Sport Institute Atlantic teamed together to cheer on Katie Pegg, a current SMU Husky, who completed in F46 Shot Put at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. The viewing party took place at 7am in the Homburg Centre for Health & Wellness in the Courtside Lounge. Katie came home with 7th place at the Paralympic Games!
November 2023 - May 2024: Hockey Speaker Series
Scholars and practitioners with expertise in the critical analysis of ice hockey and identity shared their insights on one Wednesday a month in the free online speaker series in order to open up a conversation about what we can learn from the current state of men's elite-level ice hockey as well as the different forms that the sport could take moving forward. The intention is to eventually have a round table discussion and create recommendations for administrators and policy-makers after the series.
Find the recorded sessions on the McCain McLean Centre YouTube channel here!
October 2023 - April 2024: Strategic Planning
After months of meetings and consulting with nearly 50 people, the Scott McCain & Leslie McLean Centre for Sport, Business and Health has finalized our Strategic Plan for 2024-2027!
Find a copy of the McCain McLean Centre Strategic Plan here!
May 6th, 2024: Sport Community and Sector Consultation
On May 6, 2024, the Scott McCain & Leslie McLean Centre for Sport, Business and Health, Paul Maher, Sport Studies Educational Developer, Dr. Augie Westhaver, Health, Wellness and Sport in Society Program Coordinator and Dr. Miguel Morales, Sport Business Program Coordinator held a program development consultation for undergraduate sport business programming. This event brought together 20 participants, including faculty, staff, students, academics, sport industry members, advocates and alumni alike to engage in meaningful and diverse conversation to highlight their vision for the sport studies programming.
January - April 2024: Weekly Sport Studies Working Group
The McCain McLean Centre hosted a Weekly Sport Studies Working Group, led by Ève LeBlanc (SMU BSc 2023). The weekly online working group was open to any students and faculty members working on a project related to sport who were looking for accountability and networking opportunities. The goal was to create a sense of community and to support those who feel that they accomplish more in the presence of others or with a dedicated block in their schedule. The online sessions followed a modified version of the Pomodoro Technique, which uses focused periods of work separated by short breaks.
April 14th, 2024: Meet & Greet with PWHL Toronto's Victoria Bach
On Sunday, April 14th, 2024, PWHL Toronto's Victoria Bach was in the Dauphinee Centre for a Meet & Greet.
In partnership with the Genevieve Francis Memorial Fund, Bach autographed specialty postcards. Attendees had the opportunity to win a game-used, signed stick of Victoria's! Donations were not required but were encouraged.
March 27th, 2024: Sport Studies Outside the Classroom
On March 27th, 2024, over twenty faculty, staff, students, and sport organization representatives gathered in the Unilever Lounge at Saint Mary's to discuss experiential learning within sports studies. Experiential learning professionals presented the options available to students, internal and external faculty members shared their existing practices, sport organizations shared potential learning opportunities and career pathways for students, and students shared some of the sport-related work they are currently doing on campus. The event was meant to support the development of sport business programming at SMU as well as the existing Health, Wellness and Sport in Society certificate program. Representatives from Recruitment, Advancement, and Advising were also present as part of the McCain McLean Centre’s effort to build relationships across campus that empower various units to work together to increase student enrolment and provide them with a unique and beneficial experience as part of their degree. We would like to thank SMU Career & Experiential Learning, SMU Faculty of Arts, the University of Guelph, SMU Athletics & Recreation, the SMU Counselling Centre, Sport Nova Scotia, and the Halifax Wanderers FC for their participation.
February 29th, 2024: Arts with Impact
On February 29th, 2024, Dr. Charlene Weaving, Chair of Human Kinetics, St. Francis Xavier University visited Saint Mary's to deliver a talk. She discussed how International Olympic Committee (IOC) and World Athletic policies are based on the rationale that the main justification to have sex-segregated sport is the discrepancy in athletic performance between men and women. But the question of whether sport should be sex-segregated is more complex than often recognized and not easily answered. It is simply untrue that all women are athletically inferior to all men, and the degree of difference depends in large part on the sport.
Unfortunately, the binary categorizations prompt expectations regarding femininity and heterosexuality, creating problems around how the categories and binary configurations of men and women are regulated and enforced. Sex verification was originally put into place to protect women’s sport from men who were imagined would masquerade as women in order to dominate women’s sports, however, sex verification ultimately became a process to police women’s bodies, which was and continues to be framed in the notion of ‘fair play.’ I will specifically refer to the case of Caster Semenya.
