No one stays 37 years at the head of an organization without weathering a few storms. Except that this time, the headwind was blowing too hard. Gilles Courteau was no longer able to hold on. He ceded control of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (LHJMQ) to the outgoing president of the Montreal Alouettes, Mario Cecchini.
The first 30 years of Gilles Courteau’s reign were marked by spectacular expansion and growth for the QMJHL. The last seven? By problems. A lot of problems.
The pandemic. The containment. The deconfinement. The reconfinement, on the eve of the series. The standoff with Quebec, for the fights. The arrest of two Victoriaville Tigres players for sexual assault. The criticisms of the coaches, towards an overloaded schedule. And the lawsuits piling up on his desk.
“The lawsuits are what occupy me the most,” he told me during a meeting in his office in Boucherville two years ago.
The league had just reached an agreement with former players, who felt they had been underpaid for their hours worked during their junior internship. A dispute that cost 30 million to the three major junior hockey leagues in the country, as well as to the clubs.
Now that this story was behind him, Gilles Courteau focused on two other class actions. The first concerned a plot to limit the work opportunities of 18-20 year old players.
The other ?
Degrading initiations.
Gilles Courteau knew that there had already been tough initiations in the QMJHL. He acknowledged this in November 2021 in a sworn testimony, traced by my colleagues Simon-Olivier Lorange and Ariane Lacoursière. “It’s much nicer to be a player in the QMJHL today than it could have been 20 years ago,” he commented, in addition to adding: “there have been problems related to the hazing”, attributable to “individuals” and “specific QMJHL teams”.
Which individuals? Which teams?
It is not specified.
When Gilles Courteau went to testify in a parliamentary committee two weeks ago, the deputies were unaware of the existence of this document. Nor had they read the testimony of a former QMJHL player, Stephen Quirk, who said he was the victim of sexual violence during his initiation with the Moncton Alpines in the 1990s.
So when Gilles Courteau affirmed, under oath, that “no case reported” to the QMJHL was “similar” to the sexual assaults described in a column by Martin Leclerc of Radio-Canada, the elected officials were unable to confront him.
However, in the following days, the documents were made public by Radio-Canada and The Press. A backlash for Gilles Courteau who, in an interview at The Press, admitted to having provided false information to parliamentarians. “I said something that was not true. I didn’t take the time to read [la déclaration sous serment de Stephen Quirk] completely, I apologize. »
So there, the wind picked up. Stronger than ever. Caquistes, liberals, solidarity, péquistes, all demanded either his departure, or his return to the parliamentary committee.
The resignation is submitted. The audience could follow. Minister Isabelle Charest, who is in conflict with Gilles Courteau, wants it. Several questions could not be asked the first time.
For example, who are the “individuals” that Gilles Courteau refers to?
Players ? Coaches?
Which “specific teams” were problematic?
What actions were taken?
In which year ?
Did the league intervene? If yes, when?
Elected officials could also ask the league to provide them with its internal investigations. We know that there is at least one, produced in 2019, on two initiations at the Phœnix de Sherbrooke. The investigators had concluded that “no unfortunate incident was reported during these two evenings”. So much the better.
The league had however recognized that “evenings in general must have tighter regulations”. She had asked her teams to be “more vigilant” and to “put the necessary efforts to raise awareness among players [et] enforce the rules.
In the future, she specified, there will be “more rigorous supervision, particularly in terms of the supervision of this type of evening and the safe transport of players”.
In the QMJHL, we are turning a page of history.
Gilles Courteau made his league debut in 1975 as a statistician with the Draveurs de Trois-Rivières. After a few years as general manager of the Quebec Remparts, he became, in February 1986, president of the QMJHL.
Under his leadership, the league’s center of gravity shifted east. Rimouski and Baie-Comeau each had a team. Halifax, Moncton, Bathurst, Saint John, Charlottetown and Cape Breton too.
A successful expansion, both at the counters and on the ice. Several players from the Maritime provinces, such as Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon and Brad Richards, have allowed the league to shine more.
Once the expansion was completed, Gilles Courteau aimed for stability. Again, successfully. No franchise has changed market for 11 years. For a junior league, this is the exception, not the rule.
The outgoing commissioner also hammered home the importance of academic success. During his tenure, clubs hired educational advisers, and the league offered 3,650 scholarships, totaling more than $17 million. It’s much better than 30 years ago.
Afterwards, can the league further promote the reconciliation of hockey and studies? Yes. Coaches – Patrick Roy in particular – have already suggested reducing the number of games. Perhaps we should also consider banning the trade of a rookie player who is still in high school, during the holiday transfer window.
These files and that of the fights will soon end up on the desk of the next commissioner, Mario Cecchini. Expect a change in tone, especially in the strained relationship between the league and the government. The future boss of the LHJMQ has good contacts, both among the Caquists and among the Liberals.
It will already be one stone less in his new commissioner’s shoes.