As expected this story has been gaining legs the last few days. Players are falling all over themselves to say they weren’t involved. Even the police are investigating themselves for how they handled it. A series of text messages have been released and published. Much to follow and much will happen yet before this sad saga is over.
This is the story of the emails/texts/videos available of the incident. One unnamed player is pressuring the victim not to pursue charges and to tell the police that everything was consensual. As TSN says, content warning.
My real questions here are not just with Hockey Canada but the Junior Hockey Leagues these guys play for.
If all this happens in the couple weeks a month they are under Hockey Canada's umbrella - whats going on in the months these guys are travelling and playing with their teams??
Good point. I am sure this is just the tip of the iceberg. A bunch of misogynistic entitled young men. I think, however, we’ll eventually see some heads roll. Perhaps even jail. Perhaps careers ended or at least lengthy suspensions of current players, a year or more. This is far worse than anything Deshaun Watson did and Hockey Canada’s complicity is far worse than that of the Texans.
Hockey Canada has disclosed how much they have paid out for sexual assault claims, with the 2018 number included virtually certain to be over $8 million. They have supposedly implemented new policies starting in September, but many today are calling for a change in leadership and do not want the old guard in charge of those policies. Makes sense to me. I’m not sure why they don’t step down.
Very true. One of the articles stated that all of the allegations happened while they were under Hockey Canada’s watch after their CHL affiliation was over for the year. It would be hard to believe that nothing similar ever happened while the players were under the CHL umbrella, although it is the elite players that eventually fall under Hockey Canada jurisdiction and perhaps they feel more entitled because of their elevated status.
The only way the leadership goes is through defunding Hockey Canada or financially boycott the organization because the head man, Smith refuses to step down for the good or the Sport
So far, but you gotta think there will be enough pressure on him and the rest of the honchos so that they will have to go. I think they will insist on it in order to reinstate funding if they need to. They should do the right thing and go voluntarily. They are guilty in the court of public opinion for allowing this disgraceful mess to happen on their watch and that should be enough.
Smith is doubling down because HC doesn’t have a suitable replacement for Smith. I bet Smith is reciting Jack Nicholson’s line from “A Few Good Men”. The “You need me on that wall” speech
Goes to show just how out of touch he is. I read he was saying how he wanted to stay on to help change course for Hockey Canada. Idiot, You already had that chance, and completely blew it!
But he’s just prolonging the inevitable. Sport Canada is withholding their funding and several sponsors including Scotia Bank amount others are “pausing” their sponsorship. The money will start talking now that the organization’s crown jewel event is drawing near.
This just goes to show just how truly out of touch with reality this guy really is