Tom Renney, CEO of Hockey Canada, Image: Getty Images
Canadian lawmakers questioned the CEO, chairman and head of the Hockey Board of Governors Canada in front of a government hearing not limited to these boundaries. was raped in groups by eight players who were part of a Canadian Hockey Golf Outing, including some of the 2018 World Junior Team. The lawsuit named the eight players, as well as the Canadian Hockey League junior hockey governing body), and Hockey Canada. Hockey Canada ended up settling the lawsuit on behalf of the other groups of defendants, never bothering to find out who the players were. Because Hockey Canada receives funding from the Canadian government, the hearing was based on finding out if public funds were used primarily to pay money silently, but it became a larger study of how Hockey Canada manages balloons and hockey in general. sexual assault. To see it better, check out this story in The Athletic.
Of course, Hockey Canada executives Tom Renney, Scott Smith and Dave Andrews did not have many answers. They said there was an investigation by Hockey Canada a few days after the incident, but that the players were not required to cooperate and a few were not. Which makes their entire code of conduct a scam, as pointed out to them. Smith also leaked that Hockey Canada had received one or two allegations of sexual assault on players under its reach, per year, for the past five or six years, which is one or two per year too. And it also makes you wonder how many do not find out a year, and this type of situation management would not make you want to report the aggression.
There was, as there always is, when officials weren’t fully equipped to deal with this kind of thing, there was shit to laugh at if it wasn’t so discouraging. Smith, again, said Hockey Canada was “probably lagging behind” in education issues thanks to the pandemic. The problem is that this incident took place two years before the pandemic.
And it seemed like the players involved were polite enough to cover their tracks, if you read the horrifying and disgusting details of the case. They forced the victim to declare her sobriety in front of the camera even though she was far from sober enough to consent, and then forced her into the shower in a clear attempt to erase as much “evidence” as they could. They knew where the outs were in this. They weren’t clueless boys who took things too far on a drunken night. This was calculated. This is more than just educational efforts.
As the story linked above by Ian Mendes, Dan Robson, and Katie Strang details, the problems of youth hockey are deep and layered, and it will take real effort and time to get rid of them, if anyone has the patience or the weather. While a high school and college environment for sports such as football, basketball, and baseball has not exactly stopped sexual assault on campus, a major problem for junior hockey is that the only social interaction that teenage hockey players have is in a hockey environment. around other hockey players, either on the ice or in the locker room. They never see anyone else until it’s time to head to the bar. The number of players walking around with only a 7th grade education doesn’t help.
Hockey culture needs to be cleaned up in many areas, and most of it comes from its completely insular nature. He is unaware of social issues because he is so stuck in himself, which only produces coaches and executives later on who have come from this education in sport. Where will the ideas and controls come from?
Hockey Canada clearly thought it could make it go away by resolving this lawsuit at the first checkpoint, without an investigation involving teeth. Nor do you worry about the NHL having more teeth. But if there is any kind of silver lining, just like the Blackhawks who thought focusing their heads on the sand would save them, these kinds of smelly things on top these days are no secret.
They can talk about education and programs as much as they like, but the only thing these kids have is their hockey careers (they don’t have an education to go to), and future junior players knowing that the their hockey career is over is the only thing that will make them pay attention to the programs and guidelines that Hockey Canada wants to change, or that they intend to change under the spotlight. They know nothing else. Getting these names and futures out, and getting them out of hockey is the only way to get most hockey players to notice. It’s the only language they speak, no matter how depressing it may be. Hockey Canada intervening at the first opportunity to cover everyone will only make all the junior players feel more invincible than they already do. And that is the problem.