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Globe and Mail
an hour ago
- Globe and Mail
The Hockey Canada sexual-assault trial is over, but conversations about the sport's culture continue
For $35, aspiring young hockey players can purchase a T-shirt from a Canadian brand that has become popular in rinks across the country, with a slogan rooted in language that degrades women and girls as sex objects. Using veiled locker-room slang, the shirts read: 'Barduzz, Gettin Huzz.' Loosely translated, it means 'Scoring goals, getting hoes.' A hoodie version is also available in children's sizes. The clothing company, HockeyBenders, tours rinks and shopping malls around Canada, attracting throngs of cheering kids and interviewing groups of teens about the game on and off the ice. They are asked their preferences in girls, and 'how many blondes' and 'how many puck bunnies' they connect with on social media. One player, claiming 100 such girls, was dubbed 'lover boy' by the interviewer. Another, who admitted to just a few, was praised as a 'quality over quantity guy.' Those clips and others are then uploaded to TikTok, driving sales and boosting popularity and profit for the brand. The men behind the slogan say it's all in good fun. Cole Lequier, 25, started the business from his parents' home in Barrie, Ont., trademarking it in 2023. He said the company has sold more than 100,000 hoodies worldwide (including versions with anodyne messages that don't mention women). The brand is now in 150 retail stores, and has more than two million followers on social media. In a recent Instagram monologue, he described the void he believes HockeyBenders fills. 'I felt like, growing up, there wasn't many hockey clothing brands that had relatable slogans and sayings for hockey players,' Mr. Lequier said. 'So I saw a huge, huge gap in the market.' Andrea DeKeseredy sees it differently. Having worked in sexual-assault counselling and studied gender-based violence for years, she considers such slogans an example of hockey culture's refusal to evolve. She wonders how a brand that makes T-shirts and videos she considers demeaning to women grew so popular at the same time the Hockey Canada scandal and its allegations of group sexual assault by former world junior players loomed over the game. 'It shows the lack of true critical self-reflection and introspection that is occurring in Canadian hockey,' she said. 'It makes me sad. It's the opposite of what should be happening.' The Hockey Canada trial concluded last week, three years after sexual assault allegations against five national junior team players became known publicly. All five players – Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dubé and Cal Foote – were found not guilty of sexual assault. In handing down her ruling, Justice Maria Carroccia criticized the complainant's testimony as lacking credibility and reliability. Mr. McLeod was also found not guilty of a second charge of being party to sexual assault. In dismissing the criminal allegations, Justice Carroccia avoided commenting on the players' overall behaviour. 'It is not the function of this court to make determinations about the morality or propriety of the conduct of any of the persons involved in these events. The sole function of this court is to determine whether the Crown has proven each of the charges against each of the accused beyond a reasonable doubt,' Justice Carroccia said. The trial heard uncontroverted evidence that Mr. McLeod, after having sex with a 20-year-old woman following a night of drinking in 2018, sent a text to numerous players inviting them to his hotel room for a '3 way,' while also texting one teammate to come to the room if he wanted a 'gummer.' Some players who went to the room received oral sex from the woman in front of their teammates. Later, the players recorded a video asking her to say she consented. The woman, known as E.M. because her name is protected by a publication ban, alleged she had been spat on and felt threatened, among other things. One player, who wasn't charged, later told a Hockey Canada investigator he saw her being smacked on the buttocks and heard her weeping in the room at one point. E.M. told investigators the players talked about putting golf balls and golf clubs into her vagina – a detail Justice Carroccia noted E.M. originally described to police as being said by the players 'in a joking manner,' raising doubts in her mind about whether E.M. acquiesced to the group sex because she feared for her safety. Lawyers for the players argued during the trial that she had consented. While the judge avoided any commentary on the players' conduct, the National Hockey League did not, issuing a statement Thursday condemning their behaviour. 