(Ottawa) The Conservatives want Hockey Canada officials to testify “immediately” before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage on the case of a gang rape by junior players that ended in an out-of-court settlement.
Posted at 12:54 p.m.
“We need to get to the bottom of this right away,” insisted Conservative MP and former sports commentator Kevin Waugh, who is a member of the committee, as he entered his party’s caucus meeting on Wednesday.
“The Sports Minister talked about having this in September,” he added. No no no no ! It is serious. Let’s do this now. The NHL Entry Draft is approaching. The Memorial Cup is coming up. […] The World Junior Hockey Championship is approaching. »
The elected official estimates that Hockey Canada officials could be summoned as soon as Friday or early next week for a testimony of one or two days.
The proposal involves pushing back clause-by-clause consideration of Bill C-11, which seeks to regulate digital streaming platforms like Netflix.
Although the hon. member did not attempt to enlist the support of the other parties on the committee, he “assumes” that is the case since a Bloc Québécois motion to call Hockey Canada received unanimous support members of the House of Commons last week. “C-11 can be postponed,” he said.
However, Conservative MP Rachel Thomas introduced an amendment Monday at the heritage committee to allow testimony relating to Hockey Canada to take place before clause-by-clause consideration of Bill C-11, which is scheduled to begin on Wednesday.
The Liberals then qualified the approach as a “filibuster”, the New Democrats were reluctant and the Bloc Québécois specified that it is “clear” for its political formation that the work on Bill C-11 is “ priorities”. The vote could not take place before adjournment.
When the story came to light, Sports Minister Pascale St-Onge said she was “shocked and angry.” She had announced that a financial audit would be carried out to ensure that public funds were not used to “hide” the story.
The woman, who claims she was sexually assaulted by eight players from the 2018 National Junior Team that won gold at the World Juniors that year, dropped a lawsuit after reaching a settlement.
These are elite athletes, many of whom could now play in the National Hockey League (NHL), noted MP Waugh, who wants “everything” on the table, including “where they got their 3.55 million to pay the wife.”
Likewise, the lawyers who wrote the facts are due to appear, as is the organisation’s big boss, Tom Renney, who recently announced his retirement, which is “a bit suspicious”, in the opinion of the MP.
“I want to know what he knew,” he said. I want to know what the whole organization knew about this. »