New Jersey Devils defenceman Cal Foote, the son of Vancouver Canucks assistant coach Adam Foote, is among four players charged with sexual assault of a woman stemming from an alleged incident during a Hockey Canada event in London, Ont., in June 2018.
Sports
Canucks: Cal Foote, son of Vancouver assistant coach, among World Junior players charged with sexual assault
Four members of Canada’s 2018 world junior team have been charged with sexual assault, which has put hockey’s culture back under the microscope.
Dillon Dube of the Calgary Flames, Carter Hart of the Philadelphia Flyers and Michael McLeod of the Devils have also been charged, according to their lawyers, while former Ottawa Senators forward Alex Formenton, who was playing in Switzerland, reported to London police on Sunday to be charged.
More details are expected at a London Police Service press conference Monday.
The accused players were members of Canada’s 2018 World Junior Hockey Championship entry at Buffalo that captured gold with a 3-1 victory over Sweden, which is overshadowed by the alleged incident that has again placed hockey’s culture under the microscope.
Foote’s lawyer, Julianna Greenspan, responded with a statement:
“I can confirm that my client was charged with sexual assault. Cal is innocent of the charge and will defend himself to clear his name. What is most critical at this time is the presumption of innocence, and the right to a fair trial, that everyone in Canada is entitled to.”
Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford is empathetic as Adam Foote processes the charge facing his son.
“At this point, we just support him through a difficult time, but we really don’t have a comment on the bigger situation,” said Rutherford.
Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet regards Adam Foote as a close friend and coaching confidant.
“He’s standing tall — I can’t say anything more than that — and he’s fine. He’s good,” Tocchet said Jan. 24 when Cal Foote was requested to report to London police.
Former Canucks goaltender Corey Hirsch played for the Kamloops Blazers — who captured the 1992 Memorial Cup in Seattle — in the hockey-mad sporting city and was schooled in proper conduct to represent the team and the city.
Hirsch, 51, was appointed to Hockey Canada’s board of directors in November to help the troubled organization regain respect, credibility and wellness.
Hirsch was never naive to assume that 16-year-old players riding on a bus with 20-year-olds for eight or nine hours to the next Western Hockey League destination aren’t affected by what veteran players have experienced on and off the ice.
“In hockey, I always go back to this: You have 16- and 17-year-olds on a bus with 18-,19- and 20-year-olds. The older players are college students and adults and experimenting with whatever. Younger players are listening to college-age people talk about sex and life,” he said.
“It can be: This is what it takes to be a man … The things I saw on a bus. In Kamloops, we were good people. We were monitored … but I saw stuff that I shouldn’t have seen, or heard, or learned stuff that I shouldn’t have learned.
“What do 18-year-olds know about love, relationships and sex? They know nothing. And they’re teaching 16- and 17-year-olds. They’ve learned what they’ve learned and the culture passes it on. It could be a kid coming from not a great home, or whatever, and looking for something. Scott Niedermayer (former Blazer) would never be like this.
How anyone can conclude that a culture of deplorable deportment is somehow valid — as opposed to proper conduct as a valued teammate and citizen — simply stuns Hirsch. He’s struggled with mental health issues, including an acute obsessive-compulsion disorder, but this is different.
“This (alleged incident) isn’t a one-off,” stressed Hirsch. “This is junior hockey and a life-in-general thing. Have a sexual-assault victim come in and talk to these hockey kids and let them know exactly what it is, what it has done to them as a human being. That should be mandatory training.
“It’s one thing to have a psychiatrist come in and say: ‘This is what it does to people.’ Bring in a victim. Then we’ll see change.”
Continue Reading
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
News1 hour ago
Bologna prepares for Champions League debut with draw at Como while Juventus held
News1 hour ago
Liverpool ‘not good enough’ says Arne Slot after shock loss against Nottingham Forest
News1 hour ago
Cavaliers and free agent forward Isaac Okoro agree to 3-year, $38 million deal, AP source says
Media1 year ago
12 Bizarre Things People Did Just To Make Social Media Content
Sports4 years ago
AP source: Bears acquiring quarterback Nick Foles from Jaguars – Sportsnet.ca
Investment5 years ago
dynaCERT Inc. Invites You to Join Us at the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference | INN – Investing News Network
-
Sports19 hours agoKirk’s walk-off single in 11th inning lifts Blue Jays past Cardinals 4-3
-
Sports19 hours agoCanada’s Marina Stakusic falls in Guadalajara Open quarterfinals
-
News24 hours agoKamloops, B.C., man charged with murder in the death of his mother: RCMP
-
Sports19 hours agoStampeders return to Maier at QB eyeing chance to get on track against Alouettes
-
News23 hours agoKingston mayor’s call to close care hub after fatal assault ‘misguided’: legal clinic
-
News24 hours agoS&P/TSX gains almost 100 points, U.S. markets also higher ahead of rate decision
-
Sports22 hours agoWhitehead becomes 1st CHL player to verbally commit to playing NCAA hockey
-
News19 hours agoMetro Vancouver’s HandyDART strike continues after talks break with no deal
