Panel to review third-party report into Hockey Canada affair

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A third-party investigation commissioned by Hockey Canada into an alleged group sexual assault by members of the 2018 national junior team is now complete, and a report has been forwarded to an adjudication panel to determine the next steps, the organization’s new chairman said.

The panel, comprised of two retired judges and a senior lawyer, will determine what sanctions, if any, will be imposed, Hockey Canada chairman Hugh Fraser said in a statement Tuesday.

Hockey Canada’s third-party investigation is one of several being conducted into the alleged sexual assault, which came to light this spring after the organization settled a $3.55-million lawsuit, for an undisclosed sum, from a young woman known only as E.M. in court documents.

The organization restarted the investigation after it was criticized in Ottawa for failing to properly investigate the allegations in 2018. Police in London, Ont., have since reopened their case, and the National Hockey League is also conducting its own probe.

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Mr. Fraser, a retired Ontario Court judge and Olympian who specializes in sport law, was named chairman over the weekend, when Hockey Canada’s provincial members elected a slate of new directors. The previous board stepped down amid heavy criticism over their handling of the 2018 incident.

On Sunday, The Globe and Mail was first to report that police have reasonable grounds to believe five members of the 2018 team sexually assaulted a woman in a London hotel room, after a Hockey Canada fundraising gala that summer.

The Globe obtained a 94-page court document from the Crown that gives insight into the police investigation. The filing, dated Oct. 17, provides new details about what police say they’ve learned, and includes summaries of interviews with E.M. and several players, whose names are also not disclosed.

“I was disturbed to read the firsthand accounts of the 2018 incident in London, Ont., reported in media over the weekend, and on behalf of the newly elected Hockey Canada Board of Directors, I wish to reassure Canadians that Hockey Canada is committed to pursuing its investigation and to collaborating fully with the London Police Service,” Mr. Fraser said.

In the filing, police say E.M. met the players while she was at a London bar. The players were accompanied by a well-dressed “older gentleman” who bought rounds of drinks for the group and poured a shot of alcohol into her mouth, the file alleges. The man, listed as M.M., praised the player she was dancing with, and told E.M. to “take care of him.”

The woman later accompanied the player, known as Player 1 in the documents, to a hotel room where the two engaged in consensual sex. However, she alleges several other players came into the room afterward and sexually assaulted her while she was intoxicated. E.M. alleges she felt she was unable to leave the room. None of the allegations have been tested in court.

The new filing reveals the existence of a group text-message chat between players in which Player 1 is alleged to have invited his teammates to the room for sex with the woman without her knowing. The documents also say someone at Hockey Canada gave Player 1 a heads-up the following morning that the woman’s mother had called police about the incident.

After learning the police had been called, Player 1 then reached out to the woman on Instagram and later on text, urging her to make the complaint go away.

After The Globe’s report, MPs on a parliamentary committee investigating Hockey Canada’s handling of the alleged sexual assault, say they are concerned about testimony its top officials gave this summer under oath at hearings in Ottawa.

The committee, which has warned Hockey Canada numerous times about obfuscating and refusing to provide sufficient answers at hearings, plans to examine whether the new details about Player 1 being told about the police complaint are a sign the organization gave false testimony under oath. In June, former Hockey Canada president Tom Renney and its then-CEO Scott Smith both told the hearing the organization did not know the identities of players involved in the alleged sexual assault.

MPs question how Hockey Canada could not have known any identities if they were able to give a player a “heads-up” as the documents state.

“We will definitely be looking into this,” NDP MP Peter Julian said. “What the conclusions will be, I can’t say at this point.”

In its first statement to The Globe since the newspaper reported on Sunday the details of the court filing, Hockey Canada said that on the morning after the alleged assault, upon the advice of a “third-party investigator … players assigned to the room in which the alleged incident occurred, as well as their parents, were formally notified that the matter had been reported to London Police Service.”

The statement went on to say, “Subsequently, all players who attended the Gala were notified a third-party investigation would be taking place, and they were strongly encouraged to participate.”

Conservative MP Kevin Waugh told The Globe this week Hockey Canada’s previous statements at the June hearing are a problem.

“Who is it at Hockey Canada that gave this player the heads-up that police had been contacted about the events of the night?” Mr. Waugh said. “Because Hockey Canada claims they knew nobody, none of the players. At committee, they came out and said, ‘We don’t know who’s involved here.’”

Mr. Julian said it will be addressed at the parliamentary committee’s next meeting. “We’re going to look at what has been released, re-examine the evidence that was given and then make decisions on that basis,” he said. “We would have to get the legal clerks with the House of Commons involved. So I think it’s too early to say, but we would be getting the best advice from the law clerk in the House of Commons and acting accordingly.”

In its statement Tuesday, Hockey Canada also addressed an allegation made in the police filing that it received a photo of Player 1 after the alleged assault.

“Hockey Canada is not a named party in the court proceedings, and as such, cannot speak to the accuracy of its contents. With that said, Hockey Canada has no record of receiving a photo of Player 1,” said Jeremy Knight, a spokesperson for Hockey Canada.

He added that Hockey Canada is confident that M.M., the well-dressed “older gentleman” said to have been partying with the players in the hours prior to the alleged group sexual assault, has never been an employee of Hockey Canada.

London police filed the court application in October of this year after reopening the case this summer. Officers were seeking judicial approval of additional investigative measures, including warrants and production orders.

Hockey Canada hired law firm Henein Hutchison LLP to conduct its third-party investigation. Mr. Fraser said the results of the investigation and the adjudication process are being kept confidential to not interfere with the probe by London police.

“While acknowledging that it cannot change what happened in the past, the Hockey Canada Board of Directors wishes to emphasize our commitment to being transparent, addressing what happened in 2018, and to bringing about positive change within our organization to the benefit of all Canadians,” Mr. Fraser said.

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