A FORMER NHL player was left asking why a crowd of over 1,000 failed to intervene when a player was racially abused on Saturday night during a Quebec-based semi-professional hockey league game.

The match between Jonquiere Marquis and the home team St Jerome Petroliers du Nord descended into a vile event when Marquis player Jonathan-Ismael Diaby and his family members were racially and physically abused.

The abuse was so bad that Diaby left the ice rink during the second period.

Georges Laraque, who played in the NFL for 14 years and was racially abused himself, questioned why no-one stood up to the bigots.
 
“Why didn’t anyone do anything to stop the 30 people who polluted the atmosphere?

“There is still a long way to go in society to achieve equality.

“In the arenas, hockey is considered to be a white sport and racism in hockey is too easy. I was a victim of it throughout my career in minor hockey.”

Laraque added that under no circumstances should the game have continued.

“The game should have been stopped until these people were kicked out,” Laraque said of the racist fans. “They didn’t do that.”

In a video posted on the league’s website, a man is clearly seen leaning over the sides of the penalty box to racially abuse Diaby, waving his arms like a gorilla and showing Diaby images of a baboon on his phone.

While in the penalty box with his captain Alexandre Quesnel, Diaby said he hid his face in his jersey and started to cry.

It was at that point he had enough, telling his captain he was leaving.

Diaby said he left the rink in order to protect his family — which included his mum, dad, aunt, sister, girlfriend, his girlfriend’s little brother and a few of his friends.

During the abuse, a small section of the crowd surrounded his dad, sister and girlfriend as his dad told the bigots to be respectful – they had told his dad to “go back to where he came from,” while physically abusing his dad and pouring alcohol on his girlfriend.

“My family was not safe. That’s when I decided to leave,” Diaby said. “The security guards did not do much.

“My dad was told to go back home, that he had no business in this country. People were touching his hair. They were making fun of him. My sister was scared; my girlfriend was scared.

“That’s far beyond what should be happening on a regular Saturday night. No one should feel threatened to go watch his son play a hockey game.”

League commissioner Jean-Francois Laplante apologised to Diaby and his family in a video posted on Facebook.

“I want to apologise to Jonathan Diaby and his family,” said Laplante. “Racist, sexist, homophobic comments are completely unacceptable and cannot be tolerated, whether it’s in everyday life or in our arenas.”

However, Laraque said it wasn’t for the commissioner to apologise and pointed the finger at the security guards for not doing more – they asked Diaby’s family to move so people “could have a quiet game,” but failed to kick out the racist supporters.

“The people that were there that night who didn’t do anything, those are the people that should be sorry about not doing anything — not the commissioner, who is going to be sorry because that’s his league, and he wants to protect it.

“This is embarrassing.”

Laplante called on supporters to “show respect” while watching and combat racism if and when it arises, adding that the racist fans are just a “tiny part” of the league.

“Cheer on your teams in a civilised way and always show respect,” Laplante said. “Intolerance of differences is based on ignorance, and to combat it, it must be denounced and spoken about.”

He ended the video by declaring, “Je suis Diaby” — I am Diaby.

Marquis’s captain Alexandre Quesnel is said to have asked the referee to intervene and to make sure Diaby would be escorted by security guards out of the arena, which did not happen.

Instead, Diaby says he and his family were left to defend themselves as they left the building.

Petroliers du Nord management declined comment on the incident but said “the necessary measures will be taken” to ensure such behaviour is not repeated.