on the website of Hockey Eastern Ontario<\/a>, an organization that supervises the CCHL.<\/p>\nArmstrong has been told not to directly or indirectly engage in any communication, instruction, or supervision of players, team officials, or on-ice officials. He is also prevented from coaching, assisting, or acting in any leadership capacity in any on-ice or off-ice team activities, practices, games, or competitions, as well as any player evaluations, tryouts, selection, or roster decisions.<\/p>\n
Armstrong said in a notice of application filed in Ontario Superior Court on Oct. 14 that the two misconduct complaints against him were retaliatory, driven by disgruntled parents and three players seeking trades, and that the investigation process was fundamentally unfair. It\u2019s unclear when the court will hear his case, Morris said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne player was seeking a trade because he needed to move away from playing in Pembroke as he was facing serious issues over the distribution of a video,\u201d Armstrong\u2019s court filing said. \u201cThe other two eventually sought trades because they were not playing the amount that they wished. One of the players eventually (now) played in Junior C. The other plays in Junior B on a team owned by his father. In the case of the parents of two of these players, either Armstrong\u2019s wife or he was threatened with the complaints process if he did not cooperate with trades to where they wished to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morris said that the CCHL\u2019s owners voted at the end of September to suspend the Lumber Kings organization because the team has $55,000 in fines that have not been paid. Armstrong is appealing that decision, Morris said.<\/p>\n
Armstrong\u2019s disciplinary process began Feb. 23, 2023, when an anonymous complainant filed a complaint about him with Hockey Canada.<\/p>\n
Hockey Canada\u2019s ITP accepted jurisdiction on May 16, 2023, and appointed investigator Paul Gee to probe the allegations.<\/p>\n
On Jan. 18, 2024, a parent of a player on the Lumber Kings filed a second complaint against Armstrong, alleging that he bullied players during the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons and used team or league money for his personal gain.<\/p>\n
By mid-2024, investigation reports in both matters had been completed. In February 2025, adjudicator Kathleen Simmons was commissioned by Hockey Canada to determine appropriate sanctions against Armstrong.<\/p>\n
After his initial suspension of one and a half seasons, Armstrong appealed to the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada (SDRCC), where an arbitrator upheld the sanction in a Sept. 12 decision.<\/p>\n
Two months later, after video evidence established Armstrong had breached his sanction conditions, Simmons determined he should be suspended from his coaching duties until a day before the 2026-27 hockey season.<\/p>\n
While the SDRCC decision did not detail which allegations against Armstrong were considered credible, Morris said that the adjudicator in the case determined allegations that Armstrong pressured families to pay more money to ensure ice time for their children were credible.<\/p>\n
The adjudicator also confirmed an investigator\u2019s finding that Armstrong pressured a player to play through a broken collarbone and subsequently failed to provide adequate medical care, Morris said.<\/p>\n
However, allegations related to Armstrong\u2019s supposed drinking alcohol on the bench and driving while under the influence were not supported by evidence, Morris said. The allegation Armstrong did not supervise players and created a climate for hazing was similarly unsupported by evidence, Morris said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of hazing, what we are talking about was a fine jar where players had to pay a few dollars if they did something wrong,\u201d Morris said. \u201cThe senior players started it and when Alex learned of it, he stopped it.\u201d<\/p>\n
A central issue throughout Armstrong\u2019s case and appeal was anonymity. Armstrong argued he could not fairly defend himself without knowing the identities of complainants and certain witnesses, particularly where credibility findings were decisive. Hockey Canada\u2019s ITP also refused to hand over to Armstrong the specific evidence provided by witnesses in the case, and only offered generalized statements, Morris said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole ITP process is absurd,\u201d Morris said. \u201cThere\u2019s no procedural process. It\u2019s the wild west. The ITP has relied on anonymous witnesses, allowing them to retain anonymity because of concerns about reprisals. Well, some of the players who would have been on Alex\u2019s team in 2022, when this behaviour was alleged to have happened, have already aged out of junior hockey. It\u2019s not like Alex is going to cut them from a team, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
The SDRCC arbitrator determined in its September decision that Hockey Canada\u2019s policies explicitly permit anonymous complaints and that lifting anonymity would risk deterring future complainants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Ontario Junior A hockey team owner is asking an Ontario Superior Court judge in Ottawa to overturn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[712,49,48,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-361990","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361990","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=361990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}