The lawyers have identified their clients to be current and former NHL stars: Michael McLeod, Cal Foote, and D. Dube from the New Jersey Devils. Carter Hart is currently with the Philadelphia Flyers, and Alex Formenton was previously with the Ottawa Senators.
Lawyers for the players have issued individual statements stating that their clients will either plead innocent or are innocent.
The London Police have announced that they will hold a Press Conference on February 5.
It is becoming increasingly obvious that sexual assault charges cannot be ignored or swept under a rug in sports and any other context.
Hockey Canada has paid E.M. a settlement that has still not been publicly disclosed. E.M. was the claimant of a 3 million dollar sexual assault lawsuit filed against members of the 2018 world junior team. Six and a half million dollars was spent on settlements relating to Graham James, a junior hockey coach who was found guilty of sexually abusing young players in the 1990s.
Hockey Canada has spent 8,9 million dollars on 21 settlements for sexual abuse since 1989. The National Equity Fund and membership fees accounted for $7.6 million of that total. $1.3 million was derived from insurance. Hockey Canada announced that it will no longer be using funds from membership fees for sexual assault claims.
There are more than a few bad apples
According to the “Lucifer Effect”, by psychologist Philip Zimbardo, it is not enough to remove a few bad apples. Often, the entire barrel will be ruined. The barrel-making process must be completely redesigned to ensure that only the best barrels are used to preserve and hold apples.
Sport safeguarding advocates claim that while recent initiatives like the Future of Sport Commission address systemic problems by reengineering sport governance and leadership structures, bad apples in the organization will continue to abuse their power, preventing real change at Hockey Canada.
On Parliament Hill, Ottawa on October 4, 2022, a member of Parliament reviews a Hockey Canada document during a House of Commons Committee on Canadian Heritage’s inquiry into safe sport in Canada. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
The status quo will be maintained by those who abuse power and profit from imbalance. Researchers identified the typical leadership response to allegations of abuse as complicity.
Many Canadian national sport organisations are trying to change. These include Hockey Canada, Gymnastics Canada. Rowing Canada. Soccer Canada. Bobsleigh Canada.
According to Zimbardo’s theory, leaders need to remove bad apples and address systemic issues. Only then can they create and maintain barrels of quality that last. If not, existing bad apples can poison new ones, rotting them from the inside.
Power in Canadian hockey
Hockey Canada has undergone a major overhaul with the resignation and the reconstitution of the board of directors . The CEO was appointed to the position in September 2023. However, it is important to remember that new doesn’t necessarily mean different.
Sexual assault is a form of abuse of power. One could argue the culture of sexual assault and misogyny evident in hockey environments is the result of power abuse being normalized throughout the hockey world.
- The power of coaches over athletes’ careers
- Hockey Leagues have power over coaches’ careers
- Funders have power over CEOs
- Veterans have the upper hand over rookies
- Men often dominate women
Despite their well-intentioned nature, power imbalanced hierarchies and structures allow individuals and groups abuse their power. Achieving stability, dominance, and control is often achieved by preserving and enhancing power imbalance.
Scott Smith, the former CEO of Hockey Canada, appears before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage on July 27, 2022 in Ottawa. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press through AP)
The lack of independence, however, can also lead a lack transparency and concrete accountability, leading to a recursive loop of abuse and corrupt practices — a phenomenon well documented in academic, government and media reports.
Fixing the Sport System
Sport Canada’s leaders must eliminate the bad apples and re-engineer a new, power-balanced system of sport based on independence, transparency and responsibility. the best practices in sport are the blueprints for the Canadian sport as a system.
Separating evaluation and education from qualifications is the best way to ensure independence. The best coaches can educate and evaluate athletes, but an independent body will determine qualification based upon gold medal standards.
The International and National Olympic Committees, for example, determine the qualifications standards for the Olympics, while the international federations conduct research and provide gold-medal standards for each sport.
International federations should guide national sport organizations to adopt performance targets, metrics and measures that are well researched, which they should make public. Sport Canada can then use these criteria as a tool to hold national sport organisations accountable.
