Asher Hill watched on his TV as American cities burned and on his phone as social media platforms lit up with sports teams, athletes and Canadian national sport organizations racing to condemn racism. He was outraged, devastated and had had enough.
Asher Hill watched on his TV as U.S. cities burned and on his phone as social media platforms lit up with sports teams, athletes and Canadian national sport organizations racing to condemn racism.
He was outraged, devastated and had had enough. As he was logging off from it all Tuesday night, he was jarred by a post from Skate Canada.
Hill, who is black, has been figure skating since he was three. He’s competed in world championships and international events for Canada. Hill loves his sport and is now a licensed figure skating coach. But as a skater and coach he says he’s constantly faced racism and has always been painfully aware of the colour of his skin.
So when Skate Canada said in a post they were “committed to anti-racism and leading by example within the sporting community to bring change,” Hill had to say something.
In a series of tweets, he called out Skate Canada for ignoring his complaints of racism, homophobia, misogyny and abuse of skaters and coaches.
“You never ever reached out to me for how you can make this sport safer for children, coaches, and volunteers of colour let alone black people,” he wrote.
He called his sister immediately after and told her he felt like he did something wrong.
“It was fear. Complete and utter fear,” Hill said. “I felt gaslit into thinking my experience in skating wasn’t real and was my own fault.”
Filed complaint last year
In an exclusive interview with CBC Sports, Hill says he filed an official misconduct complaint with Skate Canada last June, highlighting a number of instances spanning five years where he says a co-worker at a Brampton, Ont., figure skating club was abusive with racist, homophobic and misogynistic language.
Skate Canada confirmed to CBC Sports they received a complaint of misconduct from Hill.
“Upon review of the complaint, we were made aware that the skating club involved had retained a professional third-party investigator to manage the complaint,” the organization wrote in an email.
“Skate Canada reviewed the qualifications of the third-party investigator and accepted them to be an unbiased party to handle this complaint.”
The investigator “concluded that the allegations were unsubstantiated,” which the Skate Canada says it accepted.
Hill says Skate Canada failed to properly review pertinent information and testimony he provided and feels he was silenced.
“I ended up being the person who was reprimanded,” Hill said. “They wanted to sweep it under the rug. It’s shocking they didn’t talk to the people. When they came down with their decision, they threatened to suspend me or take away my license after I spoke out.”
Skate Canada ‘shut down’ conversation: Hill
Skate Canada denies Hill’s allegation that he was reprimanded and says it never threatened to suspend him or revoke his license after