A hockey tradition, now three years old, started as a way for military attachés to get together with their colleagues from National Defence in a lighthearted, casual way. In the beginning, the team of military attachés posted to Ottawa from all over the world was a rag-tag bunch with ill-fitting gear but they had spirit — and bravely took on a National Defence team made up of senior Canadian officers, led by Chief of Defence Staff General Walt Natynczyk. The game helped raise funds for Canadian military families.
It wasn’t a bad showing with a final score of eight to five in favour of the Canadian team. After all, prior to the two months of weekly practices leading up to that 2008 game, some of the attachés had never skated before.
“For many of us, [the start of practices] was the first time we put on skates,” said Capt. Mauricio Velasquez, the Chilean attaché and one of the game’s big supporters. His team practises every Wednesday at 2 p.m. and then challenges the Canadian DND team twice a year, autumn and spring.
And the fundraising game they plan for this spring might be a more even match. While an exhibition game in late November yielded a final score of nine for DND to five for the attachés, the teams had looked fairly evenly matched during the first period. And, Major Marie-Claude Carré, a deputy director who works in the foreign liaisons section of National Defence, says the attachés played a warm-up game against members in her office and ended pulling off a win — seven goals to six.
“I’m sure it was confidence-building for them,” Maj. Carré said.
But mostly, it’s just for fun and camaraderie anyway. “It’s really about having nice times, to improve relations between attachés. We are now really good friends,” Capt. Velasquez said. And the games expand those good relations to their colleagues in the Canadian Forces.
“It’s not only a game,” he said. “It’s more than that.”
Capt. Stuart McCubbin, who referees the games, said the funds raised in the spring game will go to the Military Family Resource Centres, which are on every Canadian base. Funds are raised primarily through corporate sponsorships, which also provide a post-game celebration with a reception and a friendly drink.
“The idea is to get together and have fun,” Capt. McCubbin said. “The attachés have really embraced the hockey.”
Maj. Carré said it’s been a great teambuilding exercise for the foreign service attachés (FSA) based in Ottawa (some foreign attachés accredited to Canada are based in Washington). She said it has allowed them “to develop bonds and friendship around a truly Canadian activity.”
“In turn, the hockey games [against] senior Canadian Forces members aim to establish, build and maintain strong relationships in an informal and friendly environment,” she explained. “They get to know some of our senior officers on a less formal basis.”
That, and their non-hockey goal score: To raise $20,000 for military families this year.