Connected with sex verification is the idea of trans inclusion in sport. I will argue that there has been no other topic analysing gender in the philosophy of sport field that has garnered so much interest, authorship, and debate from men researchers where the bulk of the analysis has focused on what it means to be a woman and what is fair for women’s sport.
January 15th, 2024: Graduate Student-Athlete Reception
On January 15th, 2024 the Saint Mary's Graduate Student-Athletes were invited to celebrate their role as leaders both academically and on our varsity sports teams. The reception was hosted in collaboration by the Scott McCain & Leslie McLean Centre for Sport, Business and Health, Saint Mary's Department of Athletics and Recreation and the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research. This provided an opportunity for networking, both with colleague graduate-student athletes, academic leaders of the university, such as Deans, Vice Presidents, and the President, and Saint Mary's Professors who were once student-athletes.
November 25th, 2023: Red Tape Event
On November 25th, the Saint Mary's Huskies played two Red Tape hockey games and hosted a Red Tape reception at the Dauphinee Centre in collaboration with the Scott McCain & Leslie McLean Centre for Sport, Business and Health. This is the third time in four years that SMU hosted the event with the exception being a COVID-19 cancellation. The Red Tape event on campus raises awareness around racism in sport in support of former SMU student Logan Prosper of We'koqma'q First Nation. Prosper was on the receiving end of a racial slur during a minor hockey game in Cape Breton (or Unama'ki) in in 2019. After that, he put red tape on his hockey stick as a visible reminder that such intolerance has no place in hockey and sport more broadly. Both games opened with ceremonial puck drops. Saint Mary's alumni and member of the Indigenous Advisory Council, Jarvis Googoo (We'koqma'q First Nation), dropped the puck for a faceoff between Saint Mary's Erin Denny (Eskasoni First Nation) and Mount Allison's Oceane Asham (Portage la Prairie). In the men's game, Logan Prosper dropped the puck with his father Phillip, who is Keptin of the Mi'kmaq Grand Council for We'koqma'q. Both games also featured the Canadian national anthem sung in Mi'kmaq by Youth Chief Jada Paul of Membertou First Nation. Between games, Philip Prosper opened the Red Tape reception in the Barbara Holmes Gathering Centre with the Honour Song and Jarvis Googoo assumed the role of MC for the nearly 25 guests in attendance. The event featured a few words from the Prosper family as well as the SMU President Dr. Robert Summerby-Murray. Googoo used the event as an opportunity to discuss the importance of keeping the spirit of the Red Tape movement alive and stated that "Saint Mary's needs to be accountable in order to make a sustainable impact.". After the Red Tape reception, Director of Athletics & Recreation Scott Gray said, "We have the opportunity through sport to be a voice for change. These Red Tape events and our other work with the McCain & McLean Centre will continue to demonstrate our shared commitment to being that voice."
Click Here for the Full Article
October 19th, 2023: Student Writing Workshop
Dr. Brian Kennedy is a faculty member in the Department of English at the Pasadena City College and a member of the Professional Hockey Writers Association. He held a writing workshop in which the following topics were covered:
- Setting writing goals and intentions
- Turning your ideas into a book
- Marketing yourself to publishers
- Obtaining credentials
- Sport-specific examples available
July 14th - 16th, 2023: Standing Bear Indigenous Physical Activity & Leadership Symposium
The City of Halifax (Kjipuktuk) and Millbrook First Nation are located in Mi’kma’ki, the traditional land of the Mi’kmaq Nation. The territory is covered by the "Treaties of Peace and Friendship" which Mi'kmaq and Wolastoqiyik peoples first signed with the British Crown in 1725. The 2023 North American Indigenous Games (NAIG: www.naig2023.com) took place on this territory between July 15th and 23rd. Established in 1990, the NAIG is a multi-sport event held every three years (pandemic notwithstanding) throughout North America that provides thousands of Indigenous athletes with an opportunity to compete. The vision of the NAIG is “to improve the quality of life for Indigenous Peoples by supporting self-determined sports and cultural activities which encourage equal access to participation in the social/cultural/spiritual fabric of the community in which they reside and which respects Indigenous distinctiveness.” In the spirit of this vision, we—Indigenous Sport & Wellness Ontario and the Scott McCain and Leslie McLean Centre for Sport, Business and Health— organized a three-day Indigenous sport and physical activity symposium in the lead-up to the Games that featured a variety of opportunities for interested parties to gather, share, and learn. It took place at The Inn on Prince in Truro, Nova Scotia, July 14-16, and included a choice of activities such as the Aboriginal Coaching Module (ACM), plenary sessions with guest speakers, research presentations, a space designated for Indigenous youth engagement, an opportunity to discuss the formation of a broader research agenda, and a trip to the NAIG Opening Ceremonies.
