Halifax police open probe into 2003 world juniors
Follow London re-investigation of 2018 team
Another disturbing group sexual assault allegation against another medal-winning Canadian team at the World Junior Hockey championship has rocked Hockey Canada.
A week after reopening an investigation into an alleged assault on a woman by members of the 2018 World Junior team in London, Ont., the organization is dealing with similar allegations about the 2003 team in Halifax.
A Hockey Canada statement on Friday said a rumour about “something bad at the 2003 World Juniors” first surfaced two weeks ago, but a third-party investigator it hired turned up nothing.
The statement says on Thursday night the publicly funded governing body learned just how bad it was, when reporter Rick Westhead of TSN/CTV National News told the organization he’d spoken to multiple witnesses and had explicit descriptions of an assault.
“The details in Mr. Westhead’s email were deeply disturbing,” Friday’s statement read. “And Hockey Canada immediately contacted Halifax Regional Police, as Halifax was the co-host city of the 2003 IIHF World Junior Championship, and also notified Sport Canada of the information shared with us.”
Halifax police have opened an investigation.
Hockey Canada’s fast and public response is in marked contrast to the quiet, behindclosed-doors way it settled a lawsuit with a woman regarding the 2018 incident.
In that case, the organization paid the woman off using a special fund created from the annual fees paid by parents to have their kids enrolled in programs across the country.
Only recently did that information come to light.
The public backlash caused Hockey Canada to announce this week it will no longer use that fund to settle sexual assault claims.
Politicians as high ranking as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have continued to put heat on the organization, the federal government freezing its funding for its handling of the 2018 incident.
In addition, several bigmoney sponsors like Tim Hortons and Canadian Tire announced they were suspending or pausing their sponsorship agreements.
Minister of Sport Pascale St-onge released a statement regarding the new allegations on Friday.
“Today we learn of yet another horror story that allegedly occurred in 2003,” the statement said. “Once again, like all Canadians, I am appalled and angry. It is clear that the culture of silence and the trivialization of sexual violence is well entrenched in the culture of this sport. Hockey Canada has a lot of work to do on this issue before they regain the trust of Canadians.”
The public pressure has already forced Hockey Canada to deal with these latest accusations in an entirely different way.
“Hockey Canada is committed to bringing an end to the culture of silence in hockey,” its statement continued. “That is why we are publicly calling for anyone with knowledge of this incident to come forward to police, and we are being transparent in how we learned of this alleged assault and the steps we are taking to address it ... and we urge the police to open an investigation into this disturbing situation.
“Hockey Canada will co-operate with and support the authorities in every way we can, and we once again urge anyone who may have relevant information about this alleged incident to contact Halifax police immediately.”
This latest bombshell comes as Hockey Canada prepares to host the delayed 2022 World Juniors in Edmonton, beginning Aug. 9.
Once again, the NHL has got involved, as several players from the 2003 team made it to the professional ranks.
“We were made aware earlier today of the horrific allegations against members of the 2002-03 Canadian National Junior Team,” read a statement by the NHL. “The National Hockey League will look into the allegations and will respond appropriately.”
The 2003 team won the silver medal, losing the final to Russia. There was no immediate word on how many players are alleged to have been involved in the alleged group assault.
Eight players from the gold-medal-winning team in 2018 are alleged to have been involved in that case, none of them identified.
No charges have been laid, although London police on Friday said they are reopening their investigation.
The London assaults are alleged to have occurred in a hotel room during the weekend of a gala and golf event in June 2018, five months after the tournament was held in Buffalo, N.Y.
Some players from that team have released public statements saying they weren’t involved and/or had no knowledge of the incident.
“Make no mistake: what we’re discovering now is and always was part of hockey culture,” broadcaster Tara Slone said, via Twitter, on Friday. “If you’re a fan, parent, media member, stakeholder, rights holder, sponsor, exec, player or coach and you love this game, COMMIT to fixing it. It’s going to take so much more than words.”
Former Winnipegger, now Toronto lawyer, and abuse survivor/advocate Greg Gilhooly echoed Slone’s call for change, calling for Hockey Canada to acknowledge serious problems in the culture of the sport.
“Please, stop allowing those who know things (to) stay quiet,” Gilhooly tweeted.
“Please, call out those who knew or ought to have known who looked the other way.”