A Baffling Result

The image to the left might be the best visual representation I can find for what's happening at the University of Western Ontario with regards to their women's hockey program. I had written about this back in September that the university was opening an investigation after a number of complaints from players surfaced about head coach Candice Moxley and strength and conditioning coach Jeff Watson. The investigation has now concluded and the findings do nothing to solve the problems identified by the players in that head coach Candice Moxley will be reinstated and be allowed to return as head coach of the Mustangs women's hockey team. Justice... served?

Before we get into this new firestorm, let's review the allegations that were made against Moxley and Watson by members of the Mustangs women's hockey team. Those allegations included:

• Moxley pressured players to play through injuries.
• Moxley repeatedly told players she "didn't care" about their mental health.
• Moxley told her players they were all replaceable.
• Moxley criticized players' social media posts, telling players they wore clothing that was too revealing.
• Moxley allegedly pressured at least one player to play while they had a knee injury, threatening to bench the player for the remainder of the season if they did not suit up for a game.
• Moxley did not act following multiple complaints from players that they were being sexually harassed by Watson including him making inappropriate statements about players' bodies and having inappropriately touched some players.
• Moxley told a player that she should wear longer shorts to avoid having Watson touch them inappropriately when they were working out in the gym.

Again, all of those are very serious complaints that put players' mental and physical health and safety in jeopardy, and all of those allegations need to be fully investigated on their own and, if necessary, prosecuted where the law was broken. These young women felt they had been violated by two people who they were supposed to trust with their health and safety, and they asked the university to make things right.

It should be noted that London lawyer Elizabeth Hewitt was to whom the university turned in the handling of this investigation which raised some eyebrows among the team members as Hewitt was formerly on the Board of Trustees at Brescia University College, the Board of Directors at King's University College, and a former adjacent professor in Western's Faculty of Law. Why is this an important piece of the story?

For those that don't know, Brescia University College is affiliated with the University of Western Ontario that will see that affiliation wind down in May 2024 at which point Brescia will fully integrate into Western's operations as Brescia will wind down its operations as an affiliated university college. King's University College also operates as a Western University affiliate, so graduates from that institution receive Western University-branded degrees. And, obviously, Western's Faculty of Law is located on Western's campus.

In short, Western University hired a former employee with a long history at Western University who served Western University by looking out for the school's best interests as a board member for two of its affiliations. This would be like a a police department doing an internal investigation by hiring the chief of police - it seems very one-sided. However, Hewitt's credentials stated that she "specializes in investigating claims of workplace harassment, sexual harassment, abuse, privacy breaches, discrimination, and workplace violence," so perhaps her ethical requirements to be impartial would be exercised.

The results of the investigation were delivered to the team on Wednesday, and Western University spokeswoman Marcia Steyaert wrote in an email to TSN on Wednesday that Candice Moxley will continue in her role as head coach of the women's hockey team. According to Steyaert, "Elizabeth Hewitt conducted interviews with 45 individuals and reviewed evidence before determining that the allegations Moxley had breached the school's code of conduct were unsubstantiated."

I want to be clear that I find that hard to believe, but I'm going to reserve my comments until I post the next piece of this puzzle sent to TSN because this is where things get real dark and murky. As per Rick Westhead's reporting, "While Moxley was cleared by Hewitt, allegations against Western strength and conditioning coach Jeff Watson, who worked with the school's 38 varsity teams, were substantiated by the investigation and he is no longer employed by the university, Steyaert wrote."

Is it just me or does it seem like the no-longer-employed Jeff Watson is taking the fall here where an entire team of women are complaining about the person in charge? Why was Watson allowed to resign from his position if he committed crimes of sexual harassment without being prosecuted? Why was he not removed from any and all contact with members of the team when his harassment was reported to Moxley? Is Moxley saying that wasn't reported to her? Is she calling the players who made the allegations liars? Since this investigation involved several years of players, how did Watson remain employed all that time without being charged with a crime?