Click Here To Watch Event Videos
Book Launch for Hardscrabble Diamonds by Colin Howell
Part history, part memoir, part statistical analysis, this book tells the remarkable and largely forgotten story of how the baseball hotbed of Canada’s northeastern Maritime provinces evolved into “NCAA North” during the 1940s and 1950s. A summer training ground for players from leading U.S. college programs, the region attracted talented players seeking higher salaries than they could get in the American minor league system.
Click here to purchase the book.
Pat Sassa, Digital Storytelling, and Community Histories with Dr. Carly Adams
During her visit to the CSSH in Winter 2023, Dr. Carly Adams gave a talk as part of the History Department’s Seminar Series on The Nikkei Memory Capture Project, a community-based oral history project in collaboration with Dr. Darren Aoki (University of Plymouth, UK) and the Nikkei Cultural Society of Lethbridge and the Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden. It explores the cultural and social histories of Japanese Canadians in southern Alberta from 1950 to the present. In her 2004 article, ‘Passing Time, Moving Memories,’ Pamela Sugiman writes “the pain caused to all persons of Japanese descent by the Canadian government’s actions during the Second World War is etched in my memory. It has become an integral part of my existence, as well as a defining moment in my own family’s history.” So too, is this moment etched in the memories and personal and family histories of our interviewees. In this talk, Dr. Adams shares and reflects on Pat Sassa's (long time Lethbridge resident and Japanese dancer) co-created short film where she reflects on the importance of her bodily movements and her efforts to grow and sustain Japanese folk dancing in her community. Stories like Pat’s challenge the notion that one story, the dispossession and oppression of Japanese Canadians during and following the Second World War, can singularly define Japanese Canadian life.
Indigenous Sport Week 2022
In collaboration with Athletics & Recreation and Ryan Francis, the Scott McCain & Leslie McLean Centre for Sport, Business and Health assisted with the organizing of the first ever Indigenous Sport Week at Saint Mary’s. This included men’s and women’s basketball games recognizing Every Child Matters, men’s and women’s Red Tape hockey games, a display of the Mi’kmaw Sports Hall of Fame, an assortment of Indigenous vendors, and an evening dedicated to bringing awareness to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People. Notably, the Red Tape anti-racism initiative at SMU was initiated by former student Logan Prosper of Whycocomagh First Nation.
Click here to learn more about the Red Tape Movement.
Athlete Mental Health with Kendra Fisher
The Scott McCain & Leslie McLean Centre for Sport, Business and Health partnered with SMU Athletics and Athletic Council on campus to host Kendra Fisher on Monday, November 14th, 2022, in the Sobey Building. Kendra is a former goaltender in the women's Canadian National Hockey Program who had to stop short of reaching her Olympic dreams on account of mental illness. Kendra was on a national speaking tour of Canadian colleges and universities and Saint Mary's was her first stop.
The Queen of Basketball: a film screening and panel discussion with Ben Proudfoot, Jennifer Vanderburgh, Letisha Brown, and Chanel Smith
We were pleased to be joined by Oscar winner Ben Proudfoot, basketball athlete Chanel Smith, and scholars Dr. Jennifer Vanderburgh and Dr. Letisha Brown on Thursday October 18th, 2022 in Sobey 260. Ben is a Halifax-born film producer who created a short documentary about Lusia Harris, a Black basketball athlete who was the first and only woman ever drafted to the National Basketball Association. Audience members watched a screening of the film and then the panel discussed the intersection of film, basketball, and Black women. This event was planned and supported collaboration with librarian Suzanne Van der Hooven, AVP Diversity Excellence Dr. Rohini Bannerjee, and President Dr. Robert Summerby-Murray.
Collaboration with Gujarat National Law University and the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute
Dr. John Reid and Dr. Brian Kennedy spoke in a lecture series titled "Sports in India and Canada: History, Health, and Regulation". The series ran March 5th, 12th, and 19th.
Click here to view the event pamphlet.
