​Hockey Canada and Canada’s game are on trial

Five former members of Canada’s national junior hockey team last week were found not guilty of sexual assault of E.M. in a hotel room in London, Ont., but Hockey Canada and our national game remain on trial.

All of Canada is enthralled with hockey and this writer celebrates a life-long love of the game, from pond hockey as a youth, to minor hockey and college level of the sport. This obsession with hockey has caused many Canadians to mourn the fact that a Canadian NHL team has not won the Stanley Cup since 1993.

The blog column does not question the innocence of the players involved in this case. Far be it for this writer to question the verdict delivered by an experienced Superior Court Justice. Nonetheless, there are social consequences of the non-guilty verdict. There are also important implications for “hockey culture” and, very troubling lessons for the Hockey Canada organization.

The popularity of the sport in Canada has led any to the belief that our hockey heroes can do no wrong. It was a shock to learn that such NHL “stars” as Doug Harvey of the Montreal Canadiens had a problem with alcoholism, or Corey Perry, then a player with the Chicago Black Hawks, was seeking professional help due to “substance abuse.”

Hockey Canada has come under heavy public scrutiny for its use of player registration fees, paid, for or by, minor hockey players, for settling litigation cases.

As reported by the CBC, in the past year, hockey parents were outraged to learn that their registration fees were going into a reserve fund that was used to pay out millions of dollars in sexual abuse claims over the years.
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Hockey Canada has been in deep trouble since last May, when it reached a settlement with a young woman who filed a $3.5 million lawsuit alleging a sexual assault by the Junior hockey players in London.

Public knowledge of the settlement likely contributed to the difficulty for two juries in the London trial to reach a verdict. Twice the trial justice dismissed the juries and then decided to continue the trial by judge-alone.

Justice Maria Carroccia is no newcomer to the court system. The Toronto Globe and Mail has reported that Justice Carroccia worked for decades as a leading criminal-defence lawyer in Windsor, Ont., before she was appointed as an Ontario Superior Court Justice in 2020. In her five years as a judge, Justice Carroccia has overseen high-profile and complex cases, from murder to sexual assault trials.

In this case, the Crown had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that E.M., as she was known to protect her identity, did not consent when she was with the five players in a hotel room in London, Ont., in June, 2018.gistration fees to pay for $2.9 million in settlements this fiscal year — including one related to a high-profile sexual assault allegation against members Justice Carroccia found not only that the Crown didn’t prove its case but also that E.M. was an unreliable witness and furthermore that the woman did, in fact, consent.

Justice Carroccia said it was not the court’s job “to make determinations about the morality or propriety of the conduct of any of the persons involved in these events.” Her job was solely to find whether the Crown proved the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.

 As always in sexual assault cases, there is a high degree of concern that verdicts such as in the London case, will cause victims to refuse to come forward to press charges, because of the tendency of people not to believe  them, or the police and prosecutors believe they need a high bar to proceed with a prosecution.
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Hockey culture reinforces this view. One might ask, why did none of the young men celebrating their world junior championship not conclude that their presence in that hotel room was inappropriate and could hurt the woman in question, themselves and their families.  Why did they not simply leave the room?

Part of the reality about hockey and other professional sports, especially basketball and baseball, is that sport has become big business. Players command large salaries, and families of players have a vested interest in their success.

Young and successful young hockey players are viewed as heroes and their photos and posters are pinned up in arenas across the country, making clear the community sponsorships that have helped them reach the top of “Canada’s Game”.

They have been put up on pedestals and given the feeling that they can do no wrong. In a few cases this has led to abuse, bringing down the players’ futures and the reputation of the sport they love and play so well.

Continued allowance of fighting in the professional game has been defended and supported by Gary Bettman, who has been commissioner of the NHL since 1993. Fighting has led to prominence and acclaim for “meat head” players enjoying the game for all the wrong reasons.
Bettman has overseen the massive expansion of the league from the original six teams to thirty-two today, twenty-five in the United States and seven in Canada. There is discussion about future expansion, with potential to grow to thirty-four teams.

Hockey fans in Canada and the United States can often be heard saying they like to see the players “drop their gloves” and “go at it” in a fight. Hockey is a rough sport and many fans like that.

But it is also a very fast, high quality sport, as anyone who has seen Connor McDavid play will attest.
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The best of hockey is very much worth keeping.  Yet, so-called “hockey culture” lives on and Hockey Canada is still on trial.