Hockey Canada's reckoning was heralded three years ago. Instead, its crisis mushroomed
Former executives told a Parliamentary committee in October 2022 that they weren't sure how many of the players on that 2018 World Junior team had even spoken to the investigator they had hired. After the 2022 lawsuit, Hockey Canada swiftly reached a settlement with E.M., without involving its own insurers or even informing the alleged assailants of the allegations against them. While it looked to the outside world like Hockey Canada had tried to make the story go away quietly, former executives said that they believed the young woman had 'suffered harm' in 2018 and that a quick resolution was in her best interests.
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But the pattern of a team learning about sexual allegations involving players and looking the other way is a familiar one to anyone who follows sports.
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Kobe Bryant, the late basketball legend, was accused in 2003 of raping a teenage hotel employee in Colorado. Criminal charges were filed, but later dropped when the alleged victim, whose identity had been leaked, refused to participate in a trial. A civil suit against Bryant was settled, but the 18-time All-Star was never disciplined by the NBA or the Los Angeles Lakers. Former NBA commissioner David Stern said at the time that the league would withhold punishment pending the resolution of the criminal case, and Bryant, then 26 years old, travelled from Lakers games to Colorado to attend court during the 2003 NBA season.
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DeShaun Watson, the former All-Pro quarterback with the Houston Texans, was suspended for 11 games in 2022 and fined US$5 million (after the NFL and NFLPA reached an agreement) after more than two dozen women accused him of sexual misconduct during massage sessions. The Texans decided to trade him, and after interest from multiple teams, sent him to the Cleveland Browns for a haul of draft picks. The Browns quickly gave him a contract for five years and US$230 million, the largest guaranteed contract in NFL history at the time.
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Last month, the NFL suspended former Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker for 10 games after 16 massage therapists accused him of improper behaviour during sessions that took place between 2012 and 2016. He denies wrongdoing, and when the Ravens released him in May, with an NFL investigation ongoing, general manager Eric DeCosta said it was a 'tough decision' and thanked him for his contributions to the team. He did not mention the allegations.
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And earlier this month, police in London, England, announced sexual assault charges against Thomas Partey, formerly a midfielder for Arsenal in the Premier League, involving three alleged victims. Partey was first arrested in 2022, but his name was not made public because U.K. laws prohibit the identification of someone who has not been criminally charged. Arsenal, however, knew of the allegations, through multiple arrests, and he played more than 100 matches for the club until his contract expired at the end of June. Partey denies the allegations. Arsenal has said it will not comment on the case because it is before the courts.
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The tendency towards a hands-off approach can even be the case when the athlete is an alleged victim. In the spring of 2021, a former member of the Chicago Blackhawks sued the team over allegations that it had failed to properly respond when alerted to an alleged sexual assault perpetrated by a former assistant coach in 2010. A team-ordered investigation found that the Blackhawks let the coach resign after the season concluded, though he took part in Stanley Cup celebrations, otherwise the complaint was ignored. (The former coach was later convicted of sexual assault related to a high-school coaching job.) General manager Stan Bowman resigned, and Joel Quenneville, who was Chicago's head coach in 2010 but was coaching the Florida Panthers in 2021, also resigned after a meeting with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.
