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\u201cI got to watch Bobby Orr beat up on the Toronto Maple Leafs. My\ndad was a big Leafs fan, and he was not too happy that day,\u201d Peltier chuckled.\nBut it was that game and that Saturday night that came to mark the beginning of\na storied hockey career that would send Peltier far from home, to break\nbarriers, win championships and inspire a future generation of First Nations\nyouth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe was tall, lanky, could skate like the wind, had great moves.\nHe was just smooth,\u201d remembered Dana Shutt, Peltier\u2019s former Humber Hawks coach\nand Humber Hall of Famer. \u201cHe had athletic ability that you just don\u2019t find\nevery day. There was nothing he couldn\u2019t do. He could skate, he could shoot, he\ncould pass, he could play defense.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn sports, there\u2019s great players and then there\u2019s champions, and\nchampions are different. And Gerard was definitely a champion. And that\u2019s more\nthan just a guy with an ability to play a game,\u201d Shutt said of the former OCAA\nplayer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peltier\u2019s ascension to hockey greatness began in his hometown, The\nWiikwemkoong First Nation. And his success, he said, was due to his parents\nSara and Albert \u201cHardy\u201d Peltier, who pushed him toward his dream and gave him\nthe opportunity to achieve it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI mean, I was always taught when I was small, if you want it, you\ngo get it. Nobody\u2019s going to do it for you\u201d, Peltier said. \u201cIf it wasn\u2019t for\nthem, I wouldn\u2019t be here.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Peltier, who according to his wife Maxine, doesn\u2019t do anything halfway, began refining his skills on the pond behind his grandparents\u2019 house, sometimes practicing for six to eight hours a day. \u201cFrozen toes and the whole bit,\u201d he said. And by the time he was 11 or 12, he was good. Very good. It didn\u2019t take for his ambitions to grow beyond the pond. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was 12 or 13, and one day I just told my dad that I wanted to\nplay professional hockey,\u201d Peltier said. \u201cHe looked straight at me and he said,\n\u2018you know what Gerard, the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Montreal Canadiens, the\nBoston Bruins, they will never come to Wiikwemkoong, so you\u2019re going to have to\ndo one thing. You\u2019re going to have to leave.\u2019\u201d And at just 14 years old,\nPeltier left home for North Bay, to chase his dream of playing professional\nhockey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His best man and long-time friend Kevin Wassegijig remembered when\nPeltier left. Wassegijig, who also grew up in Wiikwemkoong, but was five years\nPeltier\u2019s junior, said he figured if he wanted to make it in hockey, and if\nPeltier went to North Bay, it would be a good place for him to go, too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe was always a role model, somebody we looked up to you. Even\nwhen he\u2019d just started, when he was playing at home. Just the way he carried\nhimself,\u201d Wassegijig said. \u201cHis commitment to the game and his commitment to\nthe community. So, a lot of us younger ones coming up behind him really looked\nup to him.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n But it was a tough start for Peltier at Scollard Hall Catholic Boy\u2019s High School,\nwhere he said he spent his first two weeks in tears. There were no cellphones\nin those days, and when you were allowed to call home on Sunday nights you had\nto wait in line, Peltier recalled, only to get about five minutes on the phone.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Leaving home at such a young age isn\u2019t easy for any small-town\nkid, but being a small-town First Nations kid came with its own set of\nchallenges. Far from home and far from the familiarity of his tight-knit\ncommunity, Peltier was distinctly aware that he was different from most of the\nkids at school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI remember having to stand in front of a crowd, and of course\nthey were all white kids. A few of us were Indigenous. And you had to introduce\nyourself. So, I said, \u2018my name\u2019s Gerard and I\u2019m from Wiky, and I\u2019m here to get\nan education and I want to play hockey,\u2019\u201d Peltier said, recalling the\nsnickering and laughing that followed in the background. \u201cI knew who I was. I\nwas a First Nations Indian,\u201d he said. \u201cI knew I was different.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n His wife Maxine remembers hearing about the racism that occurred.\n\u201cWhen I think about Gerard, some of the stories I heard, and my parents would\ntell the same stories,\u201d she said. \u201cBeing spit at, having garbage thrown at you,\nbeing called names.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Peltier also recalled punches being thrown at him from the bench.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was trying and as much as he wanted to play hockey, he was\nready to pack it in. But his parents told him to stick it out. \u201cSo, I did. And\nit worked out. Because guess who made the team?\u201d Peltier said. It was fuel for\nthe determined teenager. \u201cI ate, slept, watched and I learned. I went to the\nrink and I watched the men play, I watched my competitors play, I watched my\nteammates play.