Nearly half the population of the GTA is foreign born, which is raising differing views on how effectively Canada’s iconic sport has tried to encourage newcomers to play hockey.

Toronto’s east end is home to many new arrivals from China and the Philippines and where in 2005 the 51-year-old Wexford house league folded, largely from a lack of interest. Another league, the Scarborough Hockey Association, is also on shaky ground with dwindling enrolment.

This poses a question: If hockey is critical to the Canadian identity, then why aren’t young boys and girls being aggressively recruited to fill empty teams?

Ken Jeffers, manager of access and diversity for the city of Toronto’s forestry, parks and rec department, says it’s because hockey has a history of exclusion and hasn’t acknowledged the demographic shift from white middle class to multicultural over the past decades.

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