As Hockey Canada grapples with public outcry over the way its organization has handled sexual abuse claims in the past, some Canadians are questioning how anyone can trust hockey’s national governing body and are calling for action and change at all levels of sports.
“I’m not sure it’s possible for women to trust an organization with that kind of history anymore,” Beatrice van Dyk, a mother of four who played hockey in Toronto, told Cross Country Checkup.
“I’m not sure it’s possible for parents who care about young men being raised in a non-toxic, mildly sexualized environment of power to trust an institution that has allowed this kind of behavior.”
The dispute at Hockey Canada began in May when the organization reached a settlement with a young woman who claimed she was sexually assaulted in 2018 by eight Canadian Hockey League players, including members of that year’s World Junior Team.
Since then, Sport Canada, a branch of the federal Department of Heritage, has frozen Hockey Canada’s funding. Several sponsors, including Scotiabank and Tim Hortons, suspended or withdrew sponsorship of the organization.
Halifax police also opened an investigation into a separate allegation of gang sexual assault in 2003 involving members of Canada’s 2003 world junior team.
Lack of accountability
Hockey Canada executives testifying before a House of Commons committee on Wednesday said they have paid $8.9 million in sexual assault settlements to 21 complainants since 1989 from the “National Capital Fund” they say was generated from membership fees and investments.
It’s an awkward time to be a hockey Canadian.-Beatrice van Dyk, mother of four hockey-playing daughters
Van Dijk, whose husband was a professional hockey player in Germany, said it showed that steps were not being taken to hold people accountable.
“It’s an embarrassing time to be a Canadian connected to hockey,” she said.
“I’m not sure why you would want to accept an invitation to any of Hockey Canada’s events given that it is tainted with this history.”
Van Dyke, who is 48 and now lives in upstate New York, says incidents like the ones Canadian hockey is currently dealing with are nothing new.
“Everybody seems to think it’s going to stop on its own and nobody wants to talk about the details.”
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Beatrice Van Dyke is a mother of 4 daughters who played hockey in Toronto
A longstanding problem
Former Canadian Hockey League goaltender Brock McGillis has first-hand experience with hockey’s toxic culture.
He played for the Windsor Spitfires and the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League from 2001 to 2002. He was in his late teens at the time and said his experiences in junior hockey locker rooms made him hate his life.
Former Ontario Hockey League player Brock McGill came out as gay in November 2016 and is now an activist in the LGBTQ+ space. (Submitted by Brock McGillis)
“The impact of being a gay man out there and hiding who I am and conforming to the norms and becoming a female hockey bro — and what that did to me, I mean, quite honestly, I was going home … and I was trying to kill myself,” he told Cross Country Checkup.
McGillis, who came out as gay in November 2016, says conformity is a critical barrier holding back hockey culture.
“People dress the same … talk the same, whether that’s who they are or not,” he said. “There’s no room for being anything other than the norm – and if you are, you’re different.”
According to McGillis, because the players are mostly white, mostly middle to upper class, and generally assumed to be heterosexual, it creates an environment in the locker room where people say and do things without being held accountable, including using language and engaging in behavior that hurts women, minorities, and people in the LGBTQ community.
“Then in turn you see thoughts and behaviors that lead to bigotry and lead to misogyny and lead to sexual violence.”
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Teresa Fowler, an assistant professor of education at Concordia University in Edmonton, is part of a team interviewing elite-level male hockey players about their experiences with sexism, misogyny and hypermasculinity in the sport. She says her research shows the problem is pervasive, persistent and systemic.
Silence
Some of the blame falls on the adults in those spaces for not doing more to hold these players accountable, McGillis says, citing coaches who come from the same culture and reinforce it in their own training.
“And usually hockey people have hockey babies,” he said. “Parents who come from a hockey culture put their kids in hockey. So it’s a learned and normalized culture.”
No one wants to be the person who looks like they’re stirring the pot.-Teresa Bailey, co-founder of Canadian Hockey Moms
Theresa Bailey, a hockey parent for about 16 years and co-founder of the advice website Canadian Hockey Moms, says parents really want to have these conversations but avoid speaking publicly for fear of repercussions for their kids.
“I think everybody wants to talk about these things, but nobody wants to have problems with the member associations or the provincial associations,” she told the Cross Country Checkup.
“Nobody wants to be the guy who looks like he’s stirring the pot.”
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There have been growing calls for accountability from Hockey Canada – as well as demands to change hockey culture – after police launched an investigation into an alleged sexual assault at the 2003 World Juniors.
Bailey says he believes people in positions of power in minor hockey associations, which are usually volunteer-based, are not adequately equipped or trained to deal with the toxic parts of hockey culture.
“It’s complicated,” she said. “I’ve seen people really not know how to deal with some of the issues that come up, or deal with them in ways that stop people from coming forward.”
Taking a position
Bailey believes the best way to eliminate the toxic atmosphere is for Hockey Canada and similar associations to promote diversity on teams, on the coaching staff and on the board.
“I don’t know how else to do that other than to put people in there with different opinions who won’t be locked up.”
Looking ahead, van Dijk believes there is an opportunity to fix hockey culture – and the first step involves parents taking a stand with their wallets when it comes to paying dues to local hockey associations.
“I would say ‘I’ll pay you those fees, but only if you don’t pay anything to the provincial hockey association until that provincial hockey association takes a stand on Canadian hockey,'” she said.
“Because our fees will enable deranged, toxic, predatory sexual behavior among young men, and we don’t want that type of society.”
Written by Muhammad Racini. Produced by Abby Plenner and Steve Howard.
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