There’s been an awful lot written and said about this growing/evolving scandal, but what troubles me the most is how little Hockey Canada seemed to even care about it for so long.
The alleged sexual assaults took place more than four years ago. According to Renney and Smith, Henein Hutchison LLP handed over an “unfinished” report over 26 months ago.
Yet, Hockey Canada didn’t deal with the issue until the alleged victim filed a Statement of Claim with the court, at which point several investigative journalists (Rick Westhead, Katie Strang) began reporting on the horrifying details and Hockey Canada quickly concluded a settlement with NDAs.
At that point, the horse was out of the barn and Hockey Canada’s future is now legitimately in doubt and there’s a growing chorus calling for the organization to receive the equivalent of the NCAA’s “Death Penalty.”
Sabrina Maddeaux: Hockey Canada deserves the financial death penalty over rape allegations
But I keep coming back to the same question: why did Hockey Canada wait so long to deal with the issue? Didn’t SOMEONE — former Risk Management VP Glen McCurdie or even general counsel Sean Kelly — warn senior HC leaders and the Board that this was a ticking time bomb that needed to be defused before it inevitably exploded? Didn’t SOMEONE make clear that the alleged victim’s lawyer, Rob “the priest hunter” Talach, had already taken on the Roman Catholic Church and won? This is so not a lawyer to trifle with or think will just go away?
The only conclusion I can draw — other than old fashion executive suite incompetence — is that Hockey Canada’s leaders just did not see the unresolved sexual assault allegations as a particularly big deal. When Tom Renney told the Heritage Committee that the legal settlement was inked to “save the alleged victim from more pain,” I was incredulous because she’d already endured four long years of pain without Hockey Canada doing a thing about it.
In so many respects, Hockey Canada’s current situation, where they are on the very edge of full blown pariah status with the public and corporate sponsors, is a self-inflicted wound that just didn’t need to happen and should have been dealt with 2-3 years ago.
They’ve only themselves to blame.