A Winnipeg minor hockey player was benched for his team’s season finale Saturday after his parents filed a defamation lawsuit naming a South Winnipeg Hockey Association (SWHA) board member as a defendant.

The association made the decision to indefinitely suspend the boy and his parents, Elena Russo Rusak and Corey Rusak, from all league-related activities on Thursday, after they submitted a statement of claim at Manitoba Court of King’s Bench Tuesday against Hiten Shah, vice-president with the hockey association.

“It’s heartbreaking on so many levels,” Russo Rusak said.