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The Royal City Redshift are finding themselves in a precarious situation, one that could put the upcoming season at risk.

“We are at risk of losing the next season” announced canucks357. “This is not an NHL-NHLPA-like issue but something bigger. I have always been very vocal about my disapproval of the Canadian dictatorship that goes by ‘the Harper government’ and it appears they’re trying to strike back.”

What canucks357 is referring to is the denial of work visas for many of the Redshift players, a potentially catastrophic problem for a team that has been carried for many years by import players due to a lacklustre academy.

“We’ll have our best lawyers on this. It is discrimination simply because we have been vocal about the past and continuing atrocities performed by our government at both the federal and provincial levels. They have no grounds to take such actions but have no issue creating a [censored] pain in the ass for us. It just goes to prove my point really” said canucks357.

Players playing under PPM jurisdiction have to go through various channels when transferred related to the emigrating and immigrating country as well as the player’s age and experience. There currently are agreements between all nations that have leagues under PPM ruling that work visas will be granted. What the Canadian government is presenting could set a real precedent in Canadian PPM-ruled sports.

There are two scenarios when this goes to the supreme court:
1) The government loses and the Redshift can continue on with business as usual.
2) The government wins which would thereby grandfather all other teams into the ruling essentially stopping the import of international players to Canadian teams and in turn could see exporting of players drastically reduced.

“This will really hurt our transfer scene here in Canada if it gets approved. Our clubs are competitive and attract top talent from all over the globe. We also produce some of the best players around who may look to move to clubs elsewhere. Suppressing this would only destroy the competitiveness of our clubs at the international level” said the Canadian top division spokesperson.

The Canadian government, or ‘Harper government’ I should say, was not available for comment though one source who didn't wish to be named stated that the reason that will be released to the public later was to “protect Canadian players and develop our own players”. As stated earlier, such an action would violate the free-trade agreements among nations under PPM-ruling.

“This is complete hovno” said Teodor Vaverka of Czech origin and the longest serving foreigner on the Redshift. “I've been here for 12 seasons now. 12 seasons! I just signed a three-season contract that will keep me here until my 30th birthday. My kids were born here and are Canadian citizens. If this goes through am I supposed to uproot them and take them to a country they've never known? This is complete hovno. If it comes to it, I'll play for free. I won’t need a visa then.”

Clearly the news has startled many people in the community and while the potential damage to the Canadian hockey scene will be monumental, it is certainly precarious that the government is only targeting one team. It makes one wonder, what really is the story here?

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