'The allegations made in this case, even if not determined to have been criminal, were very disturbing and the behaviour at issue was unacceptable,' the NHL said in a statement, adding the five men are ineligible to play in the league pending further review. The trial has left a black eye on the game, according to people who spoke to The Globe and Mail, including parents, minor hockey coaches, former players, sexual-assault counsellors and academics. Researchers say the behaviour in the room, even if not criminal, shows a callous and problematic attitude toward women and sex. Parents and coaches say the trial could be an opportunity to teach kids about proper conduct and respect. However, several who spoke to The Globe are skeptical it will lead to meaningful change. For its part, HockeyBenders sees nothing wrong with the messages put forth in its videos and on its clothing, despite the criticisms by Ms. DeKeseredy. In response to a request for comment from Mr. Lequier and his director of marketing, Aiden Dale, an e-mail from 'The Hockeybenders Team' said the content is not for everyone. 'The boys are two hardworking young hockey entrepreneurs and make videos for people to enjoy and laugh that's it. And like to keep everything they do positive. They like to stay in their own lane with their fans and followers!' the e-mail said, verbatim. Katherine Henderson, named Hockey Canada chief executive in 2023, is frustrated by the use of such language. It is the kind of attitude the organization wants to get out of the game. Hired in the aftermath of the scandal, Ms. Henderson is in charge of remaking Hockey Canada after the incident left its credibility and finances battered, including accusations from the federal government that the previous management regime tried to cover it up. While she believes problems such as misogyny and sexual misconduct are societal and not limited to hockey, Ms. Henderson said the past few years have forced Hockey Canada to ask itself whether there are behavioural issues and attitudes within the sport that need to be addressed. Putting such slogans on kids' clothing is 'disgusting,' she said. Beyond the courtroom, what will the legacy of the Hockey Canada case be? Tim Skuce, a former junior hockey player, now a professor at Brandon University, began studying problems in hockey culture about 10 years ago, including violence, sexual abuse and homophobia. His feelings are mixed about what the situation leaves behind. 'The phrase I've been using is hopeful pessimism,' he said. 'It really seems difficult to get to the underbelly of all this.' In the years leading up to the allegations, the game had seen a series of accusations involving sexual misconduct, including group sex assaults, raising questions about whether they were isolated events or part of a larger cultural issue in certain levels of hockey that wasn't being addressed. Not all of them resulted in charges and convictions, but the allegations became hard to ignore. In a hazing lawsuit filed in Ontario Superior Court against Canada's three major junior leagues, one unnamed player was quoted in documents saying his older teammates once boasted about coercing a woman into having sex with 15 players. 'I was certain that serious repercussions would follow, however, nothing happened as a result of this incident,' he said. Another player said, as a high-school student on his junior team, 'It was my duty to recruit potential 'party girls' and invite them to team gatherings.' 'I was partly responsible for bringing several young girls into this environment, often resulting in devastating consequences. Gang sex, sometimes as many as 10 to 15 players with one female, and violent behaviour, were very much a part of these team gatherings. At the time, I felt a sense of pride and accomplishment because I was receiving the much-desired praise and admiration of my elder teammates.' The statements were from research conducted by University of Manitoba professor Dr. Jay Johnson, retained as an expert in the lawsuit. Summarizing his analysis, Mr. Johnson stated in the court documents that gang sex was 'a focus of the male bonding and initiation process throughout a hockey player's career in Canadian major junior hockey,' adding, 'The goal was to encourage women to drink in order for them to become easy targets as sexual conquests.' Serious problems have extended beyond allegedly non-consensual group sex acts. In 2021, junior hockey player Logan Mailloux, who is from Ontario, was criminally convicted in Sweden for photographing a woman during sex and then circulating the pictures to his teenage teammates without her consent. And in January, 2022, professional hockey player Reid Boucher pleaded guilty to pressing the 12-year-old daughter of his junior hockey billet family to perform oral sex on him on two separate occasions. Meanwhile, additional group sexual assaults involving junior hockey players have been alleged, among them: one involving unnamed players on the 2003 world junior team, which Halifax police are investigating, and one from a woman who said she was sexually assaulted by eight Ontario Hockey League players in 2014. Where some see isolated incidents, Mr. Skuce sees a pattern of problems – and a response that seems to repeat itself whenever new allegations emerge. 