Speaker Series on Women in Sport & Health
Presented by HWSS 3000 Students in partnership with the Scott McCain & Leslie McLean Centre for Sport, Business and Health
Student-organized speaker series in Winter 2022 featuring seven pre-made 15-30 minute videos created by women working in sport and/or health. The goal was to amplify women's voices as they presented their health-related careers or sport participation and the challenges that have empowered them. Speaker videos were uploaded on Fridays concluding with a video in which students discussed the major themes presented by the speakers as they related to broader intellectual discussions happening in academia. Audience members were invited to comment on the seven videos and suggest discussion questions for the class.
Speakers: Fabienne Blizzard, Dr. Tina Atkinson, Jessica Platt, Maggie Campbell, Sue Rodgers, Jillian Reid, Robin Hunter
Click here to view the videos on the McCain McLean Centre YouTube channel.
Special thank you to the Saint Mary's University Athletic Council for their support.
Book Launch for Overcoming the Neutral Zone Trap: Hockey's agents of Change
Editors: Cheryl MacDonald & Jonathon Edwards
Publisher: University of Alberta Press
Date: December 2nd, 2021
Host: Scott McCain & Leslie McLean Centre for Sport, Business and Health Senior Research Associate Dr. Brian Kennedy, author of Growing Up Hockey (2007)
Overcoming the Neutral Zone Trap challenges hockey’s norms, pushes its boundaries, and provides new ways of conceptualizing its role in North American culture. The editors of this engaging interdisciplinary collection use the metaphor of the neutral zone trap to explore the ways that hockey’s culture and structures work to exclude marginalized people. The book features both personal and scholarly accounts of agents of change—people, ideas, and events—that confront the challenges associated with making hockey a more inclusive space. By exposing assumptions about hockey culture, Overcoming the Neutral Zone Trap opens up critical discussions of previously underexplored topics as they relate to the women’s game, Indigenous participation, viable career pathways, masculine identities, hockey parents, mental health, and social media. This is a book for fans, players, organizers, and researchers alike.
Contributors:
Angie Abdou, Kieran Block, Cam Braes, William Bridel, Judy Davidson, Jonathon R.J. Edwards, Catherine Houston, Colin D. Howell, Chelsey H. Leahy, Roger G. LeBlanc, Cheryl A. MacDonald, Fred Mason, Brock McGillis, Vicky Paraschak, Brett Pardy, Ann Pegoraro, Kyle A. Rich, Tavis Smith, Noah Underwood
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE THE BOOK
The Hockey Conference (10th Anniversary)
The Hockey Conference is a biennial event held in a different location across North America and soon Europe. It has been a driving force for academic research on ice hockey. It has also facilitated conversations among a diverse group of scholars, artists, athletes, coaches, administrators, members of sports media, and fans of the game. Through conference participation, attendees have raised significant questions about the sport, and importantly advanced our understanding of who plays the game, how they play it, and under what conditions. This conference has worked to enrich collaboration and cultivate a critical group of individuals who are pushing the boundaries of scholarship on hockey.
The Conference was founded by Dr. Colin Howell at Saint Mary’s in 2001 and returned in 2004 and 2012. Notable guest speakers at the event have included Jean Beliveau, Ken Dryden, Hazel McCallion, Stacey Wilson, Ted Nolan, Billy Bridges, Jennifer Botterill, Harnarayan Singh, and Karl Subban. It returned to Saint Mary’s for its tenth anniversary in 2020 (2021 edition due to COVID-19) featuring Humboldt bus crash survivor Kaleb Dahlgren and women’s hockey pioneer Angela James.
Click here to view the Hockey Conference videos on the McCain McLean Centre Youtube Channel
Visit the Hockey Conference Website
Twitter: @thehockeyconf
Instagram: @thehockeyconf
Facebook: The Hockey Conference
Goaltending Symposium
This free 6-week online interdisciplinary speaker series focused on the role of the ice hockey goaltender from a sport, health, and society perspective. Viewers could watch guest speaker videos at their leisure leading up to a live Zoom Q & A session with the speakers (no recording available).
Speakers: Dr. Jim Cameron and Dr. Lori Dithurbide (Psychology), Sami Jo Small (professional goaltender), Justin Goldman (founder of Lift The Mask), Cassie Shokar (university goaltender), Dr. Brian Kennedy (English), and Dr. Ryan Frayne (goaltender ergonomics)
Links to videos on the McCain McLean Centre YouTube channel.