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CBC
41 minutes ago
- CBC
Court worked as it's designed to in the Hockey Canada case. That's the problem, survivors and lawyers say
Social Sharing WARNING: This article references alleged sexual assault and might affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected. In the course of her daily work, Alexa Barkley meets with people who debate whether to go to police after being sexually assaulted. Barkley walks them through their options, careful to lay out the facts without pressuring them to choosing one over the other. She's delicate, until it's time to warn them about what they'll be up against if their case makes it to court. "I have to explain what they're going to be up against in engaging the system and how traumatic it can be," said Barkley, 45, a survivor of sexual assault and advocate with End Violence Everywhere. "I wish I had better news for them, quite frankly." Barkley is among survivors, advocates and lawyers who argue the trial for five former Hockey Canada athletes again underscores how the traditional Canadian court system is fundamentally ill equipped to settle cases of sexual assault in a way that balances the rights of the accused while protecting complainants' well-being. They say there is no one-size-fits-all alternative because different survivors will define justice differently. They said successful models used elsewhere need to be explored in Canada because, under the current system, someone always loses something — even when complainants "win." Case a high-profile example Ontario Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia cleared all five ex-world junior players — Michael McLeod, Dillon Dubé, Alex Formenton, Cal Foote and Carter Hart — on sexual assault charges. She found the Crown didn't prove its case and E.M., the complainant, was an unreliable witness who had at times consented to group sexual activity in 2018. Four of the five men declined to testify in their own defence during the trial, and E.M. was in the witness box for nine days. WATCH | How the Hockey Canada trial could affect future sexual assault cases: In cross-examination, defence lawyers questioned the complainant on discrepancies between her statements to police in 2018 and her statements during Hockey Canada's own investigation in 2022. They asked whether she was actually as drunk as she claimed, pointing to videos of E.M. being steady on her feet in black high heels. They suggested she was the one who wanted a "wild night" and adopted a "porn star" persona as she encouraged the men to have sex and mocked them if they declined. They said she only came forward to police because she wanted to keep the undisclosed amount of money from a settlement with Hockey Canada and to save face with her boyfriend, friends and family. On Thursday, defence lawyers called the ruling a "vindication" and "exoneration," but not after their clients endured a one-sided trial in the court of public opinion for the better part of a decade. "The Crown attorney's office did not have to take this case to trial. Instead of pursuing restorative justice, the Crown forced a distressing and unfair trial to the detriment of Mr. Hart, his co-accused, the complainant and the Canadian public," said Megan Savard, lawyer for Hart. E.M. told the court she would've preferred to resolve the issue by having police speak to the men about their actions, but felt she had no choice but to pursue criminal charges after police told her in 2018 that the men could not be forced into a conversation. (In her ruling, Carroccia said she found the cross-examination "entirely appropriate" for the case.) WATCH | Player's lawyer says he would've engaged in restorative justice to resolve case: Lawyer for Carter Hart says trial's outcome was 'not just predictable, but predicted' 1 day ago Megan Savard said Thursday the decision in the Hockey Canada trial was vindication for her client, Carter Hart. She says her client would have been willing to engage in restorative justice process had it been offered, rather than go through what she called a distressing and unnecessary trial. Survivors need variety of options to choose from, experts agree Few people report sexual assault to the police and only a fraction those who do end up securing charges and criminal convictions. Statistics Canada data shows only 36 per cent of police-reported sexual assaults ended in charges between 2015 and 2019, and fewer than half of those ended in a guilty verdict. Most complainants want to resolve their cases with accountability, prevention and the healing opportunity to have their experience heard and acknowledged. Like E.M., Tanya Couch felt she had no alternative but to pursue some form of justice in the criminal system. Her former commanding officer was charged with sexual assault in 2021, but charges were stayed at Couch's request two years later because defence counsel requested access to her counselling records and personal journals. "There are no other options," Couch said of going to court. "I do think that that should be an option for victims to decide — the victim knows what's best for them." There is no universally agreed alternative to the court system because sexual violence is a complex offence and the definition of "justice" varies between survivors. Research from North America and Europe over the years has shown blended approaches, with a combination of trauma-informed practices, community accountability and legal reform being most effective. There is consensus that survivors need to be properly informed and supported as they choose between a range of options. The European Forum for Restorative Justice last year conducted eight interviews with eight survivors who met with the perpetrator who sexually assaulted them, from childhood abuse to incest to stranger assault. No two meetings were the same and survivor's said a sense of agency was key. "It was recognized that in many cases, it is the