(Montreal and Ottawa) Physical and psychological violence. Torture. Humiliation. Sexual abuse. Sequestration.
New revelations of sordid acts committed over the past decades have once again thrown Canadian junior hockey into turmoil.
On February 3, Justice Paul Perell of the Ontario Superior Court dismissed a class action lawsuit filed by three plaintiffs on behalf of the 15,000 players who have been associated, for 50 years, with one or more other of the 60 teams in the Western Junior League (WHL), the Ontario Junior League (OHL) or the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (LHJMQ). The main plaintiffs, themselves ex-Canadian players, denounced the negligence shown by the organizations and their staff in the face of the repeated abuse aimed at players, especially the youngest, over the years.
Although he justified his refusal to admit the appeal on technical grounds, the magistrate did not question the veracity of the testimonies filed in evidence. In his decision, he also includes excerpts from six depositions, the details of which send shivers down your spine. The news was, until Monday morning, passed under the Quebec media radar. Radio-Canada columnist Martin Leclerc was the first to mention it.
In the 103-page document, that The Press also obtained, Judge Perell describes acts “witnessed” by players, coaches or managers of Canadian junior teams, or which were “encouraged, neglected, tolerated, camouflaged or, in a cowardly and irresponsible manner, ignored” by these people. The class action lawsuit, however, was aimed at teams and leagues, not specific suspects.
The acts are mainly linked to the initiation of rookie players, therefore minors. Some were only 15 years old at the time.
The testimonies show hockey sticks inserted into the anus, mutilation of genitals, victims sprayed with urine or forced to throw feces at each other as well as repeated sessions of humiliation. So many gestures which, say the players, have haunted their adult life.
One of them also recounts having been sequestered for several hours with seven teammates in a bus toilet. He still bears the scars of this experience today, having developed claustrophobia that prevents him from flying too far, for example.
“It stops now”, warns St-Onge
In Ottawa, federal Sports Minister Pascale St-Onge called for an end to the initiation practices described by the court document and first reported by Radio-Canada.
PHOTO ADRIAN WYLD, THE CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Sports Minister Pascale St-Onge.
“It doesn’t make sense. These situations are downright abuse, it is mistreatment. I do not understand that there are adults who have witnessed this and who have let these events happen, ”she said in a press scrum.
“My message is clear today: initiations must stop – in all sports, not just hockey […] Initiations like that is abuse, it’s mistreatment, it must be prohibited, ”added the minister, on the sidelines of her appearance before the Standing Committee on the Status of Women.
“I urge – not just urge, but demand – all adults who are involved in sport to put an end to this. It’s easy to change. It’s easy to stop. It stops now,” she added.
Asked to specify what action she could take, beyond words, Minister St-Onge said that she “looks[ait] all means to [sa] disposal to intervene in this type of situation and to prevent abuse and ill-treatment in general. »
But the initiations, “it’s something quite simple to settle”, she insisted again.
The Quebec Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry, maintained that Quebec does not intend, for the time being, to prohibit initiations in the sports environment throughout the province, in particular at the college level.
“For the moment, we are not there, but it can be part of a reflection. […] The reflection continues and the actions (also), then we will eventually see if it is necessary to crack down on this level, ”she replied when questioned about this during a press conference, in Montreal. , aimed at announcing a plan to fight against sexual violence in cegeps and universities.
Mme Déry said a culture change is already happening, but it needs to happen “even faster within sports teams.”
She mentioned that “compulsory training” is in place and that “investigations are carried out” when her ministry as well as that of Isabelle Charest, Minister responsible for Sport, are made aware of “initiations that go wrong”.
Provincial and territorial sport ministers will meet with their federal counterpart later this week at the Canada Games.
Application rejected
The class action lawsuit was first filed in June 2020 by former players Daniel Carcillo and Garrett Taylor. Stephen Quirk, who played in the QMJHL from 1995 to 1998 with the Moncton Alpines (now the Wildcats) and the Halifax Mooseheads, was added to the number of main plaintiffs. Over the following months, the testimonies of 16 players were entered into evidence. Of the group, Mr. Quirk is the only one to have played in the QMJHL.
The defendants also provided a series of affidavits, including those of Gilles Courteau and Éric Chouinard, respectively commissioner and director of the QMJHL player safety department.
