(Ottawa) After brief consideration, Hockey Canada has decided to no longer use its reserve fund to settle sexual assault cases. Its leaders are eagerly awaited by elected officials in Ottawa, who will continue their study in committee next week.
Posted at 5:03 p.m.
Updated at 5:20 p.m.
The organization found itself in embarrassment for the umpteenth time on Monday when the existence of this special fund was learned in a July 2021 affidavit signed by Glen McCurdie, who was then vice-president of the insurance and risk management at Hockey Canada.
“Hockey Canada maintains a reserve in a separate account to pay for any uninsured liabilities that may arise,” reads the statement viewed by The Press. McCurdie states that “uninsured liabilities include potential claims for past sexual abuse.”
This had earned the organization severe reprimands from Justin Trudeau. “A lot of people have lost confidence in this organization, he hammered on Tuesday. I’m really, really disturbed by the culture that apparently has crept into the highest levels of this organization. »
Just over 24 hours later, Hockey Canada corrected the situation.
“Effective immediately, the National Equity Fund will no longer be used to settle claims related to sexual assault,” the organization said in a statement Wednesday, agreeing “there is a lot to be done.” to regain the trust of the Canadian people.
The money will henceforth be “exclusively reserved for the organization’s safety, well-being and equity initiatives, as well as for insurance”, it continued, specifying that “of 2014 to 2021, 98% of the fund’s resources have been allocated to these expenses”.
Hockey Canada has launched a “comprehensive review of [sa] governance”, which will be carried out by a third party. The contingency fund will be analyzed as part of the exercise, but the organization has opted not to wait to receive the results of the review before deciding on its use in alleged cases of sexual assault.
Committee Testimony, Take 2
After a committee appearance described as “rather disappointing” by the Minister of Sports, Pascale St-Onge, at the end of June, three Hockey Canada leaders will have a second chance to make a better impression next week.
Outgoing Hockey Canada CEO Tom Renney, his successor Scott Smith and Hockey Canada Foundation president Dave Andrews received another invitation from the Canadian Heritage standing committee next week. They will be there on Wednesday.
The bosses of the country’s three major junior leagues – Gilles Courteau of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, David Branch of the OHL and Ron Robison of the Western Hockey League – are also part of the guest list, as was Glen McCurdie, who was unable to attend in June.
The work of the House of Commons committee, however, begins on Tuesday, with the testimony of Minister St-Onge and Danielle Robitaille, who is associated with the firm Henein Hutchison – the one who carried out the initial independent investigation, in 2018.
Still more proof to be done
The Trudeau government suspended the allocation of federal funds to the organization on June 22.
Minister St-Onge then warned Hockey Canada that two conditions had to be met to find this money: disclose the recommendations of the Henein Hutchison cabinet, and become a signatory of the Office of the Commissioner for Integrity in Sport.
“Hockey Canada has confirmed that it intends to cooperate with our requests,” the minister’s office was told.
As of this writing, the organization is not on the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner’s list of signatories. Henein Hutchison did not respond to questions from The Press.
In addition to being deprived of funding from Ottawa, Hockey Canada has seen several corporate partners withdraw their marbles.
Players dissociate
The NHL is also investigating since several of these players are now in the league. However, it did not make participation in this survey compulsory.
A number of players from the 2018 National Junior Team have publicly stated that they were not involved in the alleged incidents or that they were not at this gala, including NHL players Cale Makar, Robert Thomas , Jordan Kyrou, Victor Mete, Conor Timmins, Taylor Raddysh and Jonah Gadjovich.
With Emilie Bilodeau, The Press, and The Canadian Press