Hockey Canada, CHL settle lawsuit over alleged sexual assault involving WJ players

[automaton 3]

I have some contacts within a CHL team. The stories they tell of the past are every bit as bad as published, and some worse if you can believe it. Not "normal" teenage shenanigans by a long shot. Just awful stuff.

That said I understand that things have cleaned up immensely. The teams, leagues and parents no longer tolerate it. Many of the kids are in hockey academies and come to their junior teams with more of a pro mindset, and want no part of trouble.

[OptimalTates]

Originally Posted by Spurs

You must live in a totally different world than I do, I can only talk about what it is like in Alberta and this is not the case.

Hard to imagine it is the case anywhere, but I guess maybe in some of those small towns it could be.

What? We're literally in a thread where an alleged sexual assault was committed by several junior hockey players that was nearly swept under the rug completely.

If not for some extremely solid reporting, you never would have heard about it.

[Spurs]

Originally Posted by OptimalTates

What? We're literally in a thread where an alleged sexual assault was committed by several junior hockey players that was nearly swept under the rug completely.

If not for some extremely solid reporting, you never would have heard about it.

Swept under the rug by who? The police couldn't do anything because like many sexual assault cases the victim didn't want to come forward. It wasn't like the victim was asking for prosecution and the police and authorities said "no thanks we can't prosecute these guys we idolize them too much."

The public didn't say lets ignore this because we love the players too much.

If you go around Calgary with pictures of Hitmen what percentage of people could identify them? What percentage of people would say lets give them a pass on sexual assault because we idolize them too much?

Is that number much different in Edmonton? Lethbridge? Red Deer?

These guys "got away with sexual assault" not because they are idolized but because like with most sexual assaults, there was issues with the victim not wanting to come forward initially.

[OptimalTates]

I think Spurs is taking juniors to mean anyone 16ish playing hockey, while CroFlames is talking about major juniors, or at least like Junior A.

[Spurs]

Originally Posted by OptimalTates

I think Spurs is taking juniors to mean anyone 16ish playing hockey, while CroFlames is talking about major juniors, or at least like Junior A.

No I am talking CHL level, as I assume that is the level most people are talking about when making their statements about them being idolized.

[OptimalTates]

Originally Posted by Spurs

Swept under the rug by who?

I don't know, maybe like the entire situation and the NDA to just pay the victim off so none of the kids got in trouble?

Arguing this wasn't being swept under the rug is complete asinine now.

[Spurs]

Originally Posted by OptimalTates

I don't know, maybe like the entire situation and the NDA to just pay the victim off so none of the kids got in trouble?

Arguing this wasn't being swept under the rug is complete asinine now.

No I am arguing that it wasn't swpet under the rug because the players are idolized.

Do you read the posts I am responding to? Did you read the whole post I made after that?

The point isn't that it isn't swept under the rug, I never said that. I said it wasn't swept under the rug because people idolize the junior players.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Spurs

Is this true for most people?

I don't think it was widely accepted or that I ever assumed any junior hockey player was disgusting and perverted at all.

Originally Posted by Samonadreau

Nope, only hockey players are disgusting and perveted, nobody else. It's definitely not 16-20 year olds in general.

Sarcasm aside the difference was in the culture of Hockey and high level minor and junior hockey. But that culture is finally changing.

Honestly, I think the real issue is that 15ish years we probably never would have heard about it.

The access to information between then and now is so wildly different and it would have been a lot easier to cover up or pretend it never happened. Thats how this culture became normalized in the first place.

[jatylo]

I'm not too sure if it's already implemented, but all teams should have a counselor on the team. They can deal with confidential team issues, provide life skills, or take advantage of tuition and sport's scholarship opportunities.
We are talking about a large group of boys aged 16-20 with no real mentors other than their peers. Atleast in the QMJHL there is a sense of being a celebrity with their team being the only big ticket event in the town.

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by Spurs

These guys "got away with sexual assault" not because they are idolized but because like with most sexual assaults, there was issues with the victim not wanting to come forward initially.

And why does the victim not want to come forward?

Because in the vast majority of cases the complaint goes no where for any number of poor reasons.

When people are held accountable for these types of actions, victims will willingly come forward.

[TheIronMaiden]

Originally Posted by automaton 3

I have some contacts within a CHL team. The stories they tell of the past are every bit as bad as published, and some worse if you can believe it. Not "normal" teenage shenanigans by a long shot. Just awful stuff.

That said I understand that things have cleaned up immensely. The teams, leagues and parents no longer tolerate it. Many of the kids are in hockey academies and come to their junior teams with more of a pro mindset, and want no part of trouble.

At my wife's staff party I chatted with one of the people who worked on the fifth estate expose and she said what they showed was only a fraction of the awful stuff she had heard about.

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by jatylo

I'm not too sure if it's already implemented, but all teams should have a counselor on the team. They can deal with confidential team issues, provide life skills, or take advantage of tuition and sport's scholarship opportunities.
We are talking about a large group of boys aged 16-20 with no real mentors other than their peers. Atleast in the QMJHL there is a sense of being a celebrity with their team being the only big ticket event in the town.

Back 15-20 years ago, teams had a chaplain - some kind of religious guy who would sort of fill that role. Now they have a bunch of different resources
https://ontariohockeyleague.com/ohl-onside-program/
https://ontariohockeyleague.com/talktoday/

Plus whatever the teams have.

[Reggie Dunlop]

The Hitmen still have a Chaplain.

[fotze2]

Originally Posted by Reggie Dunlop

The Hitmen still have a Chaplain.

To REDUCE sexual assaults? That's counterintuitive.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by fotze2

To REDUCE sexual assaults? That's counterintuitive.

Theres a joke in here somewhere about the Chaplain technically 'running interference' but I'm going to leave it.

[Eric Vail]

I sure wouldn't want my daughter to date a junior hockey player. There is no other group that has as many disgusting stories associated with them in Canada, that I am aware of.

I am sure not every Junior Hockey player is like this, but your odds of finding someone like this is much higher in this group.

[dustygoon]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

I can't believe it was so accepted as a society. Like if you came across any junior hockey player in Canada 15+ years ago you almost just rolled your eyes at how disgusting and perverted you knew they were. We should have been calling it out, we knew it was wrong even back then.

What a stupid comment.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by dustygoon

What a stupid comment.

Do expand.

Are you aware of the hazing that takes place with junior hockey teams, especially 15+ years ago?

And do you think the hazing was optional, or do you think that 100% of players willingly or unwillingly partook in it?

[Derek Sutton]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Do expand.

Are you aware of the hazing that takes place with junior hockey teams, especially 15+ years ago?

And do you think the hazing was optional, or do you think that 100% of players willingly or unwillingly partook in it?

Yes. And this does not apply to “any player”. We billeted WHL players at that time and the kids we had were great. In fact most of the team was great, a few others were simply tolerated, one was an entitled nut job. 15 years is not that long ago. The hazing for these kids consisted of dressing the rookies up as girls and parading them through the mall.

It would be hard to put any group of 20, 17-20 year olds together and not get issues with behaviour, treatment of women and substance abuse. But to label them all as perverts is simply lazy and wrong. Like every year, literally 1000’s of teenage boys leave home is pursuit of higher opportunities in hockey, the incidents rates are in the 1-5% range.

[FlamesAddiction]

Nike announced today that they are no longer a sponsor for Hockey Canada. It's not clear when they ended sponsorship, but by announcing it today, I have to wonder if some more news is coming out soon.

https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/arti...a-sponsorship/