Raphaelle Tousignant became the first woman to play on Canada's men's para hockey team. She's part of the rising elite-level women's players worldwide, writes Adam Proteau.
The thing about change – real change, tangible change, positive change – is that it happens across so many elements of a particular culture, it’s impossible to stop.
That’s the case when it comes to equality in the hockey world. No matter how loud the exclusionary voices get in their attempts to preserve some contentious element of the sport, we see progress in areas that don’t always jump to mind.
That was the case this week when 20-year-old Raphaelle Tousignant became the first woman to play on Canada’s men’s Para ice hockey team. Tousignant was one of two women in the hunt for a job on the men’s roster, as Edmonton’s Alanna Mah also was part of the development group but just missed out.
Tousignant did make it, though, and she was on the ice for Canada this week in the 2023 World Para Ice Hockey Championship in Saskatchewan. Tousignant is the fourth female player to compete at the men’s national level. At the Paralympics level, China’s Jing Yu and Norway’s Britt Mjaasund Oyen and Lena Schroeder all participated with their men’s national team. But Tousignant’s achievement is still significant. Young women can look to Tousignant and believe they can follow her path to elite-level competition.
It won’t be easy, of course. But it won’t recede or stop growing. There will be more women on the men’s teams, and one day, there very well could be a truly top-of-the-Para-world talent who is a woman. That will be massive. But that feat will be built on the backs of women like Tousignant. They are true pioneers in their own right.
It wasn’t all that long ago that many in the hockey community would turn up their noses and sneer at the proposition of greater participation from women hockey players. Nobody was interested in that kind of thing, they said. But they were quickly proven wrong by the likes of Hayley Wickenheiser and Hilary Knight – two dynamos who demanded your attention every time they stepped over the boards.
Because of them, the quality of women’s hockey has risen dramatically. We probably won’t see a woman playing at the NHL level for a long time, if ever – the physicality of the game would present a tremendous challenge to them – but that’s not necessary for the women’s game to continue to improve. The men’s and women’s teams of the 2030s and 2040s will be deeper, stronger and better than the teams before them.
Change is inevitable. The only thing an individual or a collective can do is respond properly to change by embracing it wholeheartedly. And hockey is changing for the better. Its inclusivity efforts are, without a doubt, the proper response to the question of what the future of the game looks like. We ought to be celebrating Tousignant’s ascent. She has raised the bar this week on not just the women’s game but the overall Para game as well.
It’s often difficult for pioneers to be recognized as such in the heat of their playing days. But we can recognize their place while they’re still in that place. We can help to provide the reward for all the hard work Tousignant and others have put into their hockey careers with the recognition and praise they deserve.
Hockey still has a ways to go before it can be considered fully welcoming and completely inclusive, but it’s reassuring to know the direction is always forward and never back. The people who shunned the prospect of women’s hockey have been proven to be myopic and incorrect. The people who wanted to truly grow the game have charted the best course of action and opened up the sport to as many people as possible in as many ways as possible.
In making Canada’s men’s Para team, Tousignant has taken the first step toward incredible integration for the game. She’s part of hockey history now. Good for her, and good for hockey.