Hockey culture suffers from a 'systemic problem' of sexual violence, minister says

WARNING: This story contains graphic details some readers may find disturbing. Sport Minister Pascale St-Onge says there's a "systemic problem" of sexual violence and toxic masculinity in Canada's hockey culture that Hockey Canada has failed to change.

Her comment was a response to a Fifth Estate investigation that identified at least 15 group sexual assault cases involving junior hockey players investigated by police since 1989 — half of which surfaced in the past decade. At least 50 players have been accused in the alleged crimes. Half were charged and only one was convicted after taking a plea to a lesser offence, the Fifth Estate found.

"We're talking about a systemic issue," St.-Onge told CBC News on Thursday.

"We've heard these stories before. It's not the first time we talked about the toxic culture in hockey. But nothing has been done, or not enough has been done in the past ten years. It's terrible, legally."

St-Onge sharpened her condemnation of Hockey Canada on Thursday, arguing the organization doesn't have the luxury of years to change its culture. She said this toxic culture in the sport has been "normalized for too long."

"A lot of players have become men who have never taken responsibility for their actions and what happened," she said. "But it's also about the people in management and in leadership roles that have also failed all those years.

"So far, I don't think what's been done is enough, for sure."

Hockey Canada continues to face calls for a change to its leadership; one of those calls came from St-Onge. The hockey organization has been under intense public scrutiny since May, after a woman filed a $3.5 million lawsuit alleging eight hockey players — some of them members of the 2018 World Junior