'I've heard many, many times that we're on the cusp of something – is this the watershed moment – and it too quickly fades,' he said. Hockey, by virtue of its reach in Canada, has the ability to influence young boys, including their attitudes toward women, but this isn't talked about enough, he said. 'I think most of us who have played hockey, we inherited a set of norms that we didn't critique. We were just like fish swimming in water.' Details of the case have left him torn as someone who spent his life in the game and now drives his young son to the rink. 'I'm trying to hold contradictory thoughts at the same time. Hockey is a beautiful game, and it has some elements that are really detrimental,' he said. 'The hopeful pessimism is that this actually is a catalyst to embed the conversation – that it doesn't go away,' he said. Joel Widmeyer's hockey career wended through the junior and university ranks in Canada before he took up coaching his son's and daughter's teams in Waterloo, Ont. When not volunteering behind the bench, he often serves as a 'puck pusher,' helping other coaches run practices. 'To say that I am in the hockey culture would be an understatement,' Mr. Widmeyer says. He believes the issues raised by such allegations are not specific to hockey, nor are they limited to sports. He is not willing to condemn the game on its own. 'A narrative has been that sexual violence or predatory sexual behaviour is at the core of the hockey culture – I couldn't disagree more. I have played at many levels and not once, at any level, was violence towards women condoned, encouraged or trivialized,' he said. 'I think this is a societal issue, which I do believe is getting better. I have a daughter and I think of what she's growing up in versus what my wife grew up in.' He is an optimist and believes the legacy of the scandal can be constructive, regardless of whether people believe the players or the woman. It is an opportunity to teach future generations about right and wrong and how they should carry themselves. Last year, Mr. Widmeyer's son took part in a program that was tested on 13-year-old players on three Ontario minor hockey teams, provided by the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region. The project included three 90-minute sessions examining personal relationships, consent, masculinity and how to navigate interactions with young girls. Coaches and parents were excluded. Mr. Widmeyer said the sessions sparked discussions within their family about scenarios the players talked about as a team, including what happens if a girl is intoxicated during an intimate situation: 'How do you handle that?' 'I think the legacy should be more programs like the one that my son was put in voluntarily,' Mr. Widmeyer said, adding that he would like to see such courses be mandatory for kids. Matt Patterson, a hockey dad and nurse who volunteered as a trainer on his son's Toronto team, wants to see more leadership from Hockey Canada in the aftermath of the trial. Hockey Canada's handling of the allegations in 2022, including not disclosing that it used a multimillion-dollar fund built by player registration fees to pay out sexual-assault claims, without telling parents and players how their money was being used, damaged his faith in the organization. 'I'm very mistrustful of Hockey Canada until I can see something positive going on,' he said. But he is hopeful the high-profile nature of the case will leave a lasting impression on young players, which could be positive. 'If anything, they might be a little bit more careful about putting themselves in a position where they could get in trouble. They might think, I really should treat women a little bit better, or treat them with respect,' Mr. Patterson said. For Hockey Canada, the scandal has not only been a blow to its reputation – its finances have also taken a hit. Though the organization still holds more than $41-million in reserve funds on its books, it reported a $31.6-million operating loss in 2023 from cancelled or paused sponsorships, mounting legal fees and other items. It lost another $12.5-million last year, according to its annual financial reports. Former CEO Scott Smith and the board of directors stepped down in late 2022 amid calls for their resignation in Ottawa. Now Ms. Henderson's job is to stabilize the operation and chart a path forward. In a wide-ranging interview, she said that the past few years have pushed the organization to confront the realization that, particularly at the higher levels of competition, there may be cultural issues that need examining in terms of how players conduct themselves. 'I think one of the things it forced us to do is to go back and actually look at the system of hockey,' she said. 