Witnesses Scott Smith and Brian Cairo appear before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage in Ottawa on July 27. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
When Hockey Canada officials last appeared to answer questions from parliamentarians, they came off as typical sports bureaucrats. Sure of themselves, trembling in the face of facts and totally oblivious to the fact that everyone was mad at them.
The usual “Yeah, we’ll try to get you back” approach happened, as did pulling a gun in the committee room.
On Wednesday, the heads of the five hockey families returned notably chastened. This time they had numbers on hand. In the most unspecific terms possible, they accepted the idea that something has gone wrong in their operation. Defining this thing in plain English remained a problem, but everyone agreed that it was definitely something.
What had changed the most were job descriptions. These athletes had read Twitter and now understood their new role: as zookeepers.
Canadian hockey players are animals. The job of the Canadian hockey establishment is to stop them from killing chickens.
“We will dramatically expand the number of players who are exposed to enhanced education regarding off-ice issues,” said Hockey Canada CEO Scott Smith. “These players will take this training to their leagues, provincial and minor hockey associations.”
Smith said this in his opening statement, when he was still young and full of hope that he could keep his job. Three hours later, after MPs from all parties begged for his head and tried to give him a saw, he was less cooperative.
Someone tried to nail him on whether the problems at Hockey Canada, and hockey in general, are “systemic.” Smith crouched and wove. But if you had listened, you would have gotten his answer from the beginning.
If you need to take the big wolves out of the wild and tame them in the hopes that they’ll come back and convince all the lesser wolves to stop being such wolves, that’s a system-wide problem. If implementing basic human decency requires government intervention and a 19-page “Action Plan,” the system is fried.
“Players, regardless of skill, need to know that they cannot act with impunity,” said another game watchdog, CHL president Dan MacKenzie.
What a wonderful sentence. It suggests that this is a new idea
That everyone has always known that Roger, who is stuck on the fourth line, can’t go around hitting women and expect lawyers and underwriters to make this problem go away before the NHL draft. But as of now, that same rule applies to Jimmy, who leads the team in power-play goals and is called up to Team Canada. This is your first and only warning, Jimmy. There’s a new group of old sheriffs in town.
The text of Wednesday’s hearings was a compilation of facts about a single alleged assault and its aftermath. How much money was in Hockey Canada’s sexual abuse piggy bank? Who got it and when? How did it disperse?
Smith was repeatedly pressed on business basics like keeping minutes of board meetings in camera and doing due diligence on lawsuits. He said many words that do not amount to answers. When in doubt, Smith blamed the lawyers.
“You need better lawyers,” said Rep. Anthony Housefather.
This was as close as Housefather, Smith’s most effective antagonist, came to a death date.
MP Kevin Waugh also connected with a jab: “When I look at the seven of you and the three of you on Zoom, that’s not the face of hockey today. That front row says it all.”
Aside from the occasional numbers, there were no big revelations or shocking stumbles that would redefine this scandal. That’s why you need to pay attention to the subtext.
What no one has bothered to do in all of this is disprove the idea that young people who are good at hockey are also inherently evil. Not some of them, but all of them. Let whoever is unlucky enough to cross their path in the wrong hotel room late at night do as they please.
You’d think Hockey Canada would have some interest in mounting a defense of the typical hockey player’s character. Until very recently, when we thought of “good Canadians,” we envisioned nurses and firemen and a guy behind the bench coaching kids, who will grow up to be good hockey dads and guys. Hockey Canada made a lot of money marketing this Tim Hortons utopia.
But after being caught bending the rules to protect that brand, Canada’s hockey establishment is hitting the self-destruct button. To save himself, he must destroy hockey.
Back off from discussion points and questions about the topic. What message are the people running hockey in Canada trying to send? It’s two-fold: hockey doesn’t have a systemic problem (so we’re not the problem); players must be Clockwork orangeuntil they are functioning citizens again.
It’s the players who are lost. Hockey Canada is the good guy. He is trying to help the victims and get them to sign NDA, but only if they want to.
Beneath the red tape, the real explanation can be faintly heard: “We tried, but what are you going to do with these bastards? Every once in a while, they’ll wander off, and then it’s our job to put them back in a box before they go inside in panic in the locals”.
If you didn’t think hockey had a cultural problem before Wednesday, you should now. For three hours, we were shown why players raised under the wing of Hockey Canada believe they are above the normal codes of conduct that apply to the rest of us. Because those in charge think the same.
If you’re stuck, deny it. If you’re really stuck, find someone else to blame. And if there’s no one left to blame, blame the game and everyone in it. They are corrupt, not you. They require radical intervention and re-education. Since you were the one who saw their defilement, it is your duty to make things right. (Smith had the cheek to say that his future bonuses (bonuses!) should be tied to this cleanup effort.)
As business cons go, it’s the type that could only work with the very gullible or the very indulgent. Something tells me that when it comes to people running hockey, few Canadians are inclined to be either.
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