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And in 1981, his tenacity payed off when he was drafted to the\nOHL\u2019s Cornwall Royals. A team that included future NHL players like Doug\nGilmour, Mark Crawford and Dale Hawerchuk. The team won the Memorial Cup that\nyear, beating out the Kitchener Rangers 5 to 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe pulled into Cornwall the day after the championship game and\nthere was probably five or six thousand people in our home arena waiting for\nus,\u201d Peltier recalled. There\u2019s nothing like the welcome-home of thousands of\nscreaming fans, he said. And for a small-town guy it was amazing. His hockey\ncareer was at an all-time high, making it hard to believe that just a\nyear-and-a-half later he would throw his gear on a bonfire, believing it was\nall over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI thought I\u2019d hit the end of my life. And I said, \u2018that\u2019s it, I\nquit, I\u2019m done,\u2019\u201d Peltier said. After two years of playing for Cornwall, he\u2019d\ngone to Michigan to play semi-pro in the IHL for the Muskegon Mohawks but was\nreleased after just six months. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Back home in Wiikwemkoong, frustrated and discouraged, Peltier\ndecided to go back to North Bay and attend college. He didn\u2019t know it yet, but\nhis hockey career was far from over. And the moments he would identify as his\nbest were yet to come. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Peltier had no intention of playing college hockey upon his\narrival at Canadore College in fall 1983, but word travelled fast, and\neventually a coach tracked him down. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to play, but he made it\nsound so good,\u201d Peltier said. Joining the team turned out to be a good\ndecision: they made it to the 1984 provincials and Peltier took home is first\nCCAA All-Canadian and his first CCAA Championship All-Star.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shutt coached the Hawks at that time and remembers Peltier. \u201cThe\nfirst time I saw him, he was playing against me for the Canadore College\nPanthers, and we put out a power play and I thought, \u2018Wow this is gonna be\ngood, they\u2019re two men short and alls we\u2019ve gotta do is score a goal in the\ngame,\u2019\u201d he remembered, laughing at what happened next. Gerard, who was behind\nthe net, deked out their power play, scoring for the Panthers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When Shutt heard Peltier was attending Humber in Fall 1986, he\nwanted him on the team. Peltier, who\u2019d taken time off hockey to start a family\nwith his wife Maxine, wasn\u2019t sure if he could balance his commitment to his\nfamily with earning money, going to school, and playing hockey. But Shutt\nconvinced him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI hadn\u2019t skated in two years, and I was going to play college\nhockey,\u201d Peltier said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When Peltier stepped on the ice for the first time, Shutt said,\n\u201clike anybody else, he was not quite the player he was when I saw him the year\nbefore, but I knew who he was.\u201d And it was only a few weeks before Peltier took\nto the ice once again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe\u2019s a beautiful skater.\nHe\u2019s a smart hockey player, so it didn\u2019t take him long,\u201d Maxine recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shutt remembers Peltier as a humble man and a terrific hockey\nplayer, who never carried an ego and was never above hard work. If the coach\nasked him to sweep out the dressing room, he would, Shutt said. He never yelled\nat the referees or his teammates. And with a quiet combination of skill,\nhumility and the desire to take his team to the top, Shutt said Peltier carried\nhimself like a champion. \u201cIt was magical from the moment he walked in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He was unselfish, it wasn\u2019t about him, Shutt said. He wanted the\nteam to win and the players on his team and the other teams respected him\nbecause of that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He made an impression on everyone he ever played with, against, or\nfor, Shutt said. \u201cMany people you forget, and I don\u2019t forget anything about\nhim.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe just had that special quality about him, on and off the ice,\nand he made those Humber teams champions. We won five championships in a row\nand Gerard was definitely a huge part of those.\u201d In addition to two\nchampionships at Humber, Peltier added two more CCAA All-Canadian honours to\nhis roster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA lot of superstars want to be treated special. He didn\u2019t want\nany special treatment, he just wanted me to treat him as a player and he was\ntruly \u2014 and I\u2019ve always said this, I\u2019ve had players tell me that they were\nhonored to play for Humber or honored to play for me. And Gerard was a player I\ncan honestly say, I\u2019m honored to have coached him,\u201d Shutt said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reflecting on his hockey career, Peltier said he appreciated his\ncollege years most. \u201cI enjoyed the All-Canadian a little bit more, because with\nthose I participated a lot more, I excelled, I put numbers up. Whereas the\nfirst year I was in Cornwall, I didn\u2019t see the ice as much. To tell you the\ntruth, my butt saw a lot of slivers,\u201d he laughed. \u201cBut I was still part of a\ngreat team, that had a lot of great players. I won\u2019t sell that short.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And despite the milestones, awards and championships, his voice\nswells with pride the most when he talks about his family, his community and\nhis work as a First Peoples Recruitment and Retention Officer at Canadore\nCollege. