According to Robertson's reporting, Hockey Canada has been sitting on "a special multimillion-dollar fund, which is fed by the registration fees of players across the country, that it uses to pay out settlements in cases of alleged sexual assault without its insurance company, and with minimal outside scrutiny." This fund, which "has exceeded $15-million in recent years", has been in existence since before 2013 as shown in audited financial statements filed in court last year as part of the Hockey Canada's defence of an injury lawsuit.
Let that sink in: any registration monies sent to Hockey Canada through your local hockey registration saw a portion of those monies that you paid going to an account that was used to pay off accusers who claimed sexual assualt and have them sign NDAs in order for them to go away, and this account, funded solely through Hockey Canada registration fees that you pay to register your child has absolutely zero oversight when it came to these payoffs to keep accusers quiet.
Allow Luke Roberts, as Governor Woodes Rogers on Starz's Black Sails, to state the very obvious after today's damning revelations.
The people involved in this rather dispicable decision are many, so the only solution is to start over. Anyone with any affiliation at the executive level of Hockey Canada in the last 15 years should be fired with prejudice and, at least, be held accountable of potentially aiding or abetting these crimes by setting aside the money to make them go away. After all, one doesn't set aside money for legal problems unless one knows there will likely be legal problems, so it seems very hard to play ignorant on this one.
Some will point out that Hockey Canada may have been doing this because they didn't want to fight civil lawsuits regarding liability, but liability is usually determined after an investigation takes place. With the insurance company not being involved and with no one scrutinizing the evidence in each of the claims, Hockey Canada was simply running a "keep quiet and go away" scheme. With no investigation, Hockey Canada's amount of liability in each of the claims would also not be scrutinized, so they may have avoided even larger payouts to accusers as well.
In short, Hockey Canada used your registration monies for your child's minor hockey to hide repeated claims of sexual assault - Hockey Canada CEO Scott Smith stated at the Parliamentary hearings last month that Hockey Canada "dealt with an average of one to two sexual assault cases a year for the past six years" - and pay the accusers to keep quiet for more than a decade.
Anyone else feeling betrayed right now? A little sick to one's stomach? Absolutely outraged? All of this is a normal reaction when the level of moral and ethical corruption has dropped below "WHAT IN THE ACTUAL (expletive)" level.
There used to be a prestige in wearing the Hockey Canada logo or playing under Hockey Canada's umbrella. That's no longer the case thanks to the last few months of discoveries, and I don't know how the organization expects to earn the trust of Canadians again if they don't make sweeping and drastic changes when it comes to their executive and financial teams. And, honestly, that is only correcting the exceedingly glaring problem that exists right now. Building trust may take years or decades to earn once again.
Full marks to Grant Robertson and his article in The Globe and Mail that exposed this new level of abhorrent behaviour from hockey's governing body in Canada. This is the kind of investigative reporting that is so sorely needed in our world today, and Robertson deserves some kudos for the work he did.
If "money is the root of all evil" and "absolute power corrupts absolutely", Hockey Canada may be the best Canadian example of both of those adages. And it makes you wonder what else they've been hiding all these years.
Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!
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