This simply isn't believable at any level that Moxley had no knowledge of Watson's actions and that she wouldn't have acted on those complaints if she had known when Watson's behaviour seemed to span several years of teams. I can buy that being the case if this was an isolated incident, but it seemingly wasn't as multiple players made complaints. Even if Moxley didn't believe it to be true, she has a responsibility to follow up with Watson to ensure that her players are safe in their environment. If she didn't, how is she not culpable?

This is where knowing the details of the investigation would be entirely helpful, but Western University hasn't released those details to the public at this time nor have the students been privy to the findings either. Who were the "45 individuals" Hewitt interviewed? Was Jeff Watson one of them? What evidence was reviewed and where was it obtained? To which players did she speak? What evidence was used to clear Moxley, but condemn Watson? At what point is Western University going to explain these findings?

Well, they may be forced to if they want to save any face in this matter because the women aren't very happy. As of Friday, the team has informed Western University president Alan Shepard that they are boycotting all practices and games in which Candice Moxley is involved. According to Michael Booth, a Western alumni and brother of a former Western women's hockey player, "wrote in an email to the Gazette that players have been informed Moxley will return on Monday" meaning Moxley's presence would put next weekend's games against Windsor and Queen's in jeopardy as they would be boycotted by the team. That's not going to be a good look for the university in any way, and the OUA will likely have some questions.

Here's the part to which I keep going back in this mess: the players aren't gaining anything by making these allegations against their coaches. They're risking being ostracized by teammates and coaches, they risk losing any and all playing time, and they're potentially risking being cut from the team. One member of the 2018-19 team, Claire Balas, wrote a letter on her own to President Shepard explaining why she voluntarily left the team in 2018-19 - yet another a player speaking out about Moxley's behaviour - and that she was not one of the 45 people interviewed. With players complaining loudly and opting to leave the program, does the university not question what may be happening in their athletics department?

I'm not here to question the professionalism of Elizabeth Hewitt, but this entire debacle appears to be a way to minimize negative public relations towards Western University. If the allegations go away and the guy who already left the school takes the wrap, there doesn't need to be any one person who accepts responsibility nor will there be terminations and reviews of policies that will cost time and money that the university seemingly doesn't want to spend. Everyone can just put their heads back in the sand, ignore the pleas for change from the student-athletes they recruited to attend their institution, and everybody goes home blissfully and willfully ignorant while 30 women are left without an advocate to help them figure out their own futures at the school and beyond.

For over a year, the women of the Mustangs women's hockey program have been complaining to the President of the University, the Athletic Director, the former Athletic Director, the head coach of the team, and the vice-provost before the university agreed to launch an investigation. That investigation was under the direction of the university which hired a former long-time university board member to oversee the investigation rather than an independent third-party, and you likely can see why the players have zero trust in the process. Frankly, this whole mess was handled just about as poorly as could be imagined, yet it seems Western University is completely fine with putting a tidy bow on the findings and calling it day.

What an absolute farce, and I stand with the women of the Mustangs women's hockey team both in their demands for transparency and their boycott of any and all team activities. Being that Western is a publicly-funded research university, the demands for transparency shouldn't be hard to meet, so post the findings that Hewitt concluded so that they can be judged accordingly. Until that happens, the members of the Western Mustangs women's hockey team have every right to suspend operations until they get answers.

I've always said that doing what's right may not be popular, but Western University needs to step aside and allow a third-party investigator to conduct a proper investigation into the allegations made by the players. As I stated above, they're the ones with everything to lose, so if Western was truly about finding truth they'd allow an independent investigator to look into the allegations.

It seems all Western is about is damage control and what people may say about the institution. It's not like there haven't been allegations of rapes, druggings, and a culture of misogyny at Western that have made the news over and over and over and over again. You'd think they'd be used to issuing statements about problematic investigations involving their students by now, but it seems that all Western does is "let our students down" as President Alan Shepard stated in the linked report from The Griffins' Nest.

Western University should change its motto to "Cur quidquam mutes, si nihil facilius est?" For those needing a translation, that's Latin for "Why change anything if it's easier to do nothing?"

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!