Hockey Canada, NHL could clear or sanction players after sexual-assault verdict

Globe and Mail

7 days ago

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.
But that won't 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.
Now that those processes may finally continue – barring any appeal in the case – 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't find the players breached the league's or Hockey Canada's rules, though, the men may not face any serious professional consequences at all.
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's safe sport regime makes decisions, the mechanics of which are normally shrouded in secrecy.
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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.
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's-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.
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 – 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.
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.
'You don't want to taint the criminal matter,' 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 'could inappropriately question people. Somebody could make a false accusation that could have repercussions,' she said, adding that any number of things could happen that might bleed into the criminal investigation.
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't 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.
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't speak to Ms. Robitaille. Justice Thomas noted she was aware that the information she gathered could be shared with police.
Ms. Robitaille's 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 – including an admission by Dillon Dubé that he had slapped the complainant on her naked buttock – was ultimately ruled inadmissible because they were obtained under threat of the lifetime ban by Hockey Canada.
While that threat was unusual, Canada's 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 'can choose to not participate' in a probe. 'But that doesn't stop anything.' If those individuals are found guilty, they do not have the right to an appeal.
The NHL also launched its own investigation that concluded in 2023, but the results were not made public. Though the league's commissioner, Gary Bettman, denounced the alleged behaviour – calling the claims 'disgusting, horrific, and unacceptable' in an interview with The Globe and Mail in April – the league said it won't discuss its investigation or potential consequences while the matter is before the courts.
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.
The accused players may face sanctions under the UCCMS, regardless of the outcome of the criminal trial. 'The standard of proof, and what you need to show culpability, differs between the two processes,' said Ms. Findlay.
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 'balance of probabilities,' meaning an investigator only has to be at least 51 per cent certain that the alleged behaviour occurred.
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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.
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' careers, which creates a disincentive to report maltreatment if people fear being identified as a complainant or whistleblower. 'People want to remain, in many instances, confidential,' she said.
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.
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't 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's admission, regardless of its implications as per the code.
'If they can find statements of fact that are agreed upon, even by the accused,' it's in the interest of the Canadian hockey establishment to make those public, Mr. McKee said.