Members of Parliament from four Canadian political parties are calling on the government to convene a judicial inquiry to look into the problem of abuse in sports and give survivors a forum to share their stories.
Conservative MP John Nater said his party is also calling for the immediate removal of Hockey Canada’s board of directors and senior management team.
“Those who oversaw the cover-up of alleged sexual assaults cannot be trusted to be the ones who implemented the necessary structural changes at Hockey Canada,” Nether wrote in a text message to TSN on Friday. “The Liberal government must look at all options to ensure there is appropriate leadership at Hockey Canada, whether through independent third-party trusteeship, conservatorship or other measures.”
Natter was joined in the call for an inquiry by Liberal MP Lisa Hepfner, NDP MP Peter Julian and Bloc Quebec MP Sébastien Lemire. The four MPs are members of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, which is investigating Hockey Canada’s response to allegations of sexual abuse. MPs said the committee should also continue its investigation into Canada’s richest and most powerful national sports organization (NSO) with more hearings and witnesses in September.
“The culture we’ve seen at both Hockey Canada and Sport Canada is deeply entrenched,” Nater wrote. “I hope that a thorough study will be able to address some of these issues and provide long-term recommendations.” Of course, in the short term, we still need to see immediate change in both organizations.”
A spokeswoman for Hockey Canada did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The judicial inquiry, which University of Ottawa law professor and constitutional law expert Benoit Pelletier said is the modern equivalent of a royal commission, is usually led by a judge and can last several years. Investigators have the ability to subpoena witnesses and documents and can hear testimony publicly or in camera.
“We know it’s not just hockey and there are issues in many sports everywhere with violence and sexual assault against both genders,” Hepfner said in an interview with TSN on Thursday. “We have shown through our parliamentary committee that shining a light on the problem can affect change and force higher ups to be more accountable and accountable and understand how widespread this problem is.”
Lemire said it’s important that survivors of abuse in sports other than hockey also have the ability to seek accountability by scrutinizing the organizations that run lower-profile sports in Canada.
“We have to give [survivors] the opportunity to speak,” Lemire said in an interview Thursday.
The topic of abuse in sports has become prominent over the past two-plus months since TSN reported in May that Hockey Canada had settled a $3.55 million lawsuit over allegations that a woman was sexually assaulted by eight Canadian Hockey League players after Hockey Canada 2018 gala event in London, Ontario. The claims were never tested in court.
A parliamentary committee continues to investigate Canadian hockey. Sport Canada froze funding to the organization and major sponsors ended their partnerships with Hockey Canada.
Both Hockey Canada and London police have reopened investigations into the assault allegations in London, and the National Hockey League is also investigating. Police in Halifax are investigating alleged sexual abuse involving members of Canada’s 2003 world junior team.
“We’ve heard from enough Canadians across the country to know that many of our national sports organizations are in crisis,” Julian said. “It’s not just Hockey Canada. There are a number of other organizations where we see that issues of sexual assault and sexual abuse are not being effectively addressed. A judicial inquiry makes a lot of sense because it can actually give victims a forum to tell their story and relate their experiences to the Canadian public.
If the government decides to open an inquiry, it would be the first to delve into the sport since Ontario Judge Charles Dubin presided over eight months of testimony from more than 100 witnesses in 1989 while investigating the use of banned performance-enhancing drugs of performance in international sport. Dubin’s investigation was launched after Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson lost his gold medal after failing a drug test at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.
Dubin was appointed head of a commission to investigate the use of drugs in sport in October 1988. His report was presented to the federal government in June 1990.
During testimony this week in Ottawa, the commission heard that Sport Canada was notified in June 2018 by Hockey Canada of alleged sexual abuse in London, Ontario, involving players on Canada’s world junior hockey team. Sport Canada officials testified that after being informed of the alleged incident, they never shared any details with the office of the Minister of Sport Canada, never contacted Hockey Canada to determine what happened to their investigation into the alleged assault and have continued to provide Hockey Canada with millions of dollars in funding.
“The government also has an obligation to provide clear, direct and specific answers about how Sport Canada ignored these allegations after knowing about them since 2018,” Natter wrote.
Beginning in 2018, Canadian NSOs were required, as a condition of receiving government funding, to inform Sport Canada of the number of cases of alleged abuse reported each year. Several athletes claimed in interviews with TSN that at least two NSOs misreported this information.
Julian said it was obvious Sport Canada operated an “honour system” without verifying that the information provided by the NSO was accurate.
A spokesman for Sports Minister Pascal Saint-Onge said the government was investigating an allegation that some NSOs had not been transparent about the number of abuse allegations they had received.
For now, St-Onge has rejected requests from members of parliament and advocacy groups for survivors of violence to demand a cabinet inquiry.
Instead, the minister sought to focus public attention on a new federal agency called the Office of the Commissioner for Sports Integrity, which has a mandate to receive complaints of abuse and investigate them independently of the NSO.
After the official opening of the office in April, NSOs for weightlifting and volleyball were signed. Hockey Canada said it will become a signatory to the office.
“What athletes in Canada need is action and the Office of the Sports Integrity Commissioner is now in place,” St-Onge said in a statement provided to TSN on Thursday. “I am working to make this mandatory for all NGOs. I also announced last month that all federal funding agreements will be reviewed. This will require NSOs to be more accountable and transparent.
“Athletes have told me that they need an independent mechanism to turn to in situations of abuse, mistreatment and discrimination. That is why we have and are taking action to put this in place.
More than 500 current and former gymnasts have asked the government’s commission for an independent inquiry to examine the sport’s alleged toxic culture, and on Friday the advocacy groups Global Athlete and Gymnasts for Change Canada in a joint statement called for a judicial inquiry.
“It’s time to rethink sport in Canada,” wrote Global Athlete CEO Rob Koehler. “It’s time to correct the power imbalance between sports organizations and athletes that has encouraged years of abuse.”
In addition to the judicial inquiry, MPs said they want to continue their investigation and call more witnesses to testify about Hockey Canada as soon as September.
Lemire said he would like to call former Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson to testify about how the organization has historically handled sexual abuse allegations. Lemire also said he wants to hear testimony from past and present members of Hockey Canada’s board, the insurance company AIG, which provides Hockey Canada with coverage for malpractice claims, and Bob Martin, a former Ontario Provincial Police officer who is head of security for both Hockey Canada and the London Knights.
Julian said the committee should also hear testimony from former sport ministers Kirsty Duncan and Stephen Guilbeau about the relationship between Sport Canada and the minister’s office. Duncan was Minister for Sport from January 2018 until November 2019, when Guilbeau succeeded her. Julian said he also wanted St-Onge to testify, for the third time, before the commission.
After hearing Hockey Canada officials say Wednesday that the organization has paid $8.9 million since 1989 to settle 21 cases of alleged sexual assault, Liberal MP Anthony Housefeather said in an interview Thursday that he wants the commission to extended his study to consider how other NSOs have faced issues of abuse.
“Our committee needs to look deeper into the wider issue of safe sport across all our sports federations,” Housefather said. “Hockey Canada could be the tip of the iceberg or it could be an anomaly. We need to know what is true.’
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