{"id":19953,"date":"2025-07-24T07:21:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T07:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/19953\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T07:21:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T07:21:07","slug":"hockey-canada-nhl-could-clear-or-sanction-players-after-sexual-assault-verdict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/19953\/","title":{"rendered":"Hockey Canada, NHL could clear or sanction players after sexual-assault verdict"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

The five former Canadian world junior hockey players charged with sexual assault after a 2018 gala in London, Ont. \u2013 from left, Alex Formenton, Cal Foote, Michael McLeod, Dillon Dube and Carter Hart \u2013 will receive their verdict on Thursday, July 24.Nicole Osborne\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the five former Canadian world junior hockey players charged with sexual assault after a 2018 celebratory gala in London, Ont., will learn their fates at the hands of the criminal justice system.<\/p>\n

But that won\u2019t be the final word: Both the National Hockey League and Hockey Canada still have matters to resolve with the men. Each organization conducted its own parallel investigation into the allegations, but when police laid charges in February, 2024, the league and national sport organization held off making any final determination until the end of the trial. <\/p>\n

Now that those processes may finally continue \u2013 barring any appeal in the case \u2013 some or all of the players could be excluded from the highest levels of professional hockey, or barred from ever playing for Canada again. If the probes don\u2019t find the players breached the league\u2019s or Hockey Canada\u2019s rules, though, the men may not face any serious professional consequences at all.<\/p>\n

The case has brought scrutiny to how sports organizations in Canada should proceed when athletes allegedly engage in behaviour that is not only inappropriate, but potentially criminal. It has also offered the public a rare glimpse into how the country\u2019s safe sport regime makes decisions, the mechanics of which are normally shrouded in secrecy.<\/p>\n

What to know about the Hockey Canada trial ahead of the verdict<\/a><\/p>\n

The Hockey Canada sexual-assault trial is nearly over. We\u2019re answering your questions after the verdict<\/a><\/p>\n

Shortly after the alleged incident in June, 2018, Hockey Canada hired lawyer Danielle Robitaille for an independent investigation into whether the players had contravened its code of conduct. She conducted a raft of interviews, including with four of the five players who were ultimately charged, and filed a report with the organization in the fall of 2022.<\/p>\n

In November, 2023, Hockey Canada announced that an independent adjudicative panel held a hearing on the matter and rendered a decision, but an appeal had been filed. No other information was released, including what the panel had decided. Hockey Canada commissioned a new arm\u2019s-length panel to hear the appeal. Ten months later, in September, 2024, the organization announced that panel had granted a motion to adjourn the proceedings until the criminal trial was over.<\/p>\n

The five accused are not the only ones directly affected by the pause. Hockey Canada suspended the entire 2018 world junior team when the incident came to light in June, 2022 \u2013 preventing them from playing, coaching, officiating, or volunteering with any programs overseen by the organization. The players remain in limbo until the conclusion of the independent appeal process.<\/p>\n

Experts say when a matter could be subject to a criminal investigation, sports organizations should hold off on their own inquiry until after the police probe.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t want to taint the criminal matter,\u201d said Hilary Findlay, a retired associate professor of sports management at Brock University, and a founding partner of the consulting firm Sport Law. Independent investigators \u201ccould inappropriately question people. Somebody could make a false accusation that could have repercussions,\u201d she said, adding that any number of things could happen that might bleed into the criminal investigation.<\/p>\n

In a ruling last fall on a pretrial motion, Justice Bruce Thomas noted that Ms. Robitaille had, in fact, suspended her investigation in late July, 2018, and then resumed it after police determined that there weren\u2019t sufficient grounds to continue their probe, in February, 2019. She then shut down her inquiry again in September, 2020, after failing to secure an interview with the complainant.<\/p>\n

But in July, 2022, both the London Police Service and Ms. Robitaille reopened their investigations after a public outcry. Hockey Canada threatened a lifetime ban on any player who didn\u2019t speak to Ms. Robitaille. Justice Thomas noted she was aware that the information she gathered could be shared with police.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Ms. Robitaille\u2019s findings did end up spilling into public view during the trial. However, much of the evidence and material she uncovered in her 2022 interviews with three of the players \u2013 including an admission by Dillon Dub\u00e9 that he had slapped the complainant on her naked buttock \u2013 was ultimately ruled inadmissible<\/a> because they were obtained under threat of the lifetime ban by Hockey Canada.<\/p>\n

While that threat was unusual, Canada\u2019s safe sport regime has other sanctions at its disposal to compel participation. Signy Arnason, the executive director of safe sport for the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, or CCES, noted that those accused of breaching a code of conduct \u201ccan choose to not participate\u201d in a probe. \u201cBut that doesn\u2019t stop anything.\u201d If those individuals are found guilty, they do not have the right to an appeal.<\/p>\n

The NHL also launched its own investigation that concluded in 2023, but the results were not made public. Though the league\u2019s commissioner, Gary Bettman, denounced the alleged behaviour \u2013 calling the claims \u201cdisgusting, horrific, and unacceptable\u201d in an interview with The Globe and Mail in April \u2013 the league said it won\u2019t discuss its investigation or potential consequences while the matter is before the courts.<\/p>\n

In April, the CCES took over responsibility for administering the safe sport file, outlined in the Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Maltreatment in Sport, or UCCMS, for federally funded national sport organizations such as Hockey Canada.<\/p>\n

The accused players may face sanctions under the UCCMS, regardless of the outcome of the criminal trial. \u201cThe standard of proof, and what you need to show culpability, differs between the two processes,\u201d said Ms. Findlay.<\/p>\n

A criminal conviction requires evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. The threshold for proof in the Canadian safe sport regime, on the other hand, is lower. The regime abides by what is known as a \u201cbalance of probabilities,\u201d meaning an investigator only has to be at least 51 per cent certain that the alleged behaviour occurred.<\/p>\n

Hockey Canada verdict could break new ground on sexual consent<\/a><\/p>\n

Gary Bettman won\u2019t say if Hockey Canada players on trial for sexual assault could return to NHL if acquitted<\/a><\/p>\n

Both the probes commissioned by NHL and Hockey Canada have unfolded behind a heavy curtain of secrecy. Investigations into behaviour that occurs under the auspices of national sport organizations are not released to the public. Only serious sanctions, such as a temporary or permanent suspension, are announced.<\/p>\n

Ms. Arnason stressed it is imperative for investigations like these to remain secret. National sport organizations, and the people who work for them, can make or break athletes\u2019 careers, which creates a disincentive to report maltreatment if people fear being identified as a complainant or whistle-blower. \u201cPeople want to remain, in many instances, confidential,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Taylor McKee, the director of the Centre for Sport Capacity at Brock University, broadly agrees, though he argued that the public deserves more transparency than the system currently offers.<\/p>\n

He outlined a potential scenario in which a coach is alleged to have violated what is known in sports as the one-on-one protocol, which ensures adults aren\u2019t left alone with minors. The coach may admit to breaking the rule, but that would not normally be disclosed outside the independent probe, since it is not subject to serious sanction. However, it would be in the public interest to disclose the coach\u2019s admission, regardless of its implications as per the code. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf they can find statements of fact that are agreed upon, even by the accused,\u201d it\u2019s in the interest of the Canadian hockey establishment to make those public, Mr. McKee said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: The five former Canadian world junior hockey players charged with sexual assault after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,448,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,82,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-19953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-nhl","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}