Lawsuit by U of O hockey players can go ahead

Judge certifies class action for 22 players not facing criminal charges

All but two of the players who were on the University of Ottawa’s varsity men’s hockey team when the program was suspended following an alleged sexual assault during a road trip to Thunder Bay in 2014 have been given the green light to sue the school for allegedly damaging their reputations.

On Monday, an Ottawa Superior Court judge certified the lawsuit filed by player Andrew Creppin on behalf of himself and his teammates as a class action, allowing the 22 players who aren’t facing criminal charges to sue the university as a group.

Creppin filed the lawsuit following cancellation of the remainder of the 2013-14 hockey season and the 2014-15 season after team captain David Faucher and assistant captain Guillaume Donovan were criminally charged with sexually assaulting a 21-year-old Lakehead University student on Feb. 2, 2014.

The criminal case remains before the court. Faucher and Donovan are expected to stand trial in August in Thunder Bay.

In the lawsuit, Creppin alleges that the university was negligent and tarnished the reputations of all of U of O’s other players when it suspended the team without due process or the completion of an investigation.

Ottawa lawyer Lawrence Greenspon, who represents the players, said he couldn’t comment on the court’s decision, except to say the players looked forward to their day in court. Previously, Greenspon had argued that a “dark shadow of suspicion” had been cast over all the players by the university’s internal investigation and suspension of the team, even though the university had already identified the two players allegedly involved.

In a statement of defence, the university alleged that an independent investigator determined that several of the players watched as the two accused players had sex with the woman.

The investigator concluded that several other team members, in various states of undress, either watched as Faucher and Donovan engaged in sexual activity with the woman or were in the room, the statement of defence said.

The university also alleges that some of those players might have played a role in the activity or touched the woman while others overheard what was going on through an open connecting door between the hotel rooms.

The school fired the coach following the completion of the investigation. According to the class action certification, the common legal issues that will be decided at trial are whether the school owed a duty of care to the players, what that duty of care was, and whether they breached it.

If the school did owe them a duty of care and breached it, the court must also decide whether it can assess the damages. The court would also decide on whether punitive damages should be assessed.

Creppin is currently seeking $6 million in damages. Lawyers for the school and the players say that the matter will go to trial sometime next year.