The commissioner of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, Gilles Courteau, tendered his resignation on Sunday.
Courteau, who was also general manager of the Remparts de Québec, had acted as president or commissioner since 1985. He had announced his intention to retire during the year 2024, but he found himself at the heart of the junior hockey initiation scandal.
Courteau will be replaced on an interim basis by Martin Lavallée, who was his assistant.
Recently, he had indicated during an interview with 98.5 that he did not intend to resign from his post.
Courteau answered questions from deputies in the National Assembly last Wednesday, following the revelations of Radio-Canada on the class action request led in particular by former NHL player Daniel Carcillo and during which acts barbarians during initiation rites in the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) have been unveiled.
In the ensuing press scrum, the circuit commissioner revealed that only one of the 20-odd sworn statements in the class-action suit had been signed by QMJHL alumnus Stephen Quirk. , for events that occurred between 1995 and 1998. He then wore the colors of the Alpines, a team that became the Moncton Wildcats.
“And there is nothing of a sexual connotation in what is stated in his affidavit,” he assured the media.
However, it appears that Mr. Courteau was on the wrong track. Mr. Quirk recounts, among other things, that teammates took “heated analgesic cream and they inserted it into [son] anus in [le] penetrating with their fingers.”