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Their four boys learned how to play hockey on the backyard rink,\nsaid Maxine. \u201cWe always had a rink in the backyard. Because he has this belief\nthat a backyard rink is where you get some of your best skills, and where you\nhave the most fun,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kids from all over the\ncommunity would come to play, under one condition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou had to have your homework done. So, everybody would get their\nhomework done. And if one wasn\u2019t done their homework, then nobody went on the\nrink,\u201d she said, laughing. \u201cI can\u2019t believe the kids fell for it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This strong belief in education and a passion for helping\nIndigenous youth succeed made Peltier a great candidate for his role at\nCanadore. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI will speak to the students about the importance of education. I\nwill speak to the students about the importance of planning for their\npost-secondary, everything that goes on in between and what to expect when\nyou\u2019re leaving home,\u201d Peltier explained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Because he knows first-hand how hard it can be. The culture shock\nisn\u2019t easy and his office is there to ensure students have the support they\nneed to transition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He knows how important representation is for First Nations\nstudents and credits the institutions for stepping up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAlmost every institution in Ontario is being represented and that\njust goes to show you that those institutions understand the value of\nrecruiters going out and speaking to those kids. Because we have a connection\nto them. And when they do get here, there\u2019s a friendly face,\u201d Peltier said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy community helped me do the things I needed to do. They\nprovided that support for education, they provided that support for my sport.\nSo, I give back,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Giving back to his community, putting himself before others and\nchallenging First Nations youth to pursue their goals seems to come naturally\nto Peltier. He speaks with a humbleness that never brags or boasts, and with a\ngratitude for every achievement and every challenge in his life. And it\u2019s\nevident that he leaves a mark on every person he encounters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last year, 30 years after playing for the Humber Hawks, Peltier\nwas inducted into the 2018 Humber Hall of Fame. The website describes him as\n\u201cthe best player on one of the top teams in the nation, and arguably the best\nto ever put on a Humber Jersey.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Referring to Peltier as an \u201cexemplary human\nbeing,\u201d Shutt said, \u201cI don\u2019t even think about him as hockey player. That\u2019s a\npart of his life, but there\u2019s so much more to that man.\u201d \uf071<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It was winter 1970 when Gerard Peltier picked up his first stick and put on his first pair of skates, unaware of a future in hockey that would stretch far beyond his imagination and the backyard pond he learned to play on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":1205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/05\/Gerard-Grandson-and-Son-copy-web.jpg",702,487,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/05\/Gerard-Grandson-and-Son-copy-web-160x160.jpg",160,160,true],"medium":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/05\/Gerard-Grandson-and-Son-copy-web-640x444.jpg",640,444,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/05\/Gerard-Grandson-and-Son-copy-web.jpg",696,483,false],"large":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/05\/Gerard-Grandson-and-Son-copy-web.jpg",696,483,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/05\/Gerard-Grandson-and-Son-copy-web.jpg",702,487,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/05\/Gerard-Grandson-and-Son-copy-web.jpg",702,487,false],"td_150x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/05\/Gerard-Grandson-and-Son-copy-web-150x104.jpg",150,104,true],"td_218x150":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/05\/Gerard-Grandson-and-Son-copy-web-218x150.jpg",218,150,true],"td_300x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/05\/Gerard-Grandson-and-Son-copy-web-300x208.jpg",300,208,true],"td_324x400":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/05\/Gerard-Grandson-and-Son-copy-web-324x400.jpg",324,400,true],"td_485x360":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/05\/Gerard-Grandson-and-Son-copy-web-485x360.jpg",485,360,true],"td_696x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/05\/Gerard-Grandson-and-Son-copy-web-696x483.jpg",696,483,true],"td_1068x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/05\/Gerard-Grandson-and-Son-copy-web.jpg",702,487,false],"td_1920x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/05\/Gerard-Grandson-and-Son-copy-web.jpg",702,487,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Mar Greig","author_link":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/author\/marleegreig\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"It was winter 1970 when Gerard Peltier picked up his first stick and put on his first pair of skates, unaware of a future in hockey that would stretch far beyond his imagination and the backyard pond he learned to play on.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1204"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1210,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204\/revisions\/1210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/vpms1.humber.smartmanagedservers.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/05\/Gerard-Grandson-and-Son-copy-web.jpg\")
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