McBean says offer to join Hockey Canada committee withdrawn after her call to fire top execs

TSN Senior Correspondent

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Three-time Olympic gold medalist Marnie McBean says a leading crisis-management firm hired by Hockey Canada asked her earlier this month to join a committee that will purportedly hold the organization accountable to the change it has promised. 

But McBean says the offer was withdrawn a week later after she made it clear her joining the committee would be conditional on Hockey Canada’s top officials being removed from their positions.

McBean said in an interview with TSN on Wednesday that she was contacted Aug. 10 by Adam Vaughan, a former member of parliament and journalist with Citytv. Vaughan is now a principal at Toronto-based Navigator Ltd., the firm working with Hockey Canada to help the organization weather criticism from parliamentarians, its corporate partners, and the public over its response to allegations of sexual assault.

Hockey Canada released an action plan July 25 the organization promised would “shatter the code of silence and eliminate toxic behaviour in and around Canada’s game.” As part of that action plan, Hockey Canada said it would create a committee to act as a watchdog for the organization. McBean said Vaughan offered her a place on that committee.

McBean, who represented Canada in rowing from 1987 to 2000, winning a total of 12 world and Olympic medals, said she told Vaughan that she would consider working with Hockey Canada if the organization’s current top executives were accountable and removed from their positions.

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result,” McBean said. “I said I would be involved but that it would require a change in senior leadership and a board that was prepared to do hard