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Message from Central Alberta Soccer Association president’s account expressed disdain toward diversity efforts.
The president of the Central Alberta Soccer Association (CASA) has been suspended after an email was sent from his account expressing disdain toward diversity initiatives, saying the initiatives “discriminate against Canadians, especially young males of European descent.”
A copy of CASA president Jon Mulder’s email, sent on Wednesday to 10 Alberta Soccer employees, has been obtained by CBC News. The email criticized the efforts of the governing body to encourage the participation of women, girls, minorities and LGBTQ community members.
“Only perverts and predators wish to discuss sex and sexuality with other people’s children,” the email said.
“Adults don’t need to discuss their sexual proclivities in order to participate in community sports.”
Alberta Soccer calls email ‘disgusting and offensive’
The message was in response to an email sent earlier in the day on behalf of Alberta Soccer’s executive director Lisa Grant, informing members of an upcoming Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA) conference.
The conference, hosted by Canada Soccer, is described as focusing on “women and girls in soccer, LGBTQ+ inclusion, all-abilities soccer, anti-racism, and new-to-Canada participants in soccer.”
Grant confirmed that Mulder was suspended Thursday morning and said the Alberta Soccer Association (ASA) “acted swiftly as these comments and behaviours will not be tolerated.”
“To receive this email was shocking and these comments are disgusting and offensive,” she wrote in a statement to CBC News.
‘Radical left-wing ideology’
CBC News attempted to reach Mulder for comment on Thursday but did not hear back.
Conference organizers are currently looking to regional associations for initiatives taking place at the local level to showcase at the event.
“The main objective of this conference is to amplify the great work being done in communities across Canada,” reads part of Grant’s email to Alberta Soccer members.
The email from Mulder’s account responded: “This isn’t great work. This ideology is proven to destroy everything wherever it is implemented.”
The email described the conference as “wholly inappropriate” and said it was a “top down imposition of radical left-wing ideology.”
‘No place for discrimination’
A spokesperson for Canada Soccer praised Alberta Soccer for its decisive action.
“There is absolutely no place for discrimination of any kind in our sport, and the words used were beyond offensive,” wrote interim general secretary Jason deVos in a statement. “We are glad to see that Alberta Soccer has reacted strongly and quickly to address the matter.”
“We take our national inclusion and diversity efforts seriously — working hard to bring more players into our ecosystem and welcoming fans of all backgrounds into our stadiums. We feel strongly that this is the right thing to do and the way forward to grow our game in Canada.”
CBC News also reached out to the remaining executives with CASA, but they referred the matter back to Alberta Soccer.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Meghan Grant is a justice affairs reporter. She has been covering courts, crime and stories of police accountability in southern Alberta for more than a decade. Send Meghan a story tip at meghan.grant@cbc.ca or follow her on Twitter.
With files from Devin Heroux
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Credit belongs to : www.cbc.ca
