Hockey Canada has been under fire since news broke that members of the 2018 world junior team were accused of a group sexual assault.
By Kieran Leavitt
Edmonton Bureau
Wed., July 27, 2022
Millions of dollars have flowed from Hockey Canada to more than 20 victims of sexual misconduct going back to 1989, it emerged Wednesday, as the curtain was at least partly pulled back on how the organization — now under a cloud of suspicion and scandal — has systemically dealt with allegations against its members.
Hockey Canada has settled 21 sexual misconduct claims, paying out $8.9 million in compensation, executives with the organization revealed before a committee of MPs in Ottawa.
The admission to the standing committee on Canadian heritage was accompanied by calls from some of those MPs for Hockey Canada president Scott Smith’s resignation, even as he sat before them.
Smith told the committee that should the board of Hockey Canada or the governance review launched recently recommend it, he would step aside.
“Canadians have been clear, they expect those representing our national sport to do better,” Smith said.
“We own it.”
Smith was flanked by some of the sport’s most powerful men and longtime stewards, including the heads of the country’s prominent junior hockey leagues, as the nation’s hockey giant — known for bringing championship hockey teams to fans all over the world — was raked over the coals for three hours Wednesday for what has been widely condemned as a systemic failure in addressing allegations of sexual assault.
Wed., July 27, 2022
Millions of dollars have flowed from Hockey Canada to more than 20 victims of sexual misconduct going back to 1989, it emerged Wednesday, as the curtain was at least partly pulled back on how the organization — now under a cloud of suspicion and scandal — has systemically dealt with allegations against its members.
Hockey Canada has settled 21 sexual misconduct claims, paying out $8.9 million in compensation, executives with the organization revealed before a committee of MPs in Ottawa.
The admission to the standing committee on Canadian heritage was accompanied by calls from some of those MPs for Hockey Canada president Scott Smith’s resignation, even as he sat before them.
Smith told the committee that should the board of Hockey Canada or the governance review launched recently recommend it, he would step aside.
“Canadians have been clear, they expect those representing our national sport to do better,” Smith said.
“We own it.”
Smith was flanked by some of the sport’s most powerful men and longtime stewards, including the heads of the country’s prominent junior hockey leagues, as the nation’s hockey giant — known for bringing championship hockey teams to fans all over the world — was raked over the coals for three hours Wednesday for what has been widely condemned as a systemic failure in addressing allegations of sexual assault.
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Some MPs on the all-party committee expressed disgust at the sexual assault allegations that have been revealed and said that Canadians have lost confidence in the organization. Some noted the lack of diversity among the group before them and said it was time to place women, people of colour and Indigenous leaders into positions of power within the sport’s dominant structures.
Smith said at several points he believes he is the right person to take on the challenge at hand.
The total number of cases and dollar figures around sexual misconduct settlements emerged gradually at the hearing. Of the total paid out, $6.8 million was for incidents related to Graham James, the former Canadian junior hockey coach who was convicted of sexually abusing players. Nine victims have been paid from Hockey Canada’s controversial equity fund, the existence of which has been revealed in recent weeks. (There have been 20 payouts from that fund in total since 1989, with nine being for sexual assaults.)
The national equity fund has been partly funded by membership fees paid for by parents entering their kids into the sport. Since news of the fund broke, Hockey Canada has pledged to stop using it for settling sexual assault claims and released an action plan to start to “eliminate toxic behaviour” in the sport.
Brian Cairo, the chief financial officer for Hockey Canada, told the committee that in addition to the nine settlements from the equity fund, 12 settlements have been done through Hockey Canada’s insurance. Those claims totalled $1.3 million over the years, he said.
That’s a total of 21 cases of sexual misconduct settlements. The nine cases settled using the equity fund came between 1989 and 2021; while the 12 settled through insurance happened between 1996 and 2022, the committee was told.
Sheldon Kennedy told the Star on Wednesday that Hockey Canada paid him a cash settlement after he publicly accused former junior hockey coach Graham James of sexual assault.
“Yeah, absolutely,” he said. “I sued Hockey Canada after (police) charged Graham James and he went to jail. There was a settlement made.”
Kennedy, a former junior hockey star, played in the NHL for parts of eight seasons, including stints with the Detroit Red Wings and the Calgary Flames. In 1996, he revealed that James, his former coach, had repeatedly sexually assaulted him when he was a member of the Swift Current Broncos in the Western Hockey League.
“That was the first case that came forward,” he said.
