OHL Suspends Referee for Rest of Season for Tweet

[chilly666]

The Ontario Hockey League today announced the results of a review of an incident involving OHL referee Joe Monette as it relates to his Twitter message of Saturday, January 26th, 2013.

In making the announcement, Commissioner David E. Branch stated “all individuals who are associated with the Ontario Hockey League, either in a management, coaching or officiating position with both Member Teams and the League have been apprised of the League’s Social Networking Policy and understand that there is a responsibility to ensure that at all times we conduct ourselves in a most professional manner. Mr. Monette displayed extremely poor judgment and the “tweet” not only contravened the League’s Social Networking Policy, but as well was detrimental to the welfare of the League, the officiating staff and fans of the OHL. The League apologizes to those that may have been offended by such comments”.

As a result of the review, referee Joe Monette has been suspended for any future OHL officiating assignments for the balance of the 2012-13 regular season and playoffs.


this is the tweet

Soo Saint Marie, two words, Slim Pickens. #noteeth #hicktown #allfaties.

[I_am_Belak_2]

Damn I just put this in the OHL forum because I thought it was the appropriate forum and all..

[ARCTICCAT24]

Truth hurts.

[NJD Oliwa]

As someone who does not follow the OHL or its teams, could someone clarify what was meant by the tweet? Thanks.

[chilly666]

he was ripping on the women in sault ste. marie and the town itself as not being up to par compared to other ohl cities

[I like Boobs]

Lindros didn't want to go there either.

[NJDevils17]

That's horse**** if that's all he said.

It's not like he was badmouthing the Greyhounds or anyone on the team. All he did was make fun of a city.

This would be like the NHL suspending Ilya Bryzgalov for talking bad about the city of Winnipeg.

[chilly666]

you have to remember...this is the ohl that created a limit on fighting majors before suspensions occur along with the commish trying to ban fighting in general. so this should come to no shock that he would suspend a ref for comments like this because his vag was offended.

[The Dougler]

The ironic thing is he's from Windsor, and also apparently still lives with his parents.

Unrelated, but I love the Soo and the other northern teams. It's a shame so many parents are twats and don't want their kids going there

[FightingIsGood]

Originally Posted by NJDevils17

That's horse**** if that's all he said.

It's not like he was badmouthing the Greyhounds or anyone on the team. All he did was make fun of a city.

This would be like the NHL suspending Ilya Bryzgalov for talking bad about the city of Winnipeg.

Some employers are more sensitive than others about things like this. It's even more the case with any high-profile profession or sports league like the OHL. Anything you do or say that brings embarrassment on the league usually gets punished severely, because it's not good for business. So while you may think it's no big deal, the OHL felt their reputation could have been damaged by those comments, so the referee paid the price. Fair or not, that's just the way it is.

[Viper207]

Exactly. It's you're in any public field, especially as a representative of a larger organization, you're under a ridiculous amount of scrutiny. That's why you only give short, cliche'd, and trite answers - and that's why you should stay off of social media where you might think you can be yourself, because you can't.

Still, suspension for the whole season?! That's a massive overreaction.

Whatever happened to the undisclosed fine and public apology?

[fansince65]

It's Dave Branch , he's our Garry Bettman , NEED I SAY MORE !!!!

[nilan30]

Originally Posted by The Dougler

The ironic thing is he's from Windsor, and also apparently still lives with his parents.

Unrelated, but I love the Soo and the other northern teams. It's a shame so many parents are twats and don't want their kids going there

Does this actually happen? And the league lets the kids go elsewhere? If so Thunder Bay is gonna be pretty much screwed if they get a team when they build their new rink. I think AHL is a better (although still not great) fit anyways but that's a whole different conversation.

[chilly666]

yup...see derek schoenmakers. the hounds acquired him from windsor, but he didn't want to go there. he wanted to go to kitchener which is closer to home for him. but there are many players that don't want to go to peterborough or other teams for various reasons.

the family wants to be able to see their kids play without them having to go live with a billet so the family says they won't report in hopes of their kid being dealt to their hometown team or close enough to where they will live with it.

[shaud19]

This is a new one, a ref getting in trouble because of social media. I wonder how many followers he had? I wouldn't think many. As a general rule making fun of a whole town is a terrible idea. If anything, if I was a athlete or in an organization I would try to brown nose ( not overly) the place I'm staying. Saying good things helps, another rule.