After reviewing the case, Judge Perell dismissed the class action claim. He relies in particular on the fact that the three main plaintiffs have, together, played for five Canadian junior teams. As the 60 clubs in the country are targeted, plaintiffs associated with each of the organizations should be at the head of a potential appeal. The magistrate explains the difficulty of identifying a cultural and systemic phenomenon present in teams from different provinces that have virtually no connection between them. “The action of the plaintiffs presupposes that all the defendants share the same virulent culture of Canadian amateur hockey,” he wrote, taking issue with this view.
While all of the defendants cannot be sued as a single entity for their “systemic negligence”, each of the organizations and leagues can be sued individually, he said.
“This lawsuit concerns gross harm perpetrated on children, and the persons or entities at fault must be punished,” Judge Perell wrote.
However, he adds that despite the “noble quest to clean up hockey” by MM. Carcillo, Taylor and Quirk, “it is fundamentally unfair to punish teams for something someone else has done”.
In a statement, the Canadian Hockey League (CHL), the body uniting the country’s three junior leagues, welcomed the court’s decision to dismiss the class action lawsuit. However, the League claims to take the actions described “seriously”. No one “should act with impunity,” it says. “We believe that any player who has been the victim of misconduct by teammates [pendant sa carrière junior] deserves access to justice. »
The LCH also wants the creation of a “procedure” intended to determine the compensation to be paid to the victims as well as the responsibility to be imputed to the culprits.
With The Canadian Press
shocking testimonials
In his decision, Judge Paul Perell reproduces six statements made by former hockey players about the abuse they suffered during their junior careers. Here are excerpts from these anonymous testimonies, some of which are particularly shocking.
Veterans made fun of me, telling me that I was going to be initiated. The general manager told me not to be a “wimp” [pussy, NDLR].
I blew myself up in the locker room. They threw me on a table, on my back. They blindfolded me. I could feel them urinating on me. They tied a rope around my penis, threw it over a bar above me, and tied a bag of washers to the other side. They threw pucks into the bag, which was getting heavier and heavier. It was very painful.
I was tied naked to a table and whipped with my own belt while everyone watched. […] The trainer came in and started whipping me too.
In the shower, I was forced to sit naked with the other recruits, with my genitals against the other people’s bottoms. They made us sing “row, row, row!” “. Players were urinating and throwing things at us. Coach walked in, laughed and walked out.
I remember looking for apples in other players’ urine. We all had to. I have suffered abuse and witnessed it on every team I have played for.
I was put in the “sweat box” [sweat box, NDLR] on the team bus. They stripped us naked, except for our underwear, and sent the eight of us to the bathroom on the bus. They sprayed us all with Pepsi so everything is sticky. I had a real panic attack. We stood there for hours. Some of the other guys seemed to be going crazy too. It was one of the worst experiences of my life. Team personnel have seen it all. I still fear enclosed spaces. I can’t fly long distances. I have to get off elevators if they’re too crowded.
We went to the locker room to take a shower. The veterans lined us up, told us to get naked, and made fun of our genitals. I was only fifteen.
Each recruit had to perform a striptease in front of the older players. The player who “losed” was verbally abused. The abuses were daily. The recruits were “wimps”, “sluts” or “queers”. It was consistent. Young players were seen as second-class citizens.
They dragged me across the room and put me under boiling water in the shower. They tied a skate lace to my penis. They brought a coat rack into the shower and threw the shoelace over it, and tied the other side to my ankle, which was hanging in the air. I had to keep my leg up otherwise it would pull on my penis. My leg got tired, and as she lowered herself, she tugged on my penis until the skin broke. They left me in the shower for over an hour until the tape was soft enough to come off.
The young players had to play for the older ones on a stage. The older ones defecated on the stage and forced the recruits to throw their excrement at each other. […] The boys had to read the magazine Penthouse. According to the “game”, if you had an erection, or if you didn’t, you were severely punished.
I was sexually assaulted about forty times in nine months. I was stripped naked and hung upside down in the back of the bus. The players pushed hockey sticks and other objects into my anus. They covered the sticks in liquid heat before inserting them which was excruciating. They also spread some on my genitals. I stood there for hours. I was in so much pain that I was trying to press my genitals and anus against the back glass to relieve myself with the condensation on the window.