Hockey Canada brass stuns MPs by telling committee the organization is a victim of ‘cynical attacks’

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OTTAWA – Shocking MPs of all parties, the chair of Hockey Canada’s board said the organization has an “excellent reputation,” is the victim of “substantial misinformation and unduly cynical attacks” and that it is counterproductive to scapegoat the sport as a “centrepiece for toxic culture.”

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Current interim chair of Hockey Canada’s board of directors Andrea Skinner and former chair Michael Brind’Amour were grilled were for two hours by MPs on the federal Heritage committee on how the organization has handled multiple allegations of sexual assaults over decades by its players.

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Hockey Canada has been under intense scrutiny after TSN reported that a woman had filed a $3.55 million lawsuit alleging she had been gang raped by multiple members of Canada’s 2018 World Junior Team.

That lawsuit was settled through a Hockey Canada fund, called the National Equity Fund, built through player registration fees, the Globe and Mail reported this summer. The settlement also put an end to an investigation by the organization into the incident before it was completed.

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In previous testimony to committee this summer, Hockey Canada’s Chief Financial Officer Brian Cairo said the organizations had paid out nearly $9 million to 21 complainants of sexual abuse over the last 33 years. A large part of that was tied to settlements in the case of former junior hockey coach Graham James.

On Monday, the Globe and Mail reported that Hockey Canada had created a second, previously unreported multimillion-dollar fund called the Participants Legacy Trust Fund that was to be used “for matters including, but not limited to, sexual abuse,” according to court documents.

On Tuesday, Skinner began her testimony to MPs by acknowledging that a “toxic culture” and a “culture of silence” unquestionably exist at Hockey Canada, but that they also exist in many other parts of society such as education, business, politics and religious institutions.

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She argued that is counterproductive to say that it is a “specific hockey problem” or to “scapegoat hockey as a centrepiece for toxic culture.”

She also said the board disagreed there needed to be changes made in senior executives. It is “in the best interest” of the organization and it’s participants that leadership “remain stable,” she said.

That was a direct response to calls made on Monday by multiple MPs, including federal Sports Minister Pascale Ste-Onge, that some senior executives resign.

“What it shows is that sexual violence has been treated as an insurance problem at Hockey Canada instead of a systemic problem that needs to be addressed at the root of the problem,” Ste-Onge told reporters, adding she expected there to be resignations.

Skinner repeatedly accused media of inaccurately reporting on the scandal rocking Hockey Canada.

Skinner’s testimony was evidently jarring to MPs around the committee table, who said they had lost confidence in Hockey Canada, that the organization was acting “Trump-like” with its attacks on the media, and it was “encouraging” a culture of silence with regards to sexual assault victims.

More to come