'There's a number of places where dark corners can show up in hockey that maybe a good systemic look hadn't been done in a way that allowed us to say, well, here's where there's weaknesses.' The organization has started more closely tracking incidents of on-ice maltreatment, known as Section 11 violations, for the signals those infractions are sending about culture. They include abusive behaviour, spitting on other players, discrimination, racial and homophobic slurs, taunts, unsportsmanlike conduct and physical harassment of officials. The data is crunched by a researcher at the University of Ottawa and published online, which has brought transparency to where problems are showing up. What they're finding is that cultural problems, such as violations of Section 11.4 – gross misconducts resulting from taunts, insults, or intimidation based on discriminatory grounds – coincide with higher, more competitive levels. 'I started to see the first tranches of data coming through and I could tell, okay, this is where this is happening the most. So clearly there's an issue here,' she said. 'It's not happening with seven-years-olds. These 11.4's are happening amongst elite male hockey players that are in the ages of 15 to 17, let's say, at a much higher rate.' 'So we're going, okay, so what's going on? Is this male development? Is there something in the hockey system that's having an effect on these kids? Or is this kids that we're putting together in a place where you know, testosterone-driven, puberty-driven behaviours are not being checked properly.' The data, and other research, is contributing to a forthcoming study titled, 'The effect of the elite male hockey system on the character development of young men,' led by researchers at McGill University in Montreal. 'We've done a whole huge culture audit at the elite end,' Ms. Henderson said. 'And we're looking at what are the coaches saying to them, what are the rules that are being given to them, what's being allowed in the dressing room and what isn't?' The goal, she said, is 'ultimately understanding where are the issues germinating, and then what's the appropriate interception? Is it Hockey Canada? Is it the local hockey? Is it the coach, is it the minor hockey association?' The organization presides over national programs only. Hockey Canada doesn't control how the sport operates down to the grassroots. Provincial hockey associations hold much of the decision-making sway in their regions. So while Hockey Canada has implemented mandatory courses on consent and sexual-assault education for national team players and staff, it can't mandate them everywhere. It becomes a discussion with each provincial member, then a question of funding and logistics. The organization conducted 11 national team courses last year for its various age groups. 'The dressing rooms that we have control over – actual control over – are very small compared to what goes on in the membership,' she said, adding that provincial members have '2,800 minor hockey associations with dozens of teams in each one.' Going forward, Hockey Canada and Ms. Henderson will ultimately be judged on how future problems are handled. 'If this was to happen again,' Ms. Henderson said, 'I think we have a plan to say if something happens, we know what to do. It's not just people sitting around at a table trying to decide what to do next. We've thought through those things.' There is now a detailed crisis management plan, Ms. Henderson said. The code of conduct has also been rewritten, placing more emphasis on values. 'A code of conduct should be less about, here's all the things we don't want you to do,' Ms. Henderson said. 'We want you to be respectful, we want you to have pride in wearing the Canadian flag, and here's the onus that comes with it.' She believes the cultural questions hockey faces in Canada extend beyond the game into other sports and all corners of society. But she accepts the criticism hockey has been getting. 'People think that attitudes have to change and then the behaviour changes, and that's actually wrong. The behaviour changes first.' 'I think that's how you change culture.' Landon Kenney has heard stories from within the sport that don't get told publicly. As one of the educators at the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region, he has talked to several junior hockey teams about subjects like sexual assault and consent. His office was one of the support centres Hockey Canada contacted in 2022 to conduct workshops for various age groups of national team players and staff. Those lasted about a year and a half. Hockey Canada has since shifted to White Ribbon, an organization focused on addressing violence against women and girls. 'Sometimes we'll get particularly vulnerable people who will share, like, 'You know what, because of the team setting, because of a whole bunch of different stuff, I did feel like I was pressured into having sex with people that I maybe didn't super want to. I did feel like I had to be part of this culture where I showed these nudes to my teammates, because that's what we all did together, even though I didn't feel great about it,'' Mr. Kenney said. Concerns over false accusations are brought up often. 