McGill basketball teams in spotlight for hazing allegation

McGill University said it takes hazing seriously, despite allegations about a booze-filled party involving acts of a sexual nature.

A former basketball player complained to the school he was the victim of a hazing incident in 2015 that involved both the men’s and women’s basketball teams. He said the school did little to fix the problem.

The student, who asked not to be identified, told the media about the incident in a written statement.

On Tuesday, the university released a committee’s report that corroborated the report by the student that he and other rookie students had pillowcases pulled over their heads and were brought to a basement apartment in September 2015. When he was there, he had shots of hard alcohol poured down his throat. He also said he had a large bottle of malt liquor duct taped to his hand and was told to finish it in 20 minutes, or he would have to start again. He said he tried to opt out of the ritual, but was told that it was something that had been going on for five years and that he protested being forced to drink, but in vain.

After they drank their alcohol, the athletes were brought to another room and stripped to their underwear, where female students who were also stripped to their underwear, were ordered to pop balloons between the bodies of the male students in sexually suggestive positions, the student alleged.

McGill said when made aware of the incident, the university did a full investigation in the fall of 2015, and suspended the captain of the men’s basketball team.

On Tuesday, Ollivier Dyens, the deputy provost of student life and learning, said nearly six months after the first investigation, the rookie player involved contacted McGill and gave a more serious account of the incident that caused an ad hoc committee to do a second investigation and recommend sanctions.

“We were made aware of an incident in October 2015. We did an investigation with the players and their parents and it seemed it was a mild incident, a party with some drinking involved,” Dyens said. “We suspended the team captain at that point for one game.”

Dyens said in March 2016 that the parents of the student in question sent a letter to the school describing a much more serious incident. But they requested anonymity for their son, which made it difficult to do a full investigation. However, when the school received permission from the family to fully investigate, an ad hoc committee was formed and an investigation began in August 2016.

The committee’s report in November corroborated most of the allegations made by the student. However, since the incident had occurred more than a year before, the committee did not feel it appropriate for individual students to be sanctioned. Instead, the team was placed under probation, with any further violations subject to suspension for the season.

The scandal comes as the women’s basketball team clinched a national title last Sunday, while the men’s team reached the semifinals of the Canadian university championships.

McGill is no stranger to hazing incidents. In 2005, an 18-year-old rookie football player complained he was sodomized with a broom, which was nicknamed “Dr. Broom” for an initiation rite that apparently dated back several years.

The student at the heart of that scandal, D’Arcy McKeown, 30, told the Globe and Mail apparently the university has not learned from its past mistakes. McKeown said he and his family have been supporting the student in the 2015 incident in trying to get the university to investigate the issue.

After the 2005 incident gained media attention, the school suspended the football team’s season and put in place a strict policy banning hazing rituals. That policy stated that any incident of hazing would lead to the immediate suspension of the team for the season.

Dyens said Tuesday the university realizes its policy may be too strict. When asked if the policy could have a chilling effect preventing students from coming forward for fear their season will be suspended, Dyens said it appears the hazing practice has been a tradition for several years, so obviously some students are not coming forward.