By Dominic Abassi

RCMP recommending assault charge after Nanaimo football player pelted with coffee

Oct 17, 2016 | 5:36 PM

NANAIMO — West Shore RCMP are recommending an assault charge against a young man suspected of throwing a drink into the face of a Nanaimo football player.

Mounties say a 22-year-old from Colwood was arrested at Westhills Stadium in Langford on Saturday night for assault. The arrest came after a fan walked up to the Raiders’ bench and threw a cup of coffee into the face of rookie quarterback Jake Laberge. The Raiders were in town playing the Westshore Rebels in the British Columbia Football Conference semi-finals.

“My dad was just checking up on me, we were having a conversation…there was a fan standing beside him,” says Laberge. “That’s when he (the fan) said ‘hey man, great game’ and he put his hand up to fist-bump me…I put my hand up and when I did that he threw a cup of coffee at my face.”

Laberge says the coffee wasn’t scorching hot but it was warm and it shocked him. He says he’s never been a part of anything like that in his football career. Police say the man they arrested was intoxicated and was acting on a bet from some of his friends.

“Junior football game, showing up intoxicated first of all not the best thing to do,” said Laberge. “For some guys to throw a bet out, ‘hey let’s go throw a cup of coffee at an 18-year-old kid’, I don’t get that at all…regardless if you like their team or not, I just don’t see how that’s right.”

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Laberge, from Maple Ridge, is a rookie in his first season of junior football with the Raiders. The Terry Fox Secondary grad says everything else about the atmosphere at Westhills on Saturday was amazing. He says he’s been playing football since he was six and he’s never seen anything like it. Laberge says he just wants to get past the unfortunate incident and he hopes whoever threw the coffee is held accountable.

The decision to have the Raiders’ bench on the fan side of the field is one that stands out as odd. It is extremely rare in the BCFC for a visiting team to have their bench area near fans, especially in a venue where the spectators are able to get within such close proximity. Raiders’ director of football operations Curtis Hansen says their trainers were setting up equipment on the far side of the field before the game, which is normal for games at Westhills. That’s when a Rebels coach came up and demanded they move to the other side, in front of the stands. When asked if this was allowed, Hansen says BCFC president Gord Johnson told Raiders’ officials the Rebels could choose what sideline they wanted.

“This has been an on-going issue with Westshore and the fact they put us on that sideline, I believe was a direct attempt to influence the outcome of that game,” said Hansen.

There were several occasions during the game where fans could be seen getting into verbal altercations with Nanaimo players as they stood on their sidelines. Hansen says several people asked Johnson, who was at the game, to intervene. He says the league president told them it was not his responsibility and it was up to the home team to handle security. Hansen says in week two of the regular season when the Raiders visited Westhills it was the Rebels who were on the bleacher sideline and security was setup at several spots behind them.

“I want to see Gord Johnson fired over this. He did not do enough, or anything, to protect a bunch of youth football players,” said Hansen.

On the field after the game Johnson said what happened was unacceptable and visiting teams would no longer have their benches on that side of the field.

“We were told there would be security behind the bench. There was a breakdown somewhere, we’ll look into it…I’m sickened this is going on at one of our games,” said Johnson.

He was asked who was responsible for protecting the visiting team’s bench.

“We could say we are, but I mean ultimately the field itself is the responsibility of the home team.”

He says once they got all the information there could be conversations about fines for the Rebels organization. Westshore issued a statement on their Facebook page, stating in part “…we would like to sincerely apologize to the Vancouver Island Raiders Football Club for an incident involving a spectator…the spectator involved in this incident will be banned from all our future football games at the stadium and is being dealt with by the police.”

West Shore RCMP say they are taking this incident very seriously. Const. Alex Berube said their investigators will be recommending a charge of assault to Crown Counsel. The suspect is due back in court on Dec. 29 and has been released on a promise to appear.