Hockey Canada ousted CEO Scott Smith on Tuesday and the board of directors also resigned due to a series of scandals that have rocked the sport’s national federation to its core.
Smith was unable to survive the fallout related to how Hockey Canada handled sexual assault allegations and how the organization paid out settlements.
Former board chair Michael Brind’Amour resigned in August and interim chair Andrea Skinner stepped down on Saturday after politicians, including Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, called for leadership change and corporate sponsors jumped ship. “It is inconceivable that folks at Hockey Canada continue to dig in.
It’s not like there’s something extraordinarily special about the people at Hockey Canada that means they are the only people in the country that can run an organization like this,” Trudeau told reporters before a cabinet meeting last week. “They need to realize that if we have to create an organization, get rid of Hockey Canada and create an organization called ‘Canada Hockey’ instead, people will look at doing that.” Smith took over from outgoing CEO Tom Renney on 1 July after a succession plan was announced in April.