Hockey Canada is at the centre of a devastating sexual assault scandal that has shaken Canadian trust in the sport and its institutions.
The sports organization settled a lawsuit with a woman who says she was sexually assaulted by eight players from the Canadian Hockey League in London, Ont., in 2018 — and several other allegations of group sexual assaults by Canadian hockey players have surfaced.
In July, Hockey Canada’s executives revealed that the organization has paid $8.9 million in settlements to 21 sexual assault complainants since 1989, using a slush fund comprising membership fees from young players across Canada.
The fallout has been extraordinary. On Saturday, Hockey Canada interim board chair Andrea Skinner submitted her resignation, CBC News confirmed.
As the country’s national self-governing body for amateur hockey, Hockey Canada is responsible for managing and expanding hockey programs across the country at all playing levels — from the local grassroots all the way to the World Championships and Olympics.
“I think this is a pivotal point in Canadian history,” Laura Robinson, a sports journalist and the author of Crossing the Line: Violence and Sexual Assault in Canada’s National Sport, told CBC News on Friday.
But what does that really mean? CBC News explains the organization’s role in the Canadian hockey landscape.
What is Hockey Canada?
Hockey Canada has a range of goals and responsibilities, according to its bylaws and regulations.
For one, it establishes a set of playing rules for amateur hockey games across the country, so that every game and practice under its umbrella is played at the same standard. It promotes the sport around Canada and arranges for national teams to play in international tournaments.
It also provides training to hockey players, coaches and referees, and raises money and redistributes those funds to local hockey clubs and member associations, among other things.
WATCH | Laura Robinson explains Hockey Canada’s role in the sport:
What is Hockey Canada’s role in the sport?
13 hours ago
Duration 7:52
Laura Robinson, a sports journalist who wrote a book about hazing and sexual assault in Canadian junior hockey, discusses the role Hockey Canada plays in the sport across the country amid ongoing controversy involving the organization.
But it also represents Canada in the wider hockey world as a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation, a worldwide governing body that develops and organizes the sport of ice hockey around the globe.
The Canadian organization has existed in various forms and under different names for 108 years.
“Before Hockey Canada, there was the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association [CAHA] and the Canadian Hockey Association. But in those days you couldn’t have a professional player play in an amateur association,” Robinson said.
In 1998, Hockey Canada — as we know it today — was formed after a merger with the CAHA.
Who are its members?
Two players wearing Canadian Hockey League jerseys are pictured. Many of Hockey Canada’s 13 branch members are now distancing themselves from the organization as its mishandling of sexual abuse claims comes to light. (Peter Power/The Canadian Press)
Hockey Canada has 13 member branches, each of which represent a province or region in Canada, with some exceptions. Ontario is represented by three different branches, for example, while Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and Yukon are represented by Hockey North.
All of these member organizations must conform to certain rules and regulations decided by Hockey Canada — it’s a condition they agree to in order to join the club, according to the constitution’s bylaws.
Many of these branch members are now distancing themselves from Hockey Canada, as the organization’s mishandling of sexual abuse claims comes to light.
There are also 12 partner organizations that have a significant stake in the game of hockey in Canada, such as the National Hockey League; U Sports, which oversees university-level sports in Canada; and the Canadian Hockey League, of which the players involved in the alleged 2018 group sexual assault were members.
Money from Hockey Canada’s National Equity Fund was used to pay settlements to some of the alleged victims.
What does that mean for players?
If you compete in a sport at the local level, “you have to belong to your provincial body, which belongs to the national body,” Robinson told CBC News.
“If an athlete has a dream to go to the World [Championships] or the Olympics, they have to belong to that national organization. And in this case, it’s Hockey Canada.”
Local players in Canada who belong to a team or league affiliated with a provincial organization have access to Hockey Canada’s National Insurance Program.
According to Hockey Saskatchewan’s website, the 13 member organizations are “specifically named as an insured, and all sub-associations, leagues and teams which form a part of Hockey Canada.”
So if a player is injured while participating in a game or a practice sanctioned by Hockey Canada, they are covered by insurance. That’s why some of the 13 member groups are withholding $3 membership fees (which go toward what Hockey Canada says are operational costs) but are continuing to pay insurance fees.
How is Hockey Canada’s board of directors elected?
Andrea Skinner, interim chair of Hockey Canada’s board of directors until she submitted her resignation on Saturday, defended the organization during an appearance before the House of Commons heritage committee on Tuesday. (Courtesy airdberlis.com)
Hockey Canada’s board of directors is made up of volunteers nominated and elected by their peers in the provincial member organizations. The current directors are from Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Prince Edward Island.
Skinner — who made a controversial appearance during a meeting of the House of Commons heritage committee on Tuesday, when she defended the organization — was filling in as interim chair of the board after former chair Michael Brind’amour stepped down in August.
Where does Hockey Canada get its funding from?
Until recently, Hockey Canada received funding from the federal government; through membership fees and provincial grants; and from grassroots fundraising and sponsorships.
Much of that is now up in the air, with major sponsors such as Tim Hortons, Canadian Tire and Nike cutting ties with Hockey Canada.
In June, federal Minister of Sport Pascale St-Onge froze Hockey Canada’s funding from the federal government. The organization received a total of $14 million from Ottawa in 2020 and 2021.
But at the grassroots level, people have bake sales and bottle drives to fund amateur sport in Canada. “Hockey, on the ground floor, it’s volunteers,” Robinson said.
“That’s something Hockey Canada really has to address, in my mind: Have they taken advantage of these volunteers?”
