Hockey Canada says players weren’t required to participate in assault investigation

TSN Senior Correspondent

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When Hockey Canada hired an independent law firm in 2018 to investigate an alleged sexual assault by eight Canadian Hockey League players following a golf tournament and gala, the organization didn’t require players who attended the event to participate in its third-party investigation, a government hearing was told Monday.

Kevin Waugh, a Conservative MP who represents Saskatoon-Grasswood and is a member of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, scolded Hockey Canada officials for not demanding that all CHL players who attended the golf tournament be questioned about the allegations.

"Does it not resonate with you that these eight players could be coaching five years down the road?" Waugh asked Hockey Canada president Scott Smith and outgoing chief executive Tom Renney. “You own that. That is unacceptable.”

Smith and Renney testified under oath on Parliament Hill for two hours on Monday afternoon, answering questions from members of the committee about the allegations and the organization’s response.

The woman, who is not identified in court records, alleged the assaults occurred in June of 2018 in a London, Ont., hotel room following a Hockey Canada golf tournament and gala. Her allegations, which included that some of her attackers were members of Canada’s 2017-18 World Junior gold-medal winning team, were included in a lawsuit filed April 20, 2022, that has been settled.

The plaintiff asked a judge to award $3.55 million. The amount of the settlement is unknown. The allegations against the players were never proven in court and none of the defendants filed a response.

“We settled the claim quickly because we felt a moral obligation to respond to the alleged behaviour