A former Supreme Court justice recommended wholesale change at Hockey Canada a day before the embattled sports organization’s CEO and board resigned on Tuesday.
Hockey Canada released a memo from justice Thomas Cromwell on Thursday alongside his interim report reviewing the organization’s governance.
The memo, dated Monday, says “there can be no serious debate” Hockey Canada’s leadership had lost the confidence of important stakeholders and that calls for a change needed to be answered.
Cromwell recommended that Hockey Canada put in place a board and a board chair who agree to serve for only one year as a transition board. The transition board will be responsible for addressing “the many public concerns about the senior management team of the organization.”
Hockey Canada announced Tuesday that president and CEO Scott Smith had departed, and the entire board of directors resigned.The board will remain in place until a new board is elected at Hockey Canada’s annual general meeting on Dec. 17.
“I am not recommending that all of the directors immediately retire for the following reasons. The corporation would not be able to act without a board,” Cromwell wrote.
While Hockey Canada has been the target of scathing criticism around how it handled sexual assault and abuse allegations, including the revelation of a secretive National Equity Fund (NEF) to pay for uninsured liabilities, Cromwell took no issue with its existence, but was critical about how it was used.
“The establishment of reserve funds to address the risk of uninsured and underinsured claims is not only sound, but the failure to do so would be a serious oversight,” Cromwell said. “It is appropriate to use NEF funds to address potential uninsured and underinsured liabilities for Hockey Canada and/or any participant for whose benefit the reserve is maintained.”
Cromwell, however, took aim at the transparency of the NEF, saying some members criticized the absence of a publicly available policy governing the fund. And while Hockey Canada has adopted an informal procedure for dealing with under and uninsured claims, the procedure isn’t widely known to members, nor has it received former board approval.
“While Hockey Canada discloses the balance of the NEF and inter-fund transfers on its audited financial statements, members do not receive adequate information regarding these funds and their use,” Cromwell said.
Hockey Canada maintains that members can discuss and ask questions about the NEF, but discussions happened in-camera, and a review of the minutes “provide no clarity on the nature, scope and frequency of such discussions,” he said.
Cromwell said the fund suffered from a lack of transparency leaving Hockey Canada members and participants unaware of the scope of claims the NEF would fund, namely claims linked to sexual misconduct.
“Participants, whose registration fees are the primary source of funding for the NEF, have not been adequately informed about what proportions of fees go to fund under and uninsured claims,” he said.
Cromwell added he wouldn’t comment on particular cases, given that his review wasn’t an assessment of Hockey Canada’s response to a particular incident or issue.
In his memorandum, Cromwell laid out four main tasks for the transition board:
— Respond, in conjunction with Hockey Canada members, to the suite of governance changes to be released in his final report;
— Address the many public concerns about its senior management team;
— Begin to repair fractured relationships with stakeholders;
— Ensure operational stability
“I take no pleasure in delivering these recommendations,” Cromwell wrote. “Nevertheless, I do so in order to further what I see as the best interests of Hockey Canada and of the sport itself.”
Cromwell also wants the transition board to hire a “top-notch” recruiting firm.
“That firm should assist Hockey Canada with revising the skills matrix for directors and the Chair of the Board, revising the constitution and mode of appointment of the Nomination Committee and assist with populating both that committee and the Board,” he said.
Mike Bruni, who was chair of Hockey Canada’s board from 2012 to ’14, is heading up the nominating committee that will accept board member applications. Other members of the committee are Jane Hu, a former PricewaterhouseCoopers director, former Coaches Association of Ontario executive director Susan Kitchen, former Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada (SDRCC) chair Mick Ryan, senior Indigenous adviser with the Government of Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Agriculture Kallie Wood, and Anthony Wright, director of the Canadian Sport Institute Pacific and former member of Canada’s field men’s field hockey team.
Cromwell was tasked in August with undertaking a full governance review of Hockey Canada after it was revealed that the organization reached an undisclosed settlement with a woman who alleged she was sexually assaulted by eight players, including members of the country’s 2018 world junior team.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 13, 2022.
The Canadian Press
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