Hockey is one of Canada's most popular sports. From a young
age, many children are taught how to skate and are either
registered in organized ice hockey leagues or play ice or street
hockey with neighbourhood friends. Recreational ice and ball hockey
leagues also exist for adults and sometimes adulthood friends
merely get together to organize their own ice or ball hockey games.
Most leagues prohibit non-incidental body contact. However, on
occasion, the intensity of the game results in aggressive behaviour
on the part of either an individual player or multiple players,
which leads to ugly incidents that result in the laying of criminal
charges.
This was the result in
R. v. Tang, 2021 ABPC 292, where the court was
required to determine if a hockey player who struck an opponent in
the face with his hockey stick, causing serious injury, was guilty
of assault causing bodily harm with a weapon or whether the player
was innocent because he acted in self-defence. As noted
