from Cameron Axford of the National Post,

A new study says that French Canadian NHL referees give more penalties to English Canadian players.

Researchers Kevin Mongeon from Brock University and Neil Longley from the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently published a paper which examines ethnic bias in professional hockey.

The study looked at over 2.6 million player shifts in the 2008-2010 NHL seasons.

Ethnicities of both players and referees on the ice were recorded and put into three different categories — English Canadian, French Canadian and international. The conclusion was that French Canadian officials are quicker to punish English players than they would anyone else.

“The only category that had significant finding was French referees on English players,” said Mongeon. “It wasn’t the opposite across any other groups.”

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