Sport and modesty are not natural allies.
Posted at 7:45 a.m.
“Call me Basketball Man,” LeBron James once asked. “I arrived like a king, I left like a legend,” said Zlatan Ibrahimovic after his time at PSG. Basketball player Dwight Howard liked to compare himself to Nelson Mandela. And that’s not counting all the athletes who talk about themselves in the third person singular.
But these quotes are models of humility when compared to the comments made Tuesday by the new chair of the board of directors of Hockey Canada, Andrea Skinner. It happened during an exchange with federal MPs, as part of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, responsible for investigating the management of sexual assault files by Hockey Canada.
Andrea Skinner was having a bad time. The elected officials chained criticism of Hockey Canada. They wondered why its leaders were still in office.
“I think there is a significant risk for the organization if the entire board resigns, and all the senior leaders are no longer there,” Andrea Skinner first replied.
Hmmm…
No. But hey, let her make her case anyway.
“I think it will have a very negative impact on our boys and girls playing hockey. Will the lights stay on at the arena? I do not know. We can’t predict that, and to me it’s not a risk worth taking. »
Siri, back up ten seconds please.
“Will the lights stay on at the arena? I do not know. »
Wait, that can’t be. It must be an auditory hallucination. Siri, back up another five seconds, please.
“Will the lights stay on at the arena? I do not know. »
I listened to the extract five times. Yes, Andrea Skinner does say that. If our children can play hockey in lighted arenas, it is not thanks to the janitor who gets up at 6 am on Saturday mornings. It is not thanks to the cities, which invest colossal sums in the construction of new skating rinks. It’s not even thanks to Hydro-Quebec, which supplies the electricity. No, rather thank Hockey Canada, literally a beacon of light in our lives.
It’s a surreal plea. Almost spiritual. It is like reading the apostle John, quoting Jesus in front of a crowd: “The light of the world is me. If someone follows me, he will not walk in the night, but he will have the light that gives life. »
In what cosmos do the leaders of Hockey Canada live to believe that their resignations would plunge our national sport into the Great Darkness? We are already in the Middle Ages! And Hockey Canada’s absurd decisions, like this settlement that saved eight players from a gang rape trial, only perpetuate the dark ages.
In her testimony, Andrea Skinner added that Hockey Canada was a “scapegoat”. That no one in his organization had acted “inappropriately”. That politicians also committed sexual assaults. She even gave Hockey Canada President and CEO Scott Smith an A grade for his dismal handling of the current crisis. A textbook case of the complacency of a board of directors.
Then, a classic, she accused journalists and politicians of “disinformation”. I want to emphasize that without the work of journalists, the story of gang rape would have remained hidden. We would not have learned, either, of the existence of a fund used to finance the costs of defense in the event of prosecution for sexual assault. And politicians do their job of holding Hockey Canada to account.
It’s now been four months since Hockey Canada bosses have been promising more transparency – while closing the blinds. The prank has gone on long enough. Leave. Now. And trust us.
Our arenas will be lit.