Canadian Heritage Committee on June 20th, 2022

[Scott Smith]

I answered that question earlier. No, we did not.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Will you now do that?

[Scott Smith]

I answered it earlier. I said we're in discussion with our partners to change the signature of the code of conduct to compel people to participate in investigations.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Anthony.

I don't know if it's Ms. Larouche next—

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

I will be speaking, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Mr. Lemire. You have two and a half minutes, please.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Gentlemen, the only code of conduct that should be acceptable is one of zero-tolerance. I really want to give you a chance, but I'd like to know if you've planned to conduct a full audit of current practices in the players' dressing room, in particular, and at evening events held in bars, for example.

Will you take into account the fact that a local or national star may occupy a position of authority over a young woman?

Above all, would you be prepared to commit to reappearing before the committee over the next three years to report on measures you've put in place with respect to your code of conduct and the results you've achieved?

[Tom Renney]

I'll let Mr. Smith take a breather here.

We certainly have every desire, through our maltreatment initiative and policy, to identify, with our 13 members across the country and 650,000 players in 2,500 minor hockey associations, and commit to what the code of conduct looks like, what it feels like and how it is supposed to be implemented.

There's no question that we have no problem with any kind of audit and reporting as we move forward with respect to this issue. It's very, very clear that we've all struggled with this very much. Accountability lives there, and I think that's fine. We own that. I also think that by the nature of the constituents across the country and other NSOs, as we have collaborated in the meantime, we'll continue to collaborate as NSOs to make all Canadians of all athletic denominations proud of what we do. That's not to mention the fact that public servants have an opportunity to speak from something they know, not something that's hypothetical.

We would definitely agree with anything that would require us to perform any kind of audit on an annual basis and perform, as we do through Sport Canada, the delivery of that information.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

I believe an amount of pride attaches to the notion of responsibility.

How would you react if a player were to demonstrate his responsibility publicly, to apologize and to make his name and the alleged facts public?

[Tom Renney]

You know, that is a hypothetical situation and a hypothetical question that I don't know is a real good idea to speculate with, quite honestly. I think that's something to discuss with our legal representatives on both sides of this, to understand better what might be in everyone's best interest.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Thank you very much.

You mentioned…

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Mr. Lemire.

I will now go to Peter Julian.

Peter, you have two and a half minutes, please.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Thanks, Madam Chair.

As others have said, representing our country is an honour. It's a privilege. When someone is involved in alleged sexual assaults, they are dishonouring their country as well as creating what we see, which is the victim going through a horrific, horrific experience.

I hear words like “zero tolerance” and “strongly encourage” being thrown around today, but I don't see any specific measures that end what are allegations of horrific sexual assault. The reality is that today there is still no mandatory participation in investigations, criminal investigations. When I see the pattern of most players on that team not co-operating with an investigation, when this should be absolutely fundamental to any participation on a hockey team, and when I see that today you didn't come prepared to speak to two other investigations that apparently are ongoing, I don't see the transparency either.

To do justice to the victim, we need to change practices so that there are no