process, not the outcome, that makes for successful restorative justice. Success is achieved when, at the end, the person harmed feels listened to and satisfied [with the process], because the process was needs-led," authors wrote. E.M.'s lawyer, Karen Bellehumeur, a former Crown prosecutor with Ontario's Ministry of the Attorney General, has pushed for confidential, trauma-informed legal representation for all victims to better protect their rights throughout the process. Toronto-based lawyer Joseph Neuberger, who for decades has represented sexual assault complainants and suspects, said such cases should be removed "entirely from the criminal justice system." He said the country needs a separate regime where trained professionals — not necessarily police — guide complainants and accused individuals through a dispute resolution-type process, if the former has no interest in court. "That may give a complainant far more satisfaction than going through a trial and having an acquittal or some conviction, which at the end of the day may seem to be like a Pyrrhic victory because of the emotional destruction they've gone through," said Neuberger, referring to an achievement not worth winning because the cost is so high. "A more satisfactory outcome is not defined by wins, or losses or convictions. It's defined by how we solve problems, how we solve a societal problem," he continued. "How do we make better judgments? How do we understand each other's dynamics? How do we understand consent? How do we understand mutual respect? This can be dealt with in a non-criminal setting." Canada has tried its hand at reform Following the public outcry over the Jian Ghomeshi case, changes were made to the Criminal Code to prevent defence lawyers from surprising complainants at trial with past emails or text messages with the defendant. A long-awaited bill requiring new judges to undergo training on sexual assault became law in 2023, though it doesn't include existing ones. There is a patchwork of restorative justice options available in some provinces, but nothing nationwide. "We have to find other ways ... but it's difficult because so much of our culture is based on the idea that, 'If somebody does something wrong and hurts another person, you have to charge them and they go to jail.' But it doesn't work like that," said Judy Rebick, a writer and feminist who has been advocating for a better approach since Canada's rape shield laws reached the nation's highest court in the early 1990s. The experts, including E.M.'s lawyer, said they hoped the case would be the wake-up call they've wanted. Barkley agreed. If there's any silver lining, she said it's that the case has made the criminal justice's shortcomings difficult to ignore. "When I'm telling survivors about my experience or the experience of other advocates, they're thinking, 'OK, well, maybe, maybe this won't happen to me. Maybe this is not normal what you've experienced.' Now, they're getting it from multiple sources. Now they can see in the news how bad it is ... they can see how egregious their treatment will be," Barkley said in an interview from her Mississauga, Ont., home. "With the Hockey Canada trial, it's dragged it all out into the open."
Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Hockey's caveman culture must come out of the dark ages
Opinion Everyone even remotely connected to hockey is no doubt straining under the weight of multiple feelings today. The acquittal of five elite hockey players on charges of sexual assault was not unexpected. Throughout the eight-week trial, legal commentators flagged issues that undermined the Crown's case. In the end, Justice Maria Carroccia reached the conclusion that the complainant in this case — known only as E.M. — was not reliable. Many opinion writers have expressed concern about how this case demonstrates all that is wrong with the way the legal system views allegations of sexual assault. Those concerns are completely justified. We need to reframe and modernize the way that system adjudges complaints of this kind, particularly the legal system's definition of 'consent,' a core element in the verdict. Beyond the verdict, however, this case continues to highlight concern about the culture of elite sports in general and hockey in particular. A culture that made it OK for five young, privileged men to share a single woman for sexual gratification. My concern isn't some sort of puritanical repudiation of sexual kink; the spectrum of healthy sexual activity is, as it should be, very broad. My specific concern is that the athletes involved believed it was within the spectrum of healthy to take turns having sex with E.M. in each other's presence. That, in and of itself, raises a range of other issues, some that delve deep into the heart of hockey culture. Although Hockey Canada and its member organizations are trying to promote a healthier attitude towards diversity and inclusion, and definitions of healthy sexual relationships, their efforts seem to be insufficient. For example, since 2016, the Ontario Hockey League, one of Canada's top junior hockey loops, has delivered an educational program on gender-based violence and sexual consent that is supposed to be mandatory for players on all 20 OHL teams. Unfortunately, the sexual assault centres that helped build the program say some teams refuse to participate. The league claims it has no knowledge of teams refusing to participate. The league's 'hear no evil, see no evil' attitude is one of the reasons why it seems that the caveman culture of hockey has been allowed to perpetuate. Last year, Hockey Canada reported that penalties assessed under Rule 11.4 — which penalizes players for taunts or insults based on race, ethnicity, skin colour, language, religion, age, sexual orientation/gender identity or genetic characteristics — were skyrocketing. Since it was introduced to the rule book in 2021-22, the number of Rule 11.4 infractions has gone up by 150 