A bid to crack open ‘culture of silence’
Lawsuit alleging abuses aims to ensure safety of kids leaving home to play hockey
A day after a class-action lawsuit was filed against the Canadian Hockey League alleging that Dan Carcillo and Garrett Taylor were subjected to hazing as rookies, the former teammates of one of the plaintiffs released a statement in defence of the Western Hockey League head coach who allegedly allowed the abuse to go unchecked.
“Mike Dyck was one of the best coaches I had,” said Zach Boychuk, who was in his fourth year with the Lethbridge Hurricanes when Taylor was a rookie. “I was surprised to hear that Garrett felt like he was abused or harassed. I talked to Mike Dyck this morning and he said that some of the allegations were false. It’s a he-said, she-said thing right now.”
On Thursday, Carcillo and Taylor commenced a lawsuit against the leagues and the teams that make up the Canadian Hockey League, alleging that players as young as 15 were “routinely victims to hazing, bullying, physical and verbal harassment, physical assault, sexual harassment and sexual assault.”
The details of the alleged abuses — none of which have been proven in court — are disturbing, to say the least.
While playing for the Sarnia Sting of the Ontario Hockey League, Carcillo alleged that rookies were forced to bob for apples in a cooler filled with bodily fluids, were stripped naked and crammed together eight at a time into a bus bathroom, and were required to take part in orgies.
Taylor, meanwhile, alleged that he was forced to fight teammates on Dyck’s orders in order to increase the “intensity” level at practice, and told to dress up in women’s clothing and consume alcohol until he vomited or blacked out while he was just 17 years old.
Unlike Carcillo, who went on to play in the NHL, Taylor’s hockey career never advanced past the ECHL. The lawsuit alleges he is now “permanently traumatized” and suffering “mental health issues that were not present before the abuse he endured.”
The alleged abuses are shocking, but not entirely surprising. Hazing had gone unchecked in major junior hockey for decades. It wasn’t until Akim Aliu came forward with tales of abuse as a 16-year-old while playing for the Windsor Spitfires in 2005 that the league took an active stance against the practice. And yet, it hasn’t completely gone away.
Last week, Eric Guest released a video alleging that he was forced to snort cocaine at a rookie party while playing for the OHL’S Kitchener Rangers in 2016. With each person who speaks up, more and more stories are coming out.
“People are just horrified when they read this story, because it’s a really ugly story,” said James Sayce, the lead lawyer for the class-action lawsuit filed this week.
“What we’re alleging here is an obligation to have protections in place when children leave home and go and play major junior hockey. It doesn’t come as any surprise that there are all sorts of abuses happening. These stories have been circulating for a very long time, more and more so these days.”
But Boychuk, who released a statement that was signed by a majority of the players on that Lethbridge team in defence of Dyck, who is now coaching the WHL’S Vancouver Giants, disagrees that some of the allegations are as bad as they seem.
“Yeah, we had a rookie party where guys had to dress up as girls, but those were the most fun I’ve had,” said the former NHL forward. “My rookie party was a lot worse than Garrett’s was. I was fine wearing girls clothing and having to take a couple of shots of alcohol. It never felt unsafe. No lines were crossed.
“For Garrett, I remember seeing pictures of him at the party and he was smiling like he was having a great time. Obviously there’s more to his story. I remember him being a really nice kid and being treated well by everyone. It’s unfortunate that after the WHL he’s been having some mental health issues.”
Taylor, who spent one year in Lethbridge, was released from the team the following season and signed with the Prince Albert Raiders. According to then-raiders head coach Bruno Campese, Taylor gave no indication he was suffering any anguish.
“The time he was in Prince Albert, he was fine,” said Campese. “A lot of that stuff that I just read, I just read for the first time. It was news to me. I don’t know if he ever shared that stuff with anyone else on the team. But it never got back to us. I wish we had known.”
According to Sayce, the whole point of the lawsuit is to make more people aware of the abuses still going on in hockey. It might not be widespread, but even if there is one player who feels he is being mistreated or abused, that’s one player too many.
“There’s also a culture of silence in junior hockey, where it’s very difficult to come forward and tell these stories,” said Sayce. “So the case is really a platform for people to tell their stories and hopefully it leads to real change and creates real protections for these kids. The CHL has policies in place. But the question is, are they doing the trick? Because we know this continues to go on. All these people coming forward are not liars.”