From the time she was a kid, Justine Blaney knew what she wanted to do. She wanted to play ice hockey in the Metro Toronto Hockey League. There was only one problem. She wanted to play with the boys. Hey, I'm Tony Armstrong. Welcome to the poolroom. This is where we celebrate the winners, losers, and the weird stuff between. Growing up in Canada, Justine Blaney had a special relationship with the ice. She started with figures while her brother
David played hockey. It wasn't long before Justine realized that's where her heart was too. She'd picked up a hockey stick by age seven, and by the time she was ten years old, she was determined to go pro. This was the nineteen seventies. Girls did play then, but they had fewer games, worse equipment, and it was no contact. Justine joined the team anyway, the Lee Side Wildcats, but she didn't play like them. She was tough and she
had a knack for blocking shots. Her history with figure skating made her quick on the ice, and she loved the physicality of the sport. That would have been fine in the boys league, where body checking was allowed from age eleven, but for Justine, it just seemed to get her into trouble. She wasn't content with tagging along to her brother's training sessions anymore. She wanted to play. In nineteen eighty one, Justine won a spot in the Metro Toronto Hockey League. She was good enough to join, but
she wasn't allowed to play. Her mother came up with the idea of writing a letter to the newspaper, could anyone help get the rules changed. To their surprise, a lawyer responded, Anna Fraser was pretty fresh to practicing law, but she loved hockey and she wanted Justine to have equal footing. With Anna's help, Justine made a complaint to
the Human Rights Commission. It was rejected. Although the Ontario Human Rights Code said no one could be excluded based on their sex, there was one exception sport boys and girls could be forced to play separately. Anna Phraser's mission quickly changed. She wouldn't just get Justine her spot in the team, She would change the law. In nineteen eighty five, when Justine was just twelve years old, they headed to
the Ontario the Rio Supreme Court. If Justine was good enough to earn a spot, they argued she was good enough to play. Besides, the law was simple discrimination. Canadian law said everyone was equal. But they lost the case. Justine's life was turned upside down. People recognized her on the street and called her crazy. Some even physically threatened her, but she was determined. In nineteen eighty six, eleven days after her thirteenth birthday, Justine took her case to the
Ontario Court of Appeal. After three months of silence, she was given the news. Finally they had won. But it wasn't that simple. It turned out the Ontario Hockey Association didn't really agree. Eventually, they said they'd made an exception for Justine, but wouldn't promise the same for other girls. Justine turned them down. The case to the Human Rights Commission, then a Board of Inquiry. For three long years, Justine fought the law. Then right before her fifteenth birthday, a
final decision was made she could play. Justine had been offered a spot in the East Enders, her brother's team, but with the court case fiasco, her place on the roster have been given to another player. She was allowed to play, but there was no space on the team. So, knowing how hard she'd fought to get there. Justine's brother
David quit the team his spot became hers. Justine Blaney only played in the men's competition until her late teens, but the law she helped change has had a lasting impact. More than one hundred girls play alongside the boys in the Greater Toronto Hockey League, as it's now known, showing everyone how competitive they can be, and it was Ustine who got them there. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Ballroom and iHeart production. I'm Tony Armstrong and I'll speak to you soon.