“Upset” by the “acts of barbarism” reported in a judgment on initiations in junior hockey, the opposition parties in the National Assembly are asking to hear the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (LHJMQ) in committee parliamentary.
The deputies of Quebec solidaire Vincent Marissal and Ruba Ghazal sent Tuesday to the Committee on Culture and Education a request for a mandate of initiative “in order to shed light on the state of the situation in the league as well as the measures in place to protect young people, curb bullying and abuse and ensure that young people can practice their sport in a safe and caring environment”.
If this request, which has the support of the Liberal Party of Quebec and the Parti Quebecois, is accepted, both the LHJMQ and Hockey Quebec will be summoned.
In a judgment rendered recently in Ontario, some twenty former players of the three Canadian major junior leagues allege physical abuse, sexual violence and intimidation carried out over a period of almost 50 years in the context of initiations into cloakrooms. The plaintiffs, including former QMJHL player Stephen Quirk, regret the “culture of silence” that reigns within team management and leagues.
“I was scandalized to read once again this kind of gesture, this kind of ignominy that young people are subjected to in the name of initiation and esprit de corps, when we are here squarely in the Code criminal, and we are talking about aggression”, thundered the elected representative Vincent Marissal during a press briefing on Tuesday.
In his eyes, the QMJHL must be invited at all costs to explain these “initiation rites which are more like acts of barbarism”. “I think it’s not the first time that there have been glitches with this league,” he observed.
The interim leader of the Liberal Party, Marc Tanguay, calls for a “change of culture”. “It is extremely worrying, disturbing. I think that Quebec must find a way to regulate [ça] “, he said. Cut funding to the governing bodies of Quebec hockey, for example? It is a “lever”, added the elected official of LaFontaine.
On Monday, the Federal Minister of Sports, Pascale St-Onge, had asked for the end of initiations in the world of sport. “Initiations like that are abuse, they are mistreatment. »
On Tuesday, the leader of the Parti Québécois, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, wanted to qualify. “We have seen, for example for universities, initiations posed a problem. Does this mean that initiations should be prohibited in universities? he wondered aloud.
Further details will follow.