Warning: This story contains distressing details related to sexual assault.
The NHL lifted its ban on longtime coach Joel Quenneville and executives Stan Bowman and Al MacIsaac on Monday, clearing the way for their return to the league more than two years after they were punished in the fallout from the Chicago team’s sexual assault scandal.
Bowman, MacIsaac and Quenneville can sign contracts with an NHL team after July 10.
“For more than the last two and a half years, these individuals have been ineligible to work for any NHL team as a result of their inadequate response upon being informed in 2010 of allegations that [Chicago] player Kyle Beach had been assaulted by the club’s video coach,” the league said.
“While it is clear that, at the time, their responses were unacceptable, each of these three individuals … has acknowledged that and used his time away from the game to engage in activities which not only demonstrate sincere remorse for what happened, but also evidence greater awareness of the responsibilities that all NHL personnel have, particularly personnel who are in positions of leadership.”
The scandal rocked Chicago’s NHL team in October 2021 and had ripple effects across the league.
An investigation commissioned by Chicago concluded team officials mishandled allegations raised by Beach during the team’s Stanley Cup run in 2010.
The Chicago NHL team’s decision to delay taking action after a sexual assault allegation was made against a video coach has led to the resgination of the team’s general manager, a $2-million fine and questions about what needs to happen to other team officials who didn’t act sooner.
Quenneville coached Chicago, an Original Six team, to three Cups since 2010 before joining the Florida Panthers in 2019.
He stepped down from the Panthers at the time the sexual assault scandal came to light. Bowman, Chicago’s general manager and hockey operations president, left his job, as did top team executive MacIsaac.
The league said each “has made significant strides in personal improvement by participating in myriad programs, many of which focused on the imperative of responding in effective and meaningful ways to address alleged acts of abuse.”
The NHL fined Chicago’s NHL team $2 million in the wake of the investigation, which was launched in response to two lawsuits filed against the franchise: one by a player identified as John Doe alleging sexual assault by then video coach Brad Aldrich in 2010, and another filed by a former student, someone Aldrich was convicted of assaulting in Michigan.
The report found no evidence that chief executive officer Danny Wirtz or his father, team owner Rocky, were aware of the allegations before the lawsuits. But the younger Wirtz said it was clear team executives had “put team performance above all else.”
Rocky Wirtz died in July 2023 at 70. He had been the owner since it was handed down to him by his father, Bill Wirtz, in 2007. Danny Wirtz, 47, is now owner and chair of the Wirtz Corporation, the holding company that owns Chicago.
Among other things, the scathing report found that in June 2010, after the team had won the Cup, Aldrich was given the option of resigning or being part of an investigation. Aldrich signed a separation agreement and no investigation was conducted.
Aldrich received a severance and a playoff bonus, according to the report, and was paid a salary “for several months.” He hosted the Stanley Cup for a day in his hometown.
Chicago and Beach reached an undisclosed settlement in December 2021. The AP does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they come forward publicly, as Beach did.
Support is available for anyone who has been sexually assaulted through crisis lines and local support services via this Government of Canada website or the Ending Violence Association of Canada database. If you’re in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911.
PARIS – Canada won its first Paralympic medal in women’s sitting volleyball and ended the country’s team sport podium drought Saturday.
The women’s volleyball team swept Brazil 3-0 (25-15, 25-18, 25-18) to take the bronze medal at North Paris Arena.
The women were the first Canadian side to claim a Paralympic medal in a team sport since the men’s wheelchair basketball team won gold in London in 2012.
“Oh my gosh, literally disbelief, but also, we did it,” said veteran Heidi Peters of Neerlandia, Alta. “It’s indescribable.”
Canada finished seventh in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and fourth in Tokyo three years ago.
Seven players of the dozen Canadians were Rio veterans and nine returned from the team in Tokyo.
Eleven were members of the squad that earned a silver medal at the 2022 world championship.
“I know how hard every athlete and every staff member and all of our family back home have worked for this moment,” captain Danielle Ellis said.
“It’s been years and years and years in the making, our third Paralympic Games, and we knew we wanted to be there.”
The women earned a measure of revenge on the Brazilians, who beat Canada for bronze in Tokyo and also in a pool game in Paris.
“There’s a lot of history with us and Brazil,” Peters acknowledged. “Today we just knew that we could do it. We were like, ‘This is our time and if we just show up and play our style of volleyball, serving tough and hitting the ball hard, the game will probably going our way.’ And it did.”
Calgary’s Jennifer Oakes led Canada with 10 attack points. Ellis of White Rock, B.C., and Peters each contributed nine.
Canada registered 15 digs as a team to Brazil’s 10.
“Losing to Brazil in the second game was tough,” Ellis said. “It just lit the fire beneath us.”
Canada’s men’s wheelchair basketball team fell 75-62 to Germany in the bronze-medal game in Paris.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 7, 2024.
PARIS – Canadian para canoeist Brianna Hennessy raced to her first Paralympic medal with a reminder of her mother on her paddle.
The 39-year-old from Ottawa took silver in the women’s 200-metre sprint Saturday in Paris.
The design on Hennessy’s paddle includes a cardinal in remembrance of her late mother Norma, the letter “W’ for Wonder Woman and a cat.
“My mother passed away last year, so I said I’d be racing down the course with her,” Hennessy said Saturday at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium.
“In our family, a cardinal represents what our love means. My mum was my Wonder Woman, and this is a cardinal rising up. This is our family pet that passed away two months after my mum, of cancer, because I think their love was together.
“All this represents so much to me, so it’s my passion piece for Paris.”
Hennessy finished just over a second behind gold medallist Emma Wiggs of Britain in the women’s VL2 Va’a, which is a canoe that has a support float and is propelled with a single-blade paddle.
Hennessy’s neck was broken when she was struck by a speeding taxi driver in Toronto in 2014 when she was 30. She has tetraplegia, which is paralysis in her arms and legs.
“This year’s the 10-year anniversary of my accident,” Hennessy said. “I should have been dead. I’ve been fighting back ever since.
“This is the pinnacle of it all for me and everything I’ve been fighting for. It made it all worth it.”
After placing fifth in her Paralympic debut in Tokyo three years ago, Hennessy was a silver medallist in the last three straight world championships in the event.
She will race the women’s kayak single Sunday. Hennessy and Wiggs have a tradition of hugging after races.
“I always talk about the incredible athletes here, and how the Paralympics means so much more because everyone here has a million reasons to give up, and we’ve all chosen to just go on,” the Canadian said. “It’s more about the camaraderie.”
Hennessy boxed and played hockey and rugby before she was hit by the taxi.
She was introduced to wheelchair rugby by the Ottawa Hospital Rehabilitation Centre.
She eventually turned to paddling at the Ottawa River Canoe Club, which led her to the Paralympic podium in Paris.
“It has a good ring to it,” Hennessy said. “I’m so happy. I feel like we’ve had to overcome so much to get here, especially in the last year and a half. I’m just so proud.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 7, 2024.