'There's this kind of undercurrent, particularly with more elite teams, this worry of false accusations and everything, that kind of run rampant,' he said. 'The stats show that false accusations are so rare. But the stats don't always help.' Mr. Kenney said educating players when they're young, before toxic attitudes can become entrenched, is important. But getting the backing of coaches and organizations can be tough. 'When we do this sports team training, we want to have really big buy-in from the coaches,' he said. 'When we talk about the harms that come from locker room talk and stuff like that, if the coaches aren't on board with cracking down on that, then it's going to resort to normal very, very quickly.' In the aftermath of the allegations in 2022, the centre's work with some of the teams felt a bit like a box-checking exercise, he said. 'In these cases it felt very, very often like we did not have the buy-in, that the coaches also very much viewed it as like, okay, let's get this over with.' Karley Doucette, education and communications manager at the centre, said she is bracing for blowback now that the trial is over. She said the centre has publicly supported E.M., which has resulted in phone calls 'about what awful humans we are.' Given that, she said, 'I'm a bit worried about what might happen.' Jake Stika, executive director at Next Gen Men, which runs workshops in schools and for hockey teams to teach boys positive masculinity, also worries about what the trial leaves in its wake. 'I'm very concerned, if I'm honest with you,' Mr. Stika said. 'What's troubling to me is that our culture remains stuck debating guilt or innocence, credibility, and technical definitions of consent, instead of focusing on genuine care for one another,' Mr. Stika said. He also believes such problems are not limited to hockey. 'In basketball locker rooms that I was in growing up, I played until my mid-20s, there were some awful things said about women, about gay people, there were stories about guys doing hopefully consensual things with women that they picked up,' he said. 'So I wouldn't point the finger and say it's a hockey issue.' A debate during the trial over so-called consent videos that were shot by Mr. McLeod on his phone after the alleged incident set a bad example, Mr. Stika said. In one of the videos, E.M. says, 'This was all consensual' and 'I enjoyed it. It was fine,' after Mr. McLeod can be heard telling her, 'Say it.' Defence lawyers said the videos are evidence E.M. agreed to the sexual acts that transpired earlier that night, while the Crown said they indicate she was coerced into providing a statement after the fact – an argument the judge ultimately rejected. Mr. Stika said the debate in court misses the point. 'Consent is ongoing and can be withdrawn, that's what a true consensual relationship is. And when you treat it like a contract, it's like, no, you signed the dotted line, you're stuck with these terms and conditions now,' Mr. Stika said. 'It's just such a flawed way of thinking about human relationships, let alone intimate relationships. You want to uphold consent because you actually care about the person.' Though recent cases of alleged misconduct have brought more scrutiny to hockey, examinations of its culture are nothing new. Alexis Peters, a sociology professor at Calgary's Mount Royal University began studying potential links between hockey and gender violence more than 25 years ago. As a registered nurse who was once married to a professional hockey player, Dr. Peters felt uniquely situated. Looking back, she suspects her work was ahead of its time. Even though the judge found no criminality in the Hockey Canada case, some of the actions inside the hotel room that were not in dispute still showed desensitized and callous attitudes toward women and sex, Dr. Peters said. In 1999, her study presented seven standardized questionnaires used in sexual-assault research to 102 Junior A players in Ontario, along with a control group of 74 men who hadn't played hockey past Grade 11. The questionnaires measured topics such as hyper-masculinity, desensitized attitudes toward sex, and acceptance of interpersonal violence as a way to solve problems. The group of hockey players scored higher than the control group in those areas, while scoring lower on emotional empathy. 'It measured attitudes, not behaviours. We cannot assume that because they have those attitudes they would go and sexually assault somebody, or they would go and beat somebody up. 'But the research suggests they were at higher risk of all forms of violence, including sexual violence.' The findings called for prevention strategies, she argues. 'You can't just teach them consent. You've got to change the culture,' Dr. Peters said. 