Content warning: violence, sexual assault
In a case that has now dragged on for close to six years, one former and four current NHL hockey players have been formally charged with sexual assault in connection to a crime perpetrated by members of Canada’s 2018 World Junior team.
On Jan. 24th, five unnamed players were told to surrender to the London, Ontario Police Department to face charges. Former Ottawa Senator Alex Formenton was the first player to volunteer himself to the police on Jan. 28th and was followed by the four current NHL players—Dillon Dube, Michael McLeod, Carter Hart and Cal Foote—two days later on Jan. 30th.
The allegations against the five players first came to light in May 2022 when it was reported that Hockey Canada had settled a lawsuit launched by a woman known only as “E.M” who stated she had been assaulted by eight men, some of whom were, at the time, on Canada’s 2018 World Junior Team. In July of 2022, the London Police Department, which had previously closed its investigation into E.M’s allegations in 2019, reopened its investigation.
Hockey Canada resultingly found itself in a media firestorm, leading to revelations that the national sports body had faced charges of this nature before in separate cases. It was also uncovered that they maintained a “slush fund” funded through minor hockey registration fees. This “slush fund” was used to pay out sexual assault lawsuits against member players. Subsequently, Hockey Canada’s Board, Chair and CEO all stepped down and had their national funding suspended, though this was reinstated on Apr. 16th, 2023.
On Feb. 5th of this year, after lawyers for all the accused had to appear in court, London Police Chief Thai Truong hosted a press conference to offer an apology for his department taking almost six years to levy charges against the accused. However, many felt that Truong’s statement was severely lacking. Truong offered little explanation why the initial investigation was concluded in 2019 without any charges laid. Truong also tried to say that the “sexualization” of women in society contributed to these crimes, further deflecting blame by saying that there is a “widespread prevalence of violence against women” in society.
A spokesperson for the Office of Independent Police Review, the watchdog for Ontario police services, told TSN’s Rick Westhead that they would decline to comment on whether the London Police will be investigated for its handling of the 2019 investigation.
There seems to be a lot of deflection and avoidance across the hockey sphere regarding this investigation.
Cale Makar, star player for the Colorado Avalanche and member of the 2018 World Juniors team had this to say about the charges: “It was a very fortunate bounce to not obviously be a part of something like that. I’m just going to leave it to the people who are handling the work right now. I can’t stress enough that I wasn’t part of that.” (My emphasis)
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman was also pressed for comment on the charges laid against the five current and former NHL players.
“99.9 per cent of players, certainly in our league, conduct themselves appropriately,” said Bettman. “To take a handful of players in this or in other situations and use those allegations and condemn a particular sport, I don’t think is reflective of what we are.”
Bettman’s comments are certainly an interesting position to take, especially considering other incidents that have come to light just in the last two weeks.
On Feb. 2nd, though he was found not guilty, former NHLer Mike Ribeiro faced two charges of sexual assault in Texas. However, as the jury deadlocked on a count of attempted sexual assault, it’s possible that the Canadian who played 1074 games in the NHL could be retried on this charge.
On Feb. 7th, Oshawa General’s forward Connor Lockhart—who was also drafted two years ago by the Vancouver Canucks—was suspended indefinitely due to a Durham Regional Police investigation against him.
Two days later on Feb. 9th, former QMJHL player Noah Corson was found guilty of sexually assaulting an underage girl while he was playing for the Drummondville Voltigeurs. Two other junior hockey players, one of them Corson’s teammate in Drummondville, had previously pleaded guilty to playing a role in the assault.
There is something deeply diseased in the sport of hockey and how this case unfolds, and how the NHL and other major hockey leagues respond, may very well dictate how—or if—the sport moves forward.
The five accused hockey players are set to appear in court on Apr. 30th, 2024.
