Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I do feel that OSIC could add some benefit to the Canadian Hockey League, but the issue is that the CHL operates in a vacuum. They don't fall under the NSO Hockey Canada. They're a pro league. NSOs and the federal government are not able to enforce any laws with the CHL.

Canadian Heritage committee  Madam Chair, I am Randy Gumbley a consultant with the World Association of Icehockey Players Unions. Before I address this committee on the decades of various forms of abuse suffered by CHL players under the leadership of the pro hockey league, the Canadian Hockey League and its partner NSO, Hockey Canada, I'll say that I do so with the intention of creating awareness in order to create much needed change in the culture of hockey and sport in general, while protecting athletes' rights.

Status of Women committee  Just one—

Status of Women committee  The Competition Bureau fails to enforce the laws of Canada, and that resulted in the players going to the courts, which has caused now Hockey Canada's insurance to skyrocket. It's an $826 million class action. It's a lot of money.

Status of Women committee  I'd like to address that, Madam Chair. I'd like to read something to you: "Please be assured that the Government conducts a thorough and rigorous screening process to ensure that all federally funded NSOs, including Hockey Canada, maintain a well-defined governance structure and code of conduct.”

Status of Women committee  That's right. It was the Competition Bureau. Let me tell you how fast the Competition Bureau acts. On September 15, 2020, a class action lawsuit was filed against the Canadian Hockey League, Hockey Canada and the NHL for anti-competitive acts. Within days, the Competition Bureau came out and issued a statement to protect the NSOs in hockey, saying it would not pursue criminally those who were involved in price fixing.

Status of Women committee  One hundred percent. There needs to be an inquiry into how all of these steps and various levels of government—not only the federal government, but the provincial governments—missed it.

Status of Women committee  How did the CRA miss $150 million in revenue within Hockey Canada?

Status of Women committee  How did the provincial governments miss that those players were classified as employees? Then they changed the laws to protect them and took away their [Inaudible—Editor].

Status of Women committee  From our history, what we learned was.... I'll use the analogy that when we filed a complaint with the Competition Bureau in 2018 on a certain clause that was in the player contract, there was $500,000 release fee that was mandated if the player in the CHL wanted to leave the league to go to play in any other league other than the National Hockey League.

Status of Women committee  Yes, for sure. Our position has always been that they should have been considered federal employees. They cross borders. They play internationally, across the U.S. border. They play within provincials...and we believe they should be considered federal employees. That would be the easiest thing to solve that issue of classifying these players as employees of the clubs.

Status of Women committee  Justice Perell, in one of the court cases, stated that abuse comes in many forms and that financial abuse is one of them. These players within the CHL are definitely financially abused. Every province across Canada turned a blind eye. I don't blame the ministers for changing those laws.

Status of Women committee  Yes.

Status of Women committee  I will say that we took steps. The first step we took was that we reported it to the CHL. That fell upon deaf ears. We went to the NSO, which was Hockey Canada. That fell upon deaf ears. We went to the provincial governments. What did the provincial governments do? They changed the laws to favour the NSOs by changing labour laws.

Status of Women committee  I'm Randy Gumbley. I'm a consultant with WAIPU. You're about to hear a story about a deeply flawed business model between the CHL and Hockey Canada that exploits young children. We use some strong language such as “cartel”, “conspiracy” and “collusion”. These words that we express don't come lightly and are not used without merit.