Published29 June 2022, 23:00
In 2018, eight players, some of whom would now be established in the NHL, allegedly assaulted a woman in a hotel in Ontario.
Hockey Canada, the powerful Canadian Ice Hockey Federation which brings together 607,951 players, is rocked by an alleged sexual assault scandal and lost the support of several sponsors on Wednesday.
The assault occurred on the night of June 18-19, 2018 at a hotel in London, Ontario. On April 20, 2022, a 24-year-old woman filed a lawsuit once morest Hockey Canada and eight former Canadian Hockey League players, some of whom had won gold at the U20 World Championship a few months earlier. in Buffalo, USA.
She accuses the players of assaulting her in a hotel room in the early hours of the morning. As reported by “La Presse”, the gang rape would have taken place following a gala organized by Hockey Canada on the sidelines of the annual golf tournament of its foundation.
Players not identified
The sordid story was unveiled by TSN journalist Rick Westhead, who read the 18 pages of the official document. He describes the degrading gestures to which the victim would have been forced without his consent. The document does not identify either the young woman or her eight attackers, all named “John Doe” and numbered 1 to 8.
“La Presse” was able to trace the course of events. The Quebec media wrote: “After the gala organized by Hockey Canada, the suspects, along with other teammates, went to Jack’s Yard, a restaurant and bar located in downtown London. Late at night, the player identified as “John Doe 1” left the scene in order to head to his hotel room with the victim. This one, we read in the lawsuit, was in an advanced state of intoxication. After the two had sex, the young man invited all the other “John Does” into the room, without notifying the victim or asking for his consent.” And to add: “The vast majority of the members of the 2018 Canadian champion team are now established professional players. Some are already stars of the circuit (note: NHL).
Amicable settlement
The case was settled out of court, Hockey Canada having paid 3.55 million Canadian dollars (2.63 million francs) to the victim.
But it sparked a reaction from the Canadian government, which launched a financial audit to find out if public money had been used to finance the agreement sealed with the victim and which froze public funding for the sports organization.
On Monday, Hockey Canada officials had to explain themselves in Parliament to members of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage.
Sponsors withdraw
“We assumed this responsibility because we wanted to respect the wishes of the young woman, who did not want to be identified and who did not want the names of the players made public, and because the alleged events took place during ‘an event that was happening under the auspices of our organization,’ said Scott Smith, director of Hockey Canada, who claimed no government money was used and made elected officials jump when he claimed that the Federation did not oblige any of its players to participate in the independent internal investigation.
In the followingmath, major commercial partners (Scotiabank, retail giant Canadian Tire, communications company Telus and oil company Imperial Oil) withdrew their support for Hockey Canada, which will host the U20 World Championship from 9 to August 20 in Edmonton.