'Because they're internalizing these values about what it means to be men, and they're rewarded for it from the time they're five. 'I would argue a lot of it is cleaning up the language,' she said. 'It's a start.' Dr. Peters faced pushback for wanting to explore the subject, and for asking questions that were considered taboo. 'I'm always perceived as the woman who hates men and hockey players. But I'm not taking sides,' she says. 'Nobody wins in this – it's scorched earth.' Dr. Peters has often thought about updating the work. But a lack of funding and support, including getting hockey leagues in Canada to provide access to players, has always stood in the way. 'A thousand times, you have no idea how much I've wanted to,' she said. Teresa Fowler, another researcher with years of experience studying masculinity in sport culture, is hopeful the Hockey Canada situation will have a lasting impact. 'Not just brushing it off and saying, 'Oh that's just hockey boys,'' said Ms. Fowler, an associate professor in the faculty of education at Concordia University of Edmonton. But she is also concerned. 'In the context of hockey culture, the implications are profound,' Ms. Fowler said. 'This outcome will likely reinforce longstanding attitudes that normalize the sexualization of women and girls.' She is working on research for Hockey Canada that involves interviewing players anonymously, but it has been challenging getting players to participate. 'We had to extend it another year because it's really hard to get participants to talk with us because of the shroud of the trial,' she said. 'As much as we tell them Hockey Canada will have no clue who speaks with us, there's still this fear of talking.' In past research where Ms. Fowler has interviewed players, some weren't necessarily aware of the harmful nature of their attitudes or actions. 'When we were interviewing these players the sexism just rolled off their tongue like it was nothing. It's like, do you not realize? 'Oh no, that's just how we talk,'' she said. 'There's no comprehension about how wrong some of these things are.' In the early 2000s, long before TikTok, a popular website known as the Junior Hockey Bible went viral in Canada. It offered a lengthy glossary of hockey terms. Women were 'swamp donkeys' and 'puck sluts.' A 'closet show' was defined as a player letting his teammates watch as he has sex with the 'sluttiest broad in the league,' adding, 'Many true team players will let their girlfriends be watched.' Among the anecdotes about 'bitches' and 'whores,' purportedly submitted by followers of the site, were tips on 'tag-teaming your local puck bunny' and advice for those girls on how to act: 'You have a job to do in the bedroom, concentrate your efforts on that role.' But the website was also a marketing venture, designed to promote a clothing brand known as Gongshow Gear, which had gained popularity in the game. When Gongshow's founders were confronted about the site in 2004, they took it down and issued a public apology. The Junior Hockey Bible has since been scrubbed from the internet. Gongshow Gear declined to comment for this article. Nearly a quarter of a century later, another upstart hockey brand is promoting itself with T-shirts, hoodies, and videos that objectify young women. Has anything changed? A request sent to HockeyBenders by The Globe, seeking comment about the criticisms it faces, was directed to a marketing agency that represents the brand. A list of questions, including whether HockeyBenders obtains parental consent before interviewing young players and posting their clips on the internet, was not answered. 'Where are the parents?' wonders Ms. DeKeseredy, the former sexual-assault counsellor who studies gender violence. 'As a mother, I would be horrified to know that men are, first of all, exploiting my child on the internet for profit. It concerns me some of the questions that they're asked and encouraged to answer, and are praised for the way they answer them,' she said. 'And I wonder if that's kind of part of the problem with hockey, too – it seems like it's a free-for-all.' She struggles as a fan of the game who is repulsed by such behaviour. 'I have a son who would love to play and it gives me great pause to put him in hockey because of those videos,' she said. 'This argument that, oh, it's all just good fun and you guys just take it too seriously, we're not harming anyone. No, it's all connected.' She is not encouraged the conversation is moving in the right direction. 'It shows that we're not taking the steps to talk to kids about this, so we are doomed to make the same mistakes over and over again.'
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
Nova Scotian cattle penning competitors take on the best at Calgary Stampede
Three Nova Scotians made their debut at the Calgary Stampede last month. Together they finished 13th out of 143 in a team cattle penning event. Luke Ettinger stopped by Creek View Farm in Northport, N.S., to learn more.