per cent. Even if this is partly due to an initial reluctance by referees to assess these penalties, it's a sign that hockey continues to feature a toxic undercurrent of abuse and discrimination. It seems more and more that even when a few responsible adults try to do something to address these concerns, some other adult comes along and undermines the positive efforts. In 2023-24, the NHL had trouble figuring out how to deal with a handful of players who refused to participate in annual Pride celebration games. In response, some teams, such as the Toronto Maple Leafs ,made their own efforts to educate players about the importance of tolerance and inclusion. In April 2023, the Leafs invited former U.S. Olympic hockey player Meghan Duggan to talk about how gay players were treated by the sport and by society in general. Duggan is gay and a well-known advocate for LGBTTQ+ athletes. Duggan's presentation, which the Leafs posted on social media, involved her asking the players to raise their hands in response to a series of questions that started from the very general to the very personal. 'Raise your hand if you've ever had to stand in front of someone and justify your right to be married.' Duggan was the only person to raise her hand. 'Raise your hand if you've ever had to fight to be recognized as the parent of your own children.' Again, Duggan stood alone with her hand up. Duggan's heartbreaking testimonial should have had a profound impact on the Leafs and, quite frankly, on all professional hockey teams. Unfortunately, it did not. Tuesdays A weekly look at politics close to home and around the world. Shortly after Duggan spoke to the team, the Leafs and other NHL teams decided to no longer wear Pride-themed warm-up jerseys in deference to a handful of players who refused on religious grounds. They did allow players to use Pride-coloured tape on their sticks. Then, in June, the NHL outright banned Pride jerseys, arguing the controversy over players refusing to wear them was overshadowing the fact that all 32 teams were still hosting Pride celebration nights. In October of the same year, the league banned Pride-coloured stick tape. The inability of all levels of hockey to make unambiguous statements about racism, homophobia and sexual misconduct, and to punish those who refuse to get on board, is one of the main reasons we will never escape events like the trial of those five players. It's hard to know how to respond to our collective failure, but one step forward would be to stop letting the cowards make all the decisions. Dan LettColumnist Dan Lett is a columnist for the Free Press, providing opinion and commentary on politics in Winnipeg and beyond. Born and raised in Toronto, Dan joined the Free Press in 1986. Read more about Dan. Dan's columns are built on facts and reactions, but offer his personal views through arguments and analysis. The Free Press' editing team reviews Dan's columns before they are posted online or published in print — part of the our tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Ottawa Citizen
an hour ago
- Ottawa Citizen
'Nothing more than the usual': Hockey Canada verdict echoes cases in Sault Ste. Marie
Article content Wednesday's verdict in a London courtroom, which found five former Canadian world junior players not guilty in a 2018 sexual assault case, marked the end of a high-profile trial that reignited national conversations — including in Sault Ste. Marie — about sexual violence and accountability in hockey. Article content The outcome has resounded across the country, particularly among those working directly with survivors. Article content Article content Article content 'We were really, really disappointed to hear the verdict,' said Sarah Paciocco, a sexual assault and abuse crisis counsellor at Women in Crisis Algoma. Article content Article content In the case, the complainant, known as E.M., spent years under public scrutiny before taking the stand. Over the course of her testimony, she faced long hours of cross-examination and was asked to relive painful memories. Article content 'I think it really drives home the point for people to understand why women often don't come forward,' Paciocco said. 'The trauma they go through having to sit on trial, having to divulge so many details, being re-traumatized, doing all that work, all that time.' Article content This moment didn't begin in London, and it likely won't end there. The Hockey Canada verdict — in which five players, Michael McLeod, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart, Dillon Dube and Cal Foote, were found not guilty of sexually assaulting a woman in a London hotel room — is one in a long line of similar cases involving junior hockey players. In communities across the country, including Sault Ste. Marie, allegations of sexual misconduct have surfaced consistently. Article content Article content In 2012, three Soo Greyhounds players — Nick Cousins, Andrew Fritsch, and Mark Petaccio — were charged in connection with an alleged sexual assault on a woman. The charges were dropped eight months later when the Crown found there was 'no reasonable prospect of conviction.' Article content Despite the serious nature of the allegations, all three players walked away without a trial. Each entered into a 12-month peace bond that required no admission of guilt but included conditions like staying 500 metres away from the complainant. Article content The complainant, present in the courtroom, left quickly after the judge's decision. No one from the Crown's office commented on the case. Lawyers for the players emphasized the stress their clients endured and described the prosecution's decision as vindication. Article content In 1996, CBC's Fifth Estate revisited the case of former Greyhound Jarrett Reid, who was charged with 21 offences against two women during his time with the Hounds in the early '90s. He pleaded guilty to eight charges and served part of a nine-month jail term.
