Hockey Canada is “at a crossroads” and must reform its management model to be more transparent, reads the final report of an investigation into its management conducted by an independent third party.
The 221-page document was released on Friday following an investigation by former Supreme Court Justice Thomas Cromwell, and after a preliminary report released last month. It comes after tumultuous months for the sports organization, mired in sexual assault scandals for several months.
Hockey Canada has been under pressure since May, when it was revealed the federation had quietly settled a lawsuit brought by a young woman who alleged she was sexually assaulted by eight players, including some members of the Canada Junior Team, following a gala presented in London, Ontario in 2018.
Other discoveries followed, including that of a secret compensation fund — funded in part with player registration fees — used to pay for uninsured acts, such as sexual assault and harassment allegations. . Quickly, the federal government and many commercial partners began to suspend their funding agreements with the organization.
“I have not assessed whether Hockey Canada’s settlement of individual claims is appropriate or not, or made any specific suggestions on how to change what has been described as a toxic culture within the sport. That does not mean, however, that my review ignores these issues,” Cromwell writes in his introduction.
The main recommendations relate to the recruitment of members of the Hockey Canada board of directors which “needs to be fundamentally redesigned”, with several members having “expressed their loss of confidence in the leadership of Hockey Canada”, can we read in the report.
“Trust takes time to build, but it can quickly evaporate,” Cromwell also wrote. The recent experience of Hockey Canada is proof of this. »
With The Canadian Press