VANCOUVER – A B.C. Supreme Court judge says it has jurisdiction to order the disposal of thousands of pieces of evidence seized from serial killer Robert Pickton’s pig farm decades ago, whether it was used in his murder trial or not.
A ruling issued online Wednesday said the RCMP can apply to dispose of some 15,000 pieces of evidence collected from the search of Pickton’s property in Port Coquitlam, including “items determined to belong to victims.”
Police asked the court for directions last year to be allowed to dispose of the mountain of evidence gathered in the case against Pickton, who was convicted of the second-degree murder of six women, although he was originally charged with first-degree murder of 27 women.
Pickton died in May after being attacked in a Quebec prison.
Some family members of victims disputed the disposal because they have a pending civil lawsuit against Pickton’s estate and his brother, David Pickton, Yand want to ensure that the evidence they need to prove their case is not dispersed or destroyed.
The court dismissed their bid to intervene in July this year, and the court has now ruled it has the authority to order the disposal of the evidence whether it was used at Pickton’s trial or not.
The ruling says police plan to “bring a series of applications” for court orders allowing them to get rid of the evidence because they are “legally obligated to dispose of the property” since it’s no longer needed in any investigation or criminal proceeding.
Justice Frits Verhoeven says in his ruling that there may be reason to doubt if the court has jurisdiction over items seized from the farm that had not be made exhibits.
But he said that will be a decision for later, noting “the question as to whether the court retains inherent jurisdiction to order disposal of seized items may remain to be considered, if necessary, in some other case.”
Jason Gratl, the lawyer representing family members of victims in the civil cases against the Pickton brothers, said in an interview Wednesday that the latest court decision doesn’t mean exhibits will be destroyed.
“Any concern about the destruction of the evidence is premature. Just because the court will hear the application to allow the RCMP to destroy the evidence does not mean that the court would grant the application,” he said.
Gratl said that if the RCMP brings an application to get rid of evidence that could be useful in proving the civil cases, he would ask the court for the evidence.
“We would be seeking to take possession of any evidence that the RCMP no longer wants in order to prove that civil claim,” he said.
Gratl said no date has been set for when the civil cases will be heard.
The court’s earlier ruling says the RCMP has agreed to allow some of the civil case plaintiffs “limited participation” in the disposal application process, agreeing to notify them if police identify an “ownership or property interest in the items” that they’re applying to destroy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
Supporters of Vice-President Kamala Harris say they are devastated the Democratic party leader lost the United States presidential election. Harris was set to address Democrats at her alma mater Howard University in Washington, D.C. after conceding the race in a phone call with Donald Trump. (Nov. 6, 2024)
DETROIT (AP) — Democratic U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin has won Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat, giving Democrats a bittersweet victory in a swing state that also backed Republican President-elect Donald Trump in his successful bid to return to the White House.
Slotkin, a third-term representative, defeated former Republican congressman Mike Rogers. Democrats have held both Senate seats in Michigan for decades, but this year were left without retiring incumbent Sen. Debbie Stabenow.
Michigan’s was among a handful of Senate races Democrats struggled to defend. They lost their U.S. Senate majority despite Slotkin’s narrow win.
The race was incredibly close. Just minutes before it was called for Slotkin, she addressed supporters in Detroit, acknowledging that many voters may have cast their ballots for her while also supporting Trump, who won the state’s electoral votes over Democrat Kamala Harris.
“It’s my responsibility to get things done for Michiganders. No matter who’s in office, just as I did in President Trump’s first term,” said Slotkin. “I’m a problem solver and I will work with anyone who is actually here to work.”
Slotkin’s win provides some solace for Democrats in the state, many of whom entered Election Day with high confidence following sweeping victories in the 2022 midterms. Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer still controls the executive branch and Democrats held onto the Senate, but their state House majority was in peril.
And Republicans also captured a mid-Michigan seat vacated by Slotkin, considered one of the most competitive races in the country.
Slotkin, a former CIA analyst and third-term representative, launched her Senate campaign shortly after Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow announced her retirement in early 2023. With a largely uncontested primary, Slotkin built a significant fundraising advantage and poured it into advertising. Her high-profile supporters included former President Barack Obama and Stabenow, who helped her on the campaign trail.
On the Republican side, Rogers faced multiple challengers for the party’s nomination, including former Reps. Justin Amash and Peter Meijer, the latter of whom withdrew before the Aug. 6 primary. Rogers served in the U.S. House from 2001 to 2015 and chaired the House Intelligence Committee.
Trump won Michigan in 2016 by just over 10,000 votes, marking the first time a Republican presidential candidate had secured the state in nearly three decades. This time, he expanded that margin to about 80,000 votes.
Slotkin and other Michigan Democrats focused much of their campaigns on reproductive rights, arguing that Republican opponents would back a national abortion ban, although Rogers said he wouldn’t. How effectively the issue motivated voting in a state where reproductive rights were enshrined in the constitution by Michigan voters in 2022 remained to be seen on Election Day.
About 4 in 10 Michigan voters said the economy and jobs is the top issue facing the country, according to AP VoteCast, a sweeping survey of more than 110,000 voters nationally, including about 3,700 voters in Michigan. About 2 in 10 Michigan voters said immigration is the most pressing issue, and roughly 1 in 10 named abortion.
Slotkin used her funding advantage to establish her narrative early, aiming to connect both with her base and disillusioned Republicans.
“For the Republicans who feel like their party has left them over the last few years, you will always have an open door in my office,” Slotkin said during their only debate.