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
Team of sex assault victim support centres to oversee OHL's consent training to help with 'accountability'
A centralized team will now help Ontario Hockey League (OHL) squads enrol in the right mandatory consent and healthy masculinity training and ensure it's completed, under a new agreement between a coalition of sex assault victim support centres and the league. CBC spoke to parties involved in this move nearly a week after the Hockey Canada criminal trial in London ended with not guilty findings. The OHL made gender-based violence and consent training mandatory for all major junior teams about a decade ago. The league's Onside Program was developed for junior hockey teams by two sexual assault support centres in the province, with curriculum delivered to each team at the local level, by members of the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres (OCRCC). Karley Doucette is manager of education and communications at the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region, which is part of the team of victim support centres that'll help oversee the Onside program. Previously, Doucette said, completion of the training wasn't tracked and about half of the 20 major junior hockey teams didn't actually participate every year or took different training not developed for OHL teams. "There have been gaps in accountability and there hasn't been any centralized oversight, so it's been impossible to ensure consistency and quality across the league," Doucette said. Importance of 'understanding consent' The two-hour Onside program was developed in 2008, with the OHL making it mandatory in 2016. The curriculum was distributed to OCRCC members, and each team was expected to connect with local centres, which would proceed to deliver the sessions every fall before the start of the junior hockey season. In recent years, however, some teams and resource-stretched sexual assault victim support centres said they have had trouble scheduling the sessions, which focus on healthy masculinity, relationships, power dynamics and bystander intervention consent. "I think it's critical that we're talking about this now and understanding consent, and how it's given and all the pieces of the program," said OHL commissioner Bryan Crawford. The Hockey Canada trial centred on the issue of whether there was consent between the complainant, E.M., whose identity is protected under a standard publication ban, and the men, who were charged in relation to what went on in a London hotel room in 2018 when they were players on the gold medal-winning world junior team. All five were found not guilty by Justice Maria Carroccia after an eight-week trial. That trial has started conversations that should keep going, said Crawford. "It's critical that we're talking about it and understanding what consent is. There are certainly differences between legality and morality, and understanding consent and how it is given." The not-guilty verdict in the high-profile Hockey Canada sexual assault trial has sparked a national conversation about how we define and understand consent. As the legal system wrestles with questions around fear, coercion, and credibility, Just Asking looks at what consent really means in practice and how we can talk about it more openly. Joining us are Farrah Kahn, a consent educator and the CEO of Possibility Seeds, and Gillian Hnatiw, a Toronto-based lawyer who specializes in gender-based violence. The Onside program links local sexual assault centres with junior teams, but some centres have had better luck getting their city's teams to participate than others, Doucette said. "Some teams have done the training, others have done other types of training. There hasn't been a consistency throughout the league." For example, the OHL's London Knight, this year's Memorial Cup champions, had been in a one-hour training course with an organization not accredited to deliver the two-hour Onside program developed specifically for players. Doucette said sexual assault centres met with the league in 2023 to propose more money for victim support centres that offer the training and a centralized co-ordination to expand the Onside program to ensure every team participated. But they did not hear back from OHL management at the time. "This summer, we went back to the OHL and had another meeting and proposed the same things we proposed in 2023, and we're pleased that they've responded and entered into a partnership with us," Doucette said. "We will now oversee the training across the province." More funding for training Sexual assault centres previously were given a $300 honorarium for the Onside training, but they said that did not properly compensate them for the staff time spent preparing and delivering the curriculum. The honorarium amount has now increased significantly, said Doucette, who would not provide specifics. The OHL remains responsible for ensuring each team follows through with the training and schedules it with their local centre. Doucette's centralized team will both help teams link up with the centres accredited to provide the training and track their participation. "We're hoping that because this trial was so publicly talked about, it will be a wake-up call," she said. Crawford called the changes a positive evolution of the program, and said he fully supports a more centralized oversight body to continue to tweak and make improvements. "It helps us achieve what we all want, which is administering this really beneficial, impactful programming that makes a difference and achieves the goals that we're setting up to achieve."
