In a Friday news dump and subsequent revelations, Hockey Canada, the sport’s governing body in that country, confirmed that its sexual assault problem goes far beyond an isolated incident. Following a lawsuit first reported by Rick Westhead of TSN in May in which a woman accused eight Canadian Hockey League players of sexually assaulting her while intoxicated in a hotel room in 2018, Hockey Canada issued a statement claiming that he had just learned of another alleged group assault that took place in 2003 at the IIHF World Junior Championships.
By Westhead’s first report, the now 24-year-old said she went to a bar in London, Ontario, in June 2018, where she was introduced to a player and his teammates. (All defendants are listed as John Does in his lawsuit, which he also named Hockey Canada and CHL.) Members of the 2017-18 Canadian World Junior team were in town as part of a Hockey Canada event honoring them for winning gold. at the tournament earlier in the year, arriving at the bar after a Hockey Canada Foundation Gala. The woman said she was separated from her friends because the players bought her more and more drinks, and she eventually left the bar and had sex with a player in a hotel. Later, she tells her, the player invited his teammates into the room without his knowledge or consent. From TSN:
According to the lawsuit, the players ordered him to caress their genitals and perform oral sex on them. The players also allegedly straddled the plaintiff while placing their genitalia on her face, slapped plaintiff’s buttocks, spat on her, ejaculated in and on her, had vaginal intercourse with her, pressured her not to come out from the room when he was trying to do so, and engaged in other sexual activities with her.
The lawsuit added: “At times, Plaintiff would cry and attempt to leave the room, but was directed, manipulated, and intimidated into staying, after which she was subjected to further sexual assaults.” She says the players further pressured her to state in a video that she was sober, that she showered after the assault and that she did not report her actions to the police. Hockey Canada claims that she, in fact, learned of these allegations in 2018 and reported them to authorities, but the woman did not cooperate with an investigation or name any individual players. In the the same history In breaking news of the lawsuit, Westhead reported that Hockey Canada had reached a settlement with the plaintiff, which covered all co-defendants, including the individual John Does.
This lawsuit was made public amid growing coverage of sexual misconduct on the NHL and its development channel, in cases involving both individual players and the apparent institutional rot of the Chicago Blackhawks. This story broadens the spotlight to the rest of the sport, as the World Juniors serves as the premier gathering place for all of the NHL’s incoming young talent. The Canadian team, in particular, is to hockey what Alabama or Ohio State are to the NFL, and as such nearly every potential John Doe is an active NHL player. Yeah, the players like it. Cala Makar, carter hartY Robert Thomas they have denied personally or through their agents any involvement in the assault. the The London police announced on Friday that, after an initial investigation that lasted from June 2018 to February 2019, they will reopen their inquiry into the accusations.
The question of whether this is an institutional problem is heightened by the revelation of an alleged assault in 2003 by Hockey Canada players, before further reports from Westhead. That 2003 team, which finished second in the World Juniors, was also full of future professionals and had several players who had long NHL careers. On Friday, covered TSN the alleged existence of a six- or seven-minute video showing players from the 2003 World Juniors team sexually assaulting an unresponsive woman, which was independently corroborated by the owner of the loaner camera used to make the video and two people who said they saw it in an apartment on VHS in 2003. Police in Halifax, which co-hosted the 2003 World Juniors, now say they are investigating the allegations. of that story:
[T]The video began with a Team Canada player standing outside a room, answering questions as if doing a pregame interview with the person holding the camera, who is unidentified.
The player told the camera operator that viewers were about to see “a fucking roast lamb,” the three sources said. After the hallway interview, the camera was taken to a room with a pool table, the source said.
The video shows about a half-dozen players taking turns having sex with an unresponsive woman lying on her back on the pool table, the source said.
That these alleged assaults occurred 15 years apart and involved players who were not regular teammates or associated with any club, would indicate that there is a long-standing problem in Canadian youth hockey. So would Hockey Canada president Scott Smith’s revelation that the organization had received additional complaints of recent sexual misconduct over the years, and maintains a separate fund to cover uninsured liabilities, including those claims.
It’s Hockey Canada that takes responsibility for any kind of endemic problem, because for just about anyone who picks up a stick to play in an organized league, they’re the ones at the top of the hierarchy, overseeing the programs that attract and keep the people. Skating. That’s also what makes this an issue that affects more people than if these accusations had been aimed solely at NHL franchises. What noticed by the balloon and the mail In the past week, it is the millions of dollars in player registration fees that the organization collects that help provide the fund that Hockey Canada can use to resolve sexual assault claims. Any parent or player who has ever given money to Hockey Canada now knows of his own unwitting role in silencing victims and perpetuating a rotten culture. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed that frustration last week, calling for a “real reckoning” within Hockey Canada. Without parental trust, he noted, junior hockey in Canada cannot function properly.
“A few years ago I had my son in hockey, and when I think about the culture that is seemingly permeating the highest levels of that organization, I can understand why so many parents, so many Canadians who take such pride in our national winter sport. They are absolutely disgusted. trudeau said. A day later, his Sports Minister, Pascale St-Onge, Announced a freeze on federal funding for the organization.
Hockey Canada is aware, at least, that it faces a public relations problem. It premiered on Monday a so-called “Action Plan” intended to combat their problems with the euphemistically called “toxic behavior” that has dogged the organization. Unsurprisingly, there are vague commitments to things like better training and “character assessment” for your top teams. Slightly more intriguing is the revamped system of independent and confidential complaints, the results of which will be published in an annual report.
That plan might be enough to get them through their next round of hearings this week with the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, but the task ahead is almost incomprehensibly vast, both in their tangible goals of making everyone involved in hockey across the country are more alert and knowledgeable about sexual misconduct, and on even less of a direct path to repairing the damage already done. Hockey Canada’s troubles have created a cloud of suspicion that covers every player, guilty or innocent, who has ever been involved, and that cloud follows them to their future in the NHL, as well as to the places where they started, where these instances could discourage the next generation of players and fans from getting involved with the game in the first place.
When an organization fails so badly, the urge to destroy it completely is understandably stronger than the willingness to listen to a plan to fix what’s broken. But it is likely that Hockey Canada will continue to be the guardian of its sport in its country. And without radical changes, it will also continue to be another stumbling block for anyone who wants to keep loving the game.