SYDNEY, N.S. — A Saskatchewan team playing in the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships in Nova Scotia this week is holding two special tributes during each game.
Players for the team are wearing a "CB" sticker on their helmets in honour of Colten Boushie and his family.
Boushie, a member of the Red Pheasant First Nation, was fatally shot in August 2016 when he and four others in an SUV drove onto a farm near Biggar, Sask.
In March, a jury acquitted 56-year-old Gerald Stanley in Boushie's death, a verdict that led to protests across the country.
Team Saskatchewan is also honouring the Humboldt Broncos hockey team by wrapping themselves in the team's flag as they say prayers before each game.
Ken Thomas, the sport, culture and recreation director for the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations who's attending the championships, says the bus crash was very hard on the team's players.
"We had a Team Sask. player in 2015 that played … at NAHC [on the bus], so it hit the teams pretty hard here," he said Wednesday.
The Broncos were on their way to a playoff game on April 6 when their bus and a semi collided at an intersection near Tisdale, Sask., killing 16 people and injuring 13 others.
The National Aboriginal Hockey Tournament brings together the best 15- and 16-year-old players from across the country.
It runs until May 12 at Membertou First Nation near Sydney, Nova Scotia. (CKBI)
The Canadian Press
