The commissioner of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (LHJMQ), Gilles Courteau, admitted, in sworn testimony in 2021, that he had observed “problems” related to hazing in his organization for 45 years. A version that differs from the testimony he gave last week to a parliamentary committee in Quebec.
Mr. Courteau was questioned by the defendant in connection with a class action request brought by three ex-players in 2020 against the Canadian Hockey League. He thus provided a long testimony, in which he explains in particular the commitment of the circuit which he directs with regard to the safety of the players.
In his statement dated 1er November 2021, he “acknowledges” that during his “45 years in the QMJHL”, “there have been problems related to hazing”. These problems, he continues, have their source in the conduct of the “individuals” who perpetrated them and “specific QMJHL teams”. These people and teams, he said, acted “inappropriately, far from the expectations and standards” of the league.
Before taking the helm of the QMJHL in 1985, Mr. Courteau spent 10 years working in various teams.
I condemn this behavior. When issues did arise, we took them seriously and addressed them, including implementing new policies and mandatory programs at the team and league level.
Quebec Major Junior Hockey League Commissioner Gilles Courteau in a statement dated May 1er November 2021
In parliamentary committee last week, Mr. Courteau was much more circumspect. “It’s much nicer to be a QMJHL player today than it could have been 20 years ago,” he agreed.
However, when asked about the “scabrous” cases revealed in Canadian junior hockey in recent weeks, he assured that “no case reported” to the league was “similar” to the violent acts described in a recent decision of Justice Paul Perell of the Ontario Superior Court.
This document, updated by Radio-Canada in mid-February, revealed cases of sexual assault, physical and psychological violence or kidnapping, among others, in the Canadian Hockey League, an entity that brings together the three main circuits country’s juniors.
“Have there been any cases of scabrous, dubious initiations, the other side of the line, that have come to your knowledge since you’ve been here and in the last few years?” “, Asked him the deputy Vincent Marissal in parliamentary committee.
“In recent years, no. When we were made aware of something, we intervened immediately, ”retorted Mr. Courteau. He has never echoed his recognition of the hazing in the circuit since he has been in his employ. No more than to the “specific teams” that he targeted, without identifying them, in his testimony of November 2021.
A QMJHL player among the victims
In addition, affidavits filed in the proceedings before Judge Perell show that a QMJHL player, Stephen Quirk, was allegedly the victim of sexual abuse during his time in the league between 1995 and 1998.
Before the parliamentary commission, Gilles Courteau declared that “none of the situations listed [dans le texte initialement publié par Radio-Canada sur le jugement Perell] involved a team from the QMJHL”. Relaunched on this issue in a scrum, Mr. Courteau added that there was no “sexual connotation in what is stated in his affidavit [celui de Quirk] “.
However, the testimony of Quirk, who played in Moncton and Halifax, shows the opposite, as raised by columnist Martin Leclerc of Radio-Canada, Monday morning.
In his sworn and public statement, which has not yet been tested in court, Stephen Quirk says he suffered “abuse” which “had a serious impact” on his entire life. “These experiences have traumatized me and changed who I am,” reads the affidavit.
The player says in particular that, during the team’s initiation evening, the rookie players were in turn led into a room of the Moncton Coliseum, blindfolded. “I was undressed. I had to drink two beers as fast as possible. I was laid on a table and all my pubic hair was shaved,” the sworn statement reads.
The veterans would then apply a warming cream to the shaved areas. “They took Rub A535 and put it in my anus by penetrating me with their fingers”, adds Stephen Quirk, who says he does not know how many people participated in the initiation since his eyes were blindfolded.
However, he claims that other recruits were brought into the same room and he heard them shouting. He describes the experience as “shocking, painful and extremely humiliating”.
“My years in junior hockey damaged me”
In his affidavit, Stephen Quirk indicates that during long bus rides, the recruits of his team had to pile up, naked, in the toilets. “There were six to seven of us in there,” he estimates. He says he had the experience at least five times, while adults were seated in the front of the vehicle.
Also during bus rides, Stephen Quirk mentions that veterans sometimes asked him to recount the details of his sexual experiences while masturbating around him.
He claims to have kept these events to himself for years, not wanting “to look like a weakling. [pussy] “. He says he has developed problems with alcoholism and bulimia since his first year in the QMJHL. “My years in junior hockey damaged me,” he sums up.
Gilles Courteau did not wish to react to the differences raised by The Press between his past and recent statements, nor did he wish to comment on the confirmation of the existence of sexual abuse in QMJHL initiations.
The opposition deplores the end of the parliamentary commission
MNA Vincent Marissal, from Québec solidaire, reiterated his request to the National Assembly’s Committee on Culture and Education to continue its work on the slippages observed in initiations to junior hockey. Last week, the parliamentary committee interrupted its consultation after only a few hours of work. The Caquiste deputies who sit there refused the opposition’s request to extend the mandate to hear other witnesses. In the light of the most recent revelations on Monday, Mr. Marissal revived the President of the Commission by means of a letter. In an interview at 98.5 FM, Liberal Enrico Ciccone, himself a former QMJHL player, agreed.