Kennedy said that he doesn’t know whether Hockey Canada paid his settlement out of the so-called National Equity Fund. “I had no idea how they were paying it out,” he said.
Asked if he had signed a nondisclosure agreement as part of his settlement, Kennedy, who was named a member of the Order of Canada in 2014 for his advocacy, replied: “I signed something, but I mean, obviously I haven’t been following it very well if I did.”
Former NHL star Theoren Fleury, who revealed in 2009 that he too had been sexually abused by James as a teen, said it was “nobody’s business” whether he had received a settlement from the equity fund.
“There’s bigger problems with Hockey Canada than people getting settlements,” he said. “I talked to these guys until I was blue in the face and told them that this is exactly what’s going to happen if they’re not proactive.”
The Hockey Canada president told the committee Wednesday that any victims who have signed nondisclosure agreements but who may want to speak out about their experiences could be allowed to.
“If they wish to eliminate those, unless there is a legal reason not to that I’m not aware of, I’m not sure why we wouldn’t,” he said.
Hockey Canada has been under fire since news broke in May that members of the 2018 world junior team were accused of a group sexual assault after a gala event in London, Ont. Police did not lay charges, but the woman at the centre of the allegations sued Hockey Canada, the Canadian Hockey League and several players this spring.
Hockey Canada swiftly settled the case for an undisclosed amount and MPs on the committee are now probing how it dealt with the allegations and the lawsuit. Meanwhile, London police have reopened their investigation into the incident.
Hockey Canada receives cash from the federal government, representing about six per cent of its overall funding, and saw that money suspended in the wake of revelations about the lawsuit settlement. The organization has also watched as corporate sponsors have fled amid the fallout.
Cairo, in response to questions Wednesday, said that Hockey Canada didn’t go through insurance with respect to the 2018 allegations and instead opted to use the national equity fund to pay the settlement.
“The right thing to do was to deal with the woman, the young woman, and, secondly, it was right for the organization,” he said.
“We didn’t know all the details of the night, but we did believe harm was caused.”
The decision to settle came after discussions involving the young woman’s and the organization’s lawyers. The board of directors at Hockey Canada voted to allow the maximum payout amount, the committee heard.
“We advised all players after we settled with the young woman,” Smith said during questioning. “We made the decision to settle on behalf of Hockey Canada and the other named defendants, and we did so in the best interest of the young woman, in protecting her privacy, and also her benefit going forward.”
Reports further emerged last week of separate allegations about another group sexual assault involving members of the 2003 world junior team. Halifax police have said they opened an investigation into that incident as well.
Most of the hearing Wednesday dealt with the 2018 incident and didn’t significantly address the 2003 allegations, although some on the committee expressed some interest in hearing more testimony from the Hockey Canada officials in the future.
Smith did say that officials became aware of a rumour circulating about something “bad” happening involving members of the 2003 team about two weeks before becoming aware of the details through contact with the media. A TSN reporter contacted the organization with details last week and the allegations were revealed publicly soon thereafter in a Hockey Canada news release.
Smith said that the organization could have done better in how it responded to the allegations in 2018, which were subject of an independent investigation that didn’t make participation by players mandatory. Now that the probe has been relaunched, player participation is mandatory.
Committee members told Smith their confidence in his ability to lead cultural change at Hockey Canada was low, given his many years with the organization and the decades of abuse that have plagued the sport.
“What we’ve seen is a complete erosion in the public trust,” NDP MP Peter Julian told Smith during the hearing Wednesday.
Julian also said it’s “time for new leadership.”
Others echoed the call for resignations.
“There’s times that good people have to step aside because the public has lost confidence in them, and I’m afraid this might be one of these times,” Liberal MP Anthony Housefather said at the close of the hearing.
The testimony Wednesday came a day after it emerged that the federal agency in charge of Canadian sports policies knew early on about sexual assault allegations against members of the 2018 world junior team.
On Tuesday, Michel Ruest, a senior director at Sport Canada, told MPs on the House of Commons heritage committee that his organization was made aware of the London allegations, but did not follow up with the national governing body or tell the minister’s office.
Minister of Sport Pascale St-Onge told MPs that “procedures absolutely need to be improved so that there can be better monitoring of the cases that are signalled to Sport Canada,” a branch of the federal Department of Canadian Heritage.
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With files from Richard Warnica and The Canadian Press
Kieran Leavitt is an Edmonton-based political reporter for the Toronto Star. Follow him on Twitter: @kieranleavitt
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