The NHL hired Camille Olson, a partner at Seyfarth Shaw LLP in Chicago, to investigate claims that members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team had sexually assaulted a woman.CHUCK BIGGER/Supplied
The National Hockey League tapped a prominent American labour and employment lawyer, who has been recognized as one of the U.S.’s “trailblazers” in crisis management, to lead its investigation into the sexual assault allegations embroiling Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team – a probe that has remained shrouded in secrecy since its launch more than a year and a half ago.
The league hired Camille Olson, a partner at Seyfarth Shaw LLP in Chicago, in summer 2022 to investigate claims that members of the team had sexually assaulted a woman, identified in court documents as E.M., in a London, Ont. hotel in June, 2018. This week, five of the team’s players – Michael McLeod, Dillon Dubé, Carter Hart, Cal Foote and Alex Formenton – were charged with sexual assault in connection with the alleged incident.
The five men have denied wrongdoing. All but Mr. Formenton, a former Ottawa Senators player who is now with a Swiss team, play for the NHL. Although they hadn’t started their NHL careers at the time of the alleged attack, they had all been drafted by teams in the league.
Ms. Olson is a seasoned workplace investigator and litigator, known for handling sensitive cases that involve large corporations and high-profile executives. Seyfarth’s website touts her as an “invaluable advisor and crisis manager,” with extensive experience handling files that involve allegations of misconduct, systemic violations of regulatory or company policies, and harassment cases, among other things.
Neither Ms. Olson nor the NHL responded to requests for comment, but three sources with knowledge of the probe confirmed her role. The Globe and Mail is not identifying the sources because they were not authorized to speak about the inner workings of the review.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, who is scheduled to speak to reporters on Friday at the NHL All-Star Weekend in Toronto, has said for more than a year that the investigation is nearly finished. He has so far not addressed the criminal charges publicly.
Since the NHL announced its investigation in June, 2022, the league has closely guarded any information about the probe, including the scope of what is under review, Ms. Olson’s involvement and the status of the investigation itself. But through interviews with the three sources, as well as two others with knowledge of the investigation who also can’t be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly, The Globe has learned some of the details.
One of the first times Mr. Bettman addressed the scandal was at a news conference on June 15, 2022. He told reporters the league had only recently become aware of the sexual assault allegations. He said the NHL had been notified after the complainant, E.M., filed a lawsuit that April against Hockey Canada, the Canadian Hockey League and eight unnamed players. The case became public a month later when TSN revealed that Hockey Canada had settled the $3.55-million lawsuit for an undisclosed sum.
At the June news conference, Mr. Bettman told reporters that he assumed the league would release the results of the internal probe, “unless the only access we have to certain information would prohibit us from doing that.”
“But in the ordinary course we try to be transparent,” he said.
The commissioner spoke again about the investigation in early July, 2022. He said the NHL’s Jared Maples was leading the probe. Mr. Maples is the NHL’s senior executive vice-president and chief security officer. Prior to that, he served as the director of the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness.
But soon after, the NHL shifted tactics. Later that summer, Ms. Olson began contacting people on the team and telling them she was conducting the NHL investigation. One source described Ms. Olson as “the best of the best” in workplace investigations. She has frequently testified before the U.S. Congress and other federal agencies, and in 2021 was named one of the United States’ “trailblazers” of crisis leadership by the National Law Journal.
Over the ensuing months, according to the sources, Ms. Olson made contact with E.M. and all 22 members of the junior team. The players were interviewed mostly in person, although a handful had to be spoken to remotely.
The meetings were co-ordinated through the National Hockey League Players’ Association, the labour union representing NHL players. An association representative and criminal lawyers attended the interviews, which took place in various cities and extended into 2023.
The association was also involved in crafting the terms of reference for Ms. Olson’s investigation, two sources told The Globe. The union would not answer questions about what input it had in shaping the NHL probe’s scope.
Janice Rubin, an employment lawyer and one of Canada’s most respected workplace investigators, said this is not unusual. Ms. Rubin, who has no involvement in the NHL’s review, was the third-party investigator who handled the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s probe after the dismissal of host Jian Ghomeshi. Speaking generally about these matters, she said unions are frequently involved in crafting the terms of investigations into allegations of workplace misconduct.
“Given the high stakes involved, plus the complexity of multiple investigations going on at the same time, I would have been surprised not to see the association’s lawyer involved in the terms of the review,” she said of the fact that, in addition to the NHL probe, Hockey Canada had its own third-party review and London police had reopened their criminal investigation.
She said she suspects the union would have asked for protections to be put in place that would ensure the players could provide evidence that remained consistent across all of the various investigations. For example, the union may have asked that the investigator provide questions in advance. The association likely negotiated terms related to the players’ ability to continue with their teams during the investigation.
“It is not uncommon for people who are the subjects to an investigation to be on a leave from active work until the investigation is over. There might have been an agreement about where and when the players were interviewed: in person, over Teams, not during playoffs, et cetera,” she said.
Paul Cavalluzzo, another prominent employment and labour lawyer in Toronto, represented the players’ association during the NHL’s probe. Mr. Cavalluzzo did not respond to requests for comment.
Parts of the third-party probe were mandated by the collective bargaining agreement between the NHL and the players’ association, specifically a section that outlines the process for discipline relating to off-ice conduct. Under this section, players can be sanctioned – with measures ranging from a fine to expulsion from the league – if they are found to have conducted themselves in a manner that is “detrimental to or against the welfare of the League or the game of hockey.”
The agreement states that, if any investigation is launched into a player’s conduct, the players’ association must be notified. The association must also be notified ahead of any interview and given an opportunity to participate. The players’ union is also entitled to a copy of investigator notes or a recording “relating to the interview,” if an association representative is not present.
As of Thursday, none of the four current NHL players who have been charged have been suspended by the league. Each was given a leave from their team last week.