Content Warning: The following article contains references to sexual assault.
(Clarification: Lou Strezos, a lawyer for former Canadian Hockey League players accused of sexual assault, clarifies that Heinen Hutchison investigators were informed in 2018 of the players represented by a lawyer. In a letter dated July 13, 2022, sent to Hockey Canada, Strezos and co-advisor Kaleigh Davidson wrote that Hockey Canada was aware of the identity of the players in 2018. Strezos says this is incorrect.He said he does not know if Hockey Canada officials they have never known who the players involved were.)
Lawyers representing a group of former Canadian Hockey League players accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 2018 say the players will cooperate with the National Hockey League investigation into the incident and that the league it should not discipline the players so that there was sexual contact between the players and the woman was consensual.
“Our clients will be fully involved in the NHL investigation,” attorney Kaleigh Davidson said Sunday in an interview with TSN. “The interviews are in the process of being arranged.”
Although the players have pledged to talk to the NHL about the allegations, Davidson and other lawyers representing former CHL players declined to say whether the players will also cooperate with a separate investigation of Hockey Canada, all and that players face a possible lifetime ban from the organization for refusing to do so.
Hockey Canada announced Thursday that it will reopen its investigation into the alleged assault and the woman involved in the case has said she will cooperate.
Davidson said the NHL should not discipline the players involved.
“It would be a very dangerous precedent to set,” he said. “If players can be sanctioned for engaging in consensual sexual activity, the question is where will we draw the line? Employers should not make lawsuits about what consensual sexual activity is acceptable based on perceptions of what fits within very personal and subjective social norms, especially when those norms change over time. “
The NHL has informed lawyers involved in the case that the league wants its investigation to end before the teams’ training camps open this fall, a source said.
Davidson and Louis Strezos are among a group of 13 criminal defense attorneys representing seven hockey players linked to a sexual assault lawsuit that has rocked the hockey world in recent months.
In a lawsuit filed in April and resolved weeks later, a woman known as “EM” in court documents alleged that eight players in the Canadian Hockey League, including at least some who were members of the 2018 Canada Youth World Hockey Team was assaulted for hours in a hotel room in London, Ontario, following a Canada Hockey event in June 2018.
The woman alleged that the players pressured her to shower also told her to make a recorded statement saying she was sober and had had consensual sex with the players. She also alleged that the players pressured her not to report her to the police or cooperate in any criminal investigation.
The woman’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
Although the lawsuit was resolved and no criminal charges have been filed in the case, the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage is investigating Hockey Canada’s response to the alleged assaults and the subsequent lawsuit filed against Hockey Canada, the CHL and eight players named John. Fa 1-8.
After Hockey Canada President Scott Smith and then-CEO Tom Renney testified before the committee on June 20 – Renney retired from hockey on July 1 and Smith is now CEO of the organization – the committee ordered two more days of hearings, which are scheduled for July. 26 and 27.
Strezos and Davidson wrote a 10-page letter to Hockey Canada on June 13, demanding that the organization report to the committee when it meets again that Smith and Renney provided “false and misleading” narration during their 20-year testimony. June on how the organization resolved the lawsuit filed. earlier this year by the alleged victim of assault.
Strezos and Davidson demanded in their letter that Hockey Canada inform committee members that their clients never refused to cooperate with investigations by London police or Heinen Hutchison, a Toronto law firm hired by Hockey Canada. to investigate the allegations. Lawyers say any sexual contact between the players and the woman was consensual and that Hockey Canada should ask the committee for assurance that the players’ identities will not be revealed in any documentary evidence.
Hockey Canada wrote in a statement that it upholds its decision to reopen its investigation into the alleged sexual assault.
“Hockey Canada’s decisions throughout this process have been made independently of the players and will continue to be made independently of the players to protect the integrity of the investigations and ultimately achieve the right results,” the organization wrote in a statement to TSN. “Our hope is that all players will participate in the reopened investigation. Otherwise, they will face a lifetime ban from all Hockey Canada activities and programs. We will continue to cooperate and work with the Government of Canada and the Committee. of Heritage to answer questions about what happened in 2018, the decisions we’ve made since then and our plans to be leaders in improving hockey for everyone. ”
In their letter to Hockey Canada, Strezos and Davidson wrote that Smith and Renney’s testimony “provided the public with a false and misleading narrative of the resolution of the MS claim. COO Scott Smith and CEO Tom Renney they suggested that HC had notified the claim to the players through their representatives and / or teams. This is simply false and HC has not said anything against it either publicly or on HC’s website. “
Strezos and Davidson wrote: “At no time did HC notify the players of MS’s claim and solicit their input on the veracity of the allegations. Instead, it chose to unilaterally resolve the claim and presumably release and a non-disclosure agreement.Players never had a chance to challenge the serious allegations that were made.HC’s public statements on the matter, including those before the Committee, have made the impression that the allegations must be accepted as true, when in fact they are quite the opposite. [Hockey Canada] he knew perfectly well the players who were represented by a lawyer both during the Henein Hutchison LLP and during the criminal investigation. At no point did he [Hockey Canada] provide the attorney with a copy of the MS claim or even ask if the attorney could accept the notice. In fact, we had to get it in London court after we found out it had been resolved. “
Strezos and Davidson wrote in Hockey Canada that their clients are “now in an impossible position.”
“EM chose to make its demonstrably false allegations anonymously and maintain the identity of the anonymous players,” they wrote. “[Hockey Canada] then unilaterally resolved the claim both on its own behalf and on behalf of eight unnamed players named John Doe’s. The result is that our clients have been deprived of the ability to significantly challenge false MS complaints without revealing their identity. In addition, there is a real risk that our clients ’identities will be revealed during the Committee’s ongoing hearings, possibly by [Hockey Canada] same, in the production of its interim report, or otherwise. In the current environment, where false allegations in the MS claim are considered true, this would cause incalculable and irreparable damage to the reputation and career of our customers. ”
Lawyer Michelle Psutka, who is also part of the legal team representing the seven hockey players, said in an interview that two videos were made on the morning of June 19, 2018. The first video has six seconds of duration and was recorded at 3:30 p.m. am and the second video is 12 seconds and was filmed at 4:30 am, he said.
She declined to comment on the content of the videos.
“Our perspective is that the video should be watched because a mere verbal description without watching the video will not provide a proper description,” Psutka said.
Davidson said London police received copies of the videos in July 2018 and that Heinen Hutchison investigators were able to see the videos for the same period of time, but no digital copies were provided.
Strezos and Davidson wrote in their letter to Hockey Canada that a detective from the Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Section of the London Police Service conducted an investigation for eight months and that each of his clients to whom ‘ ls asked them to do so cooperated with the investigation.
When the police investigation began, lawyers with Heinen Hutchison agreed on August 20, 2018 to send an email to the players ’lawyers to suspend the Hockey Canada investigation.
After the criminal investigation was allegedly closed on Feb. 6, 2019, without any charges being filed, the players’ lawyers did not hear back from Heinen Hutchison, Davidson said.