Daniel Carcillo in Chicago, July 25, 2018.WHITTEN SABBATINI/The New York Times News Service
This story contains graphic content.
During nine seasons in the NHL, Daniel Carcillo racked up more than 1,200 penalty minutes, nine suspensions, and about 100 fights. After retiring, he led a battle against the league over its handling of concussions and players who suffered brain trauma. But the fight he’s in now may be the most consequential yet, as he seeks to hold major-junior hockey in Canada accountable for enabling a widespread hazing culture of assault and abuse, which an Ontario Superior Court judge characterized as an “evil that has persisted for half a century.”
In a decision released earlier this month, Justice Paul Perell declined to certify a class-action lawsuit filed in 2020 by Carcillo and two co-plaintiffs against the Canadian Hockey League, the three leagues it comprises (the WHL, OHL, and QMJHL) and their 60 teams, writing that the plaintiffs “have not produced a workable litigation plan because it is not conceivable that such a plan could be fashioned to deal in one class action” with the sprawling suit.
But the judge left the door open for the case to proceed, directing the plaintiffs’ lawyers to return within 120 days with an alternate plan.
And he acknowledged that the evidence he read, including sworn statements from a series of unidentified players who alleged they suffered horrific abuse as young as 15, “establishes that some unknown number of … players … were tortured, forcibly confined, shaved, stripped, drugged, intoxicated, physically and sexually assaulted; raped, gang raped, forced to physically and sexually assault other teammates.”
He added that the players were, “compelled to sexually assault and gang rape young women invited to team parties, forced to eat or drink urine, saliva, semen, feces, or other noxious substances; forced to perform acts of self-injury, forced to perform acts of bestiality.”
And he blasted the defendants’ insistence that the culture has changed, pointing to an independent report commissioned by the CHL in 2020, after Carcillo filed his suit, that found at least 12 per cent of players then active in the league who participated in a survey had personally experienced bullying or harassment.
The judge, who was born in 1947 and grew up in Hamilton, seemed to take the case personally: His decision was leavened with references to Stompin’ Tom Connors’s The Hockey Song and his own childhood memories of cheering for the Hamilton Red Wings in the 1962 Memorial Cup and attending his first NHL game at Maple Leaf Gardens, in which the Leafs took on “Les Habs and Rocket Richard.”
Last Sunday night, Carcillo, who won the Stanley Cup twice with the Chicago Blackhawks, spoke about the suit on Radio-Canada’s Tous le monde en parle in advance of a Quebec National Assembly committee beginning hearings into the matter on Wednesday.
QMJHL commissioner Gilles Corteau told the committee that the league would introduce a locker-room code to promote the reporting of abuse. “There is a moment when the locker-room door closes. From now on, the QMJHL wants to install a window.”
CHL president Dan MacKenzie told the commission the events that had come to light “happened decades ago and there have been significant improvements in the last 20 years.” He added that CHL players would undergo mandatory respect training. “We think this is a very important step in educating our players.”
In an interview with The Globe and Mail on Thursday, Carcillo, who played for the OHL’s Sarnia Sting and Mississauga IceDogs, said that he doesn’t believe the leagues can reform themselves. “How can we trust these people? They’ve known about this for decades, and it’s in everybody’s best interest in the Canadian Hockey League to not have these stories come out,” he said, noting that CHL teams receive compensation when one of their players makes it to the NHL, creating a disincentive for them to act against a promising prospect who might be the subject of a complaint.
Instead, he said, “you need to put people in places of power that have been through this abuse. So they know intimately,” what they need to look out for and how to tackle the culture of silence.
Carcillo, 38, first spoke about his own hazing experiences in late 2018, when he says reading accounts of the sexual assault at St. Michael’s College in Toronto spurred him to remember his traumatic hazing experiences, which he’d buried. Other players sent him notes about their own experiences, which eventually coalesced into the lawsuit.
The action, the judge wrote, came at “great personal cost” for Carcillo and his co-plaintiffs, Garrett Taylor, who played for the WHL’s Lethbridge Hurricanes and Prince Albert Raiders, and Stephen Quirk, who played for the QMJHL’s Moncton Wildcats and the Halifax Mooseheads.
“The hockey community has closed its door on me – but that was kind of a mutual decision, because as soon as you do something like this, you know that you’re going to become a martyr. So I was okay with that,” said Carcillo, who retired when he was 30. “I’ve lost best friends. I’ve lost money, I’ve lost opportunities. I’ve lost a lot, but I’ve also gained a lot. I’ve gained who I am as a person, right? I feel sorry for a lot of people that stay in hockey for their whole life, because I don’t think they ever really understand who they are away from the game.”
Carcillo says that he’s not pursuing the suit for money. “I don’t need money. And in fact if there’s ever any money that comes my way, it will get donated,” he said. “But a lot of the guys that got sexually abused that didn’t make it to the NHL, specifically because of this type of trauma that dictated how they live their lives – they need compensation to go and get therapy.”
Still, he says that he’s not trying to fix the institutions that oversee hockey. “I really don’t care about the game. I just care about trying to protect people. And I’m really passionate about holding people accountable. Some of the guys that abused some of [the former players who submitted sworn statements], they’re general managers of NHL teams. They need to be removed. They’re coaches. They need to be held accountable in the public eye.”
“I held myself accountable. I’m not an angel. I did things that I regret and I apologized for, to everybody, in the public eye. I feel like these guys need to do the same, and they need to get rehabilitated, and then maybe they’re allowed to come back. It’s not about cancel culture, but these guys need to be outed, for sure.”
The same pugilistic spirit that animated so much of his on-ice play still fuels him today. “That’s how I am as a person. And so, I will not stop. I’m a young man, and if I have to do this for the next 20 years, I will. I’ll try my best to help all of the victims involved have their stories heard.
“So yeah, the fight continues. But I’m okay with that.”
DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit Red Wings signed forward Lucas Raymond to an eight-year, $64.6 million contract Monday, completing a deal with one of their best young players less than 72 hours before training camp begins.
Raymond will count $8.075 million against the salary cap through 2032. The 22-year-old was a restricted free agent without a contract for the upcoming NHL season and was coming off setting career highs with 31 goals, 41 assists and 72 points.
The Red Wings have another one of those in defenceman Moritz Seider, who won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year in 2021-22.
Detroit is looking to end an eight-year playoff drought dating to the Original Six franchise’s last appearance in 2016.
Raymond, a Swede who was the fourth pick in 2020, has 174 points in 238 games since breaking into the league.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Kirk Cousins led a flawless last-minute drive for Atlanta and connected with Drake London for a 7-yard touchdown with 34 seconds left to give the Falcons a 22-21 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night.
Saquon Barkley dropped a short pass that stopped the clock with 1:46 left and forced the Eagles to settle for a field goal instead of a game-sealing first down. That was plenty of time for Cousins — especially against an Eagles defense playing soft coverage with a nonexistent pass rush.
The 36-year-old veteran, playing his second game since tearing his Achilles tendon last Oct. 29 while playing for Minnesota, shook off an uneven effort and hit Darnell Mooney for 21 and 26 yards on consecutive plays during the decisive drive.
Cousins found London on a short pass to his right for the tying score, and Younghoe Koo put Atlanta (1-1) on top with a 48-yard extra point after London was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct. The go-ahead drive took just 65 seconds.
Jalen Hurts had his final pass intercepted by Jessie Bates III to seal Atlanta’s win and set off a wild celebration on the sideline.
The Eagles (1-1) went ahead on Hurts’ 1-yard tush push score with 6:47 left. Barkley finished with 95 yards on 22 carries in his home debut for Philadelphia, but his drop provided the Falcons with some hope.
And then Cousins started playing like the QB Atlanta thought it was getting when it signed him to a four-year, $180 million contract.
Cousins finished 20 of 29 for 241 yards and two touchdowns. Atlanta’s first TD was a 41-yarder from Cousins to Mooney, who finished with three catches for 88 yards.
Hurts was 23 of 30 for 183 yards, including a touchdown pass to DeVonta Smith. With No. 1 receiver A.J. Brown out with a hamstring injury, Smith led the Eagles with seven catches for 76 yards and a score.
Jake Elliott kicked two field goals for the Eagles. His 28-yarder with 1:39 left made it 21-15.
Atlanta kept stalling in the red zone, getting three field goals from Koo, before Cousins fired over the middle to Mooney, who shook loose from C.J. Gardner-Johnson and left him on the turf before he somersaulted into the end zone with 1:21 left in the third quarter for a 15-10 lead. Cousins failed on the 2-point conversion pass.
Hurts had some juice in his step during a second-quarter TD drive, running with abandon for big plays much like he did in the 2022 season. He spiked the ball in a rare, raw show of emotion on a 23-yard run, earning a delay-of-game penalty. He shrugged off the 5-yard setback and scrambled for 9 yards and 15 yards to move the Eagles to Atlanta’s 19.
With comedian Shane Gillis and actor Bradley Cooper among the fans cheering on the Eagles, Hurts connected with Smith in the back of the end zone for a 7-yard TD that made it 7-3.
Under new defensive coordinator Vince Fangio, the Eagles have established an early knack for allowing long drives that end with three points instead of seven. Koo kicked field goals of 39, 22 and 34 yards, the last one enough for a 9-7 lead in the third quarter. In their opener, the Eagles held the Packers to just three field goals when they drove inside the 20.
Questionable call
Rather than take a chip-shot field goal from Elliott, the Eagles’ fourth-and-4 gamble at Atlanta’s 9-yard line in the first quarter failed when Hurts threw an incomplete pass.
Elliott kicked a 29-yarder with 4:31 left in the third quarter for a 10-9 lead.
Running wild
Bijan Robinson ran for 97 yards for the Falcons. The Eagles stuffed him late on fourth-and-1 at the Atlanta 39.
Barkley was quiet until the go-ahead drive, a week after he rushed for 109 yards and scored three touchdowns against Green Bay. Eagles fans booed when the opening drive of the game ended without Barkley touching the ball. They went wild when he had consecutive 9-yard runs to open the second drive. Barkley had 40 yards rushing in the first half.
Foles honored
Former Eagles QB Nick Foles, who led the franchise to its only Super Bowl title, served as an honorary captain and led the crowd in a rendition of “Fly, Eagles, Fly.”
Injuries
The Falcons played without LB Nate Landman (calf, quad).
Up next
Atlanta hosts Super Bowl champion Kansas City on Sunday.
TORONTO – Singles star Leylah Fernandez and doubles specialist Gabriela Dabrowski will anchor Canada’s five-player lineup when the team tries to defend its Billie Jean King Cup title in mid-November.
The 26th-ranked Fernandez, the 2021 U.S. Open finalist from Laval, Que., is the lone Canadian in the top 100 of the WTA Tour’s singles rankings.
Dabrowski, from Ottawa, is ranked fourth on the doubles list. The 2023 U.S. Open women’s doubles champion won mixed doubles bronze with Felix Auger-Aliassime at the recent Paris Olympics.
Marina Stakusic of Mississauga, Ont., returns after a breakout performance last year, capped by her singles win in Canada’s 2-0 victory over Italy in the final. Vancouver’s Rebecca Marino is also back and Bianca Andreescu, the 2019 U.S. Open champion from Mississauga, Ont., returns to the squad for the first time since 2022.
“Winning the Billie Jean King Cup in 2023 was a dream come true for us, and not only that, but I feel like we made a statement to the world about the strength of this nation when it comes to tennis,” Canada captain Heidi El Tabakh said Monday in a release. “Once again, we have a very strong team this year with Bianca joining Leylah, Gaby, Rebecca and Marina, making it an extremely powerful team that is more than capable of going all the way.
“At the end of the day, our goal is to make Canada proud, and we’ll do our best to bring the same level of effort and excitement that we had in last year’s finals.”
Fernandez, who beat Jasmine Paolini to clinch Canada’s first-ever title at the competition, is ranked No. 42 in doubles.
Canada, which received an automatic berth as defending champion, will play the winner of the first-round tie between Great Britain and Germany on Nov. 17 at Malaga’s Martin Carpena Arena.
Australia, Italy and wild-card entry Czechia also received first-round byes. The tournament, which continues through Nov. 20, also includes host Spain, Slovakia, the United States, Poland, Japan and Romania.
Stakusic is up 27 spots to No. 128 in the latest world singles rankings. Marino is at No. 134 and Andreescu, the 2019 U.S. Open champion, is ranked 167th.
Canada will look to become the first team since Czechia in 2016 to successfully defend its Billie Jean King Cup title.
Malaga will also host the Nov. 19-24 Davis Cup Final 8. The Canadian men qualified over the weekend with a 2-1 victory over Great Britain in Manchester.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
