Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
A complete timeline of the Hockey Canada sexual assault scandal.
Five Canadian hockey players, including four current NHL players, surrendered to police in London, Ontario on Tuesday where they were each charged with sexual assault. The arrests come following a multi-year police investigation stemming from an alleged incident which occurred at a Hockey Canada charity event in 2018, and has since sent shockwaves through the NHL, but more critically Hockey Canada.
These investigations might center on this alleged 2018 incident, but the investigation uncovered that the rabbit hole went much, much deeper — where Hockey Canada was rotten to its core.
The following contains detailed descriptions of sexual assault and may be difficult for some readers.
What is alleged to have happened in 2018?
On June 18, 2018 Hockey Canada hosted a charity golfing event in London, Ontario featuring members of the gold medal-winning Canadian team from the World Junior Ice Hockey Championships.
A woman, who has not been named publicly, met a player at a hotel bar shortly following the event. The player, referred to in court documents as “John Doe 1,” allegedly bought the woman numerous drinks over the span of the night, up to the point where she became extremely intoxicated.
The woman allegedly returned to John Doe 1’s room and the two engaged in sexual acts. Shortly after, John Doe 1 is said to have left the room and return with four other players without the woman’s knowledge or consent. She claims that for the next several hours John Does 1-5 sexually assaulted her, prevented her from leaving the room, and demanded she be videoed showering, which saying she was sober.
On June 19, a day after the alleged incident, the woman claims she reported what occurred to Hockey Canada. Investigations are still ongoing as to what happened at this point, though there are reports that Hockey Canada reported the incident to police, while simultaneously opening an independent inquiry.
Who are the players involved?
As it stands the five names of the players have been made public.
Dillon Dube (Calgary Flames)
Cal Foote and Michael McLeod (New Jersey Devils)
Carter Hart (Philadelphia Flyers)
Alex Formenton (Formerly of the Ottawa Senators)
The five players all claim they’re not guilty of any wrongdoing.
Hockey Canada’s response and governmental investigations
The accuser in the 2018 incident claimed that her report to Hockey Canada went ignored, though there is some evidence this was escalated to police. However, London police closed the investigation in early 2019, citing a lack of evidence to continue.
In April of 2020 the woman brought a suit against Hockey Canada and the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) stemming from the incident, with TSN reporting in April of 2022 that the organization had agreed to settle the lawsuit before it reached court.
The settlement set in motion a wider investigation of Hockey Canada as a whole. While not directly run by the government, Hockey Canada is largely funded with taxpayer money. In June of 2022 sports minister Pascale St-Onge called for a parliamentary inquiry to find out whether taxpayer money had been used to settle the sexual assault suit. As a part of this fact-finding it was revealed that Hockey Canada had diverted player registration fees into a $15M “National Equity Fund,” which was directly used to settle sexual assault claims over the years in a manner that would not draw the attention of the government or Hockey Canada’s insurance company.
It’s alleged that since the fund was established in 1989 a total of 21 different sexual abuse claims were settled using $6.8M of the fund.
Attracting the attention of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Hockey Canada alleged that it would no longer use its fund to settle sexual abuse cases. This came after numerous sponsors decided to pull advertising with Hockey Canada, and government funding of the organization was suspended.
On August 6, 2022 the chair of Hockey Canada, Michael Brind’Amour stepped down. This was followed in September with CEO Scott Smith and the entire Hockey Canada board resigning.
The roles of Brind-Amour and Smith were permanently replaced by Katherine Henderson, the first woman chair and CEO of Hockey Canada in July of 2023. This was followed by the Canadian Government stating it was satisfied in the steps the organization made to correct issues of sexual abuse inside Hockey Canada, resuming funding, as sponsors returned to the organization.
What is happening now?
The five players named now face a criminal trial, and it’s widely expected that they will no longer be members of their respective NHL teams, though the organizations have not commented on the arrests officially.
The NHL has not released a statement, though commissioner Gary Bettman is scheduled to talk as part of NHL All-Star weekend, where it’s believed he’ll be pressured into commenting on the arrests, and whether the NHL has any plans to combat sexual abuse inside the sport.
