Todd: As judgment day looms in Hockey Canada case, I'm thinking about right and wrong

Montreal Gazette

7 days ago

Hockey
In an Ontario courtroom Thursday, Justice Maria Carroccia is to deliver her verdict on the trials of Michael McLeod, Dillon Dubé, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart and Cal Foote, the five former junior hockey stars charged with sexual assault.
The verdict follows a trial that was at times tumultuous but drew little attention in these parts because it coincided with the Stanley Cup playoffs and another lengthy run on the part of the Edmonton Oilers.
That was not the case when the scandal first broke and Canadians learned that Hockey Canada had paid millions to the victims in a series of cases involving sexual abuse or sexual assault, it was front-page news from coast to coast.
My youngest son was 16 when the news first broke, three or four years younger than the young men involved. Worried that I had never discussed such a situation with him, I asked what he would have done had he been in that hotel room, with an inebriated young woman having sex with several men.
'What would you want me to do?' he asked. 'I can't fight all of them!'
'No, no,' I said. 'That's the last thing I would want you to do. But what would you do?'
He didn't hesitate. 'I'd leave the room and call the cops,' he said.
And there it was. Leave the room and call the cops.
I don't think my son is exceptional. His friends would answer the same way. So what separates them from the young men whose fate will be decided when the verdict is announced this week?
For openers, they have not been idolized since they were 11 years old because they can stop a puck or put a puck in the net. They have not been raised to believe that every girl they meet is the prize in the Cracker Jack box, simply because they are skilled at something we admire. Above all, they have never been in a position where Hockey Canada would dig deep into its treasure chest to bail them out should they get in trouble.
I am not optimistic about the verdict. The history of sexual assault trials involving celebrity defendants is not a pretty one. But quite apart from the verdict there remains a simple question of right and wrong that goes beyond the letter of the law. If a 16-year-old who never played hockey and had not even begun dating could see the situation clearly, why did none of these young men simply leave the room and call the cops?
No matter what verdict Justice Carroccia renders, that is the question that will linger for me. That — and why Hockey Canada should have thought that buying off the victim in such cases was the way to go.
What were they thinking? Out West, the Stampeders are stampeding and the Roughriders are roughing people up.
In the east, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a force again with quarterback Bo-Levi Mitchell passing former Alouettes QB Tracy Ham for 10th on the all-time passing yardage list — albeit far below Anthony Calvillo.
The Alouettes? On the bright side, they're tied with the Ticats for first in the East. On the dark side, the decision to play dynamic quarterback Davis Alexander after he missed two games with a hamstring injury was doubtful at best — but the call to send him back out for a two-point convert after he reinjured the hamstring on a touchdown run was downright reckless.
Whether Alexander aggravated the hamstring injury on the attempted convert (sure-handed Cole Spieker dropped a pass that was right in his hands) it was a terrible call. Now Alexander is on the six-game injured list, out for a third of the CFL season as the Alouettes prepare for the meat of the schedule, beginning with the Stampeders in Calgary Thursday.
With the Toronto Argonauts and Ottawa Redblacks floundering, the Als remain pretty much a lock for the playoffs, but the road to the Grey Cup will not be an easy one. Their fate is now in the hands of that magnificent slab of statuary McLeod Bethel-Thompson, the 37-year-old who throws a beautiful ball and moves about as well as I do.
The Als still have the vastly more mobile Caleb Evans waiting in the wings, but for now it's Bethel-Thompson. The Calgary sack squad has to be absolutely champing at the bit.
A tip of the old Expos cap: To Terry Francona, whose injury-wrecked career with the Expos transformed into one of the great managerial careers in baseball history. Francona became one of only 13 managers to win 2,000 games last week while managing the Cleveland Guardians — and I personally will never forgive the Boston Red Sox for firing the man who finally broke the Curse of the Bambino.
Heroes: Terry Francona, Cole Spieker, Geoffrey Cantin-Arku, Wesley Sutton, Lwal Uguak, Shawn Lemon, Aaron Judge, Iga Swiatek, Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Cal Raleigh, Summer McIntosh &&&& last but not least, 15-year-old Aphrodite Deng.
Zeros: Gianni Infantino, the Club World Cup, Randy Ambrosie, Alex Rodriguez, George Springer, Michael Johnson, Lloyd Howell Jr., Wayne Gretzky, Bud Selig Jr., Claude Brochu, David Samson &&&& last but not least, Jeffrey Loria.
Now and forever.