Adults must wear helmets to skate in Moncton arenas next year

Ice skaters in Moncton, N.B., better hope they get a Canadian Standards Association-approved hockey helmet for Christmas, because without one they will be unwelcome on city ice rinks.

As of Jan. 1, 2014, every adult who skates in a Moncton arena will be required to wear helmets.

The official policy reads:

Children under the age of 12 are already required to wear the safety gear when skating, but the new law will extend the order to everyone of every age and every skill level. Wayne Gretzky can pack up and get out of town if he doesn't comply.

“We feel it's our role to be as prudent and proactive as we can to make our recreational facilities as safe as we possibly can,” Moncton Leisure Services Director Jocelyn Cohoon told CTV Atlantic.

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The city is picking its battles, however. Realizing it would be too hard to enforce on outdoor rinks, its will focus only on indoor city-run arenas.

Other exceptions do exist. Registered figure skaters are free to risk their skins by not wearing protection, and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League related events are somehow protected from the law.

Some might cynically question whether skater safety or security from litigation is the primary reason for the change. If it really is safety, there is such a thing as going too far.

Society can't keep everyone safe from everything. Teens banned from taning beds, trees cut down to protect one child from allergies. Bike helmets, seatbelts. On a case-by-case basis, mandated safety standards are reasonable to the point of obvious. Piled on top of one another, it appears obsessive.

The National Post's Matt Gurney jokes that the next step will be Moncton making life vests a requirement when swimming in city pools.

"Moncton is now effectively deeming every citizen to be in as much need of the state’s protection as a child just learning to skate," Gurney writes. "This is infantilizing to all who enjoy hitting the ice for a free skate now and then, and Monctonians should have no part of it."

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The fact is that these are city-run arenas and politicians are free to implement any safety standards they see as necessary. Those who don't like it can go elsewhere.

That begs the question why such facilities are necessary in the first place. To promote physical activity? Community building? Creating laws that scare people away seems counter-intuitive.