Quebec police forces are inviting victims of degrading acts that were committed in the locker rooms of major junior hockey – and revealed in a judgment in Ontario – to come see them and file a complaint. For the moment, however, they lack the information necessary to launch investigations.
Asked about the violence that former players of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (LHJMQ) say they have suffered at the hands of teammates and coaches in their locker rooms, the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) wanted to send them a message. , Wednesday. “We will not encourage people to remain silent. It is certain that we adhere to the movement and that we encourage the victims to file a complaint, ”launched the spokesperson for the SQ Camille Savoie, in an interview with The duty.
Since Monday, the three Canadian major junior hockey leagues have been shaken by serious accusations filed by former players against them. The QMJHL and its teams are targeted.
In a judgment of the Superior Court of Ontario handed down in early February, but which resurfaced very recently, about twenty players made affidavits alleging gang rapes, acts of intimidation and acts of forcible confinement in locker rooms and team buses. The alleged facts date back to the 1970s.
The duty contacted all the Quebec police forces that have jurisdiction over the territories covered by the QMJHL hockey organizations. Those who responded—Sûreté du Québec and police in Saguenay, Sherbrooke, Gatineau and Quebec City—all told us that they did not launch an investigation after Judge Paul Perrell’s decision was made public.
“There is no open investigation in connection with junior hockey,” replied laconically the public relations agent Martin Carrier, of the Sherbrooke police department. “To investigate possible criminal offenses in terms of intimidation, harassment or assault, for example, the Service de police de la Ville de Gatineau must have a complaint,” added the person in charge of communications and relations with the community to the Gatineau police, Mariane Leduc.
Call for denunciations
Contacted in turn, the Service de police de la Ville de Québec (SPVQ), where the Remparts operate, held to the same caution, but nevertheless recalled that potential victims could always denounce, that the acts presumed to be recent or not.
“We invite any alleged victim of sexual assault, intimidation, harassment or any other criminal offense who wishes to file a complaint for events, whether contemporaneous or not, or to pursue a complaint initiated in the past, or any victim who was unwilling to do so at the time, [à] communicate with the SPVQ and [à] do not hesitate to file a complaint, ”wrote agent Marie-Pier Rivard.
Asked about the possibility that there have been complaints in connection with such acts over the years, Camille Savoie, of the SQ, affirmed that it would be “difficult to answer that”. “The complainant should clearly name the organization, team or body to which he belonged. It’s hard to get that information,” she said.
The Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP) was also unable to specify how many cases had been presented to him in connection with sexual or physical assaults in major junior hockey organizations. “Since it is not a separate offense, but a way of committing a crime,” said the deputy spokesperson for the DPCP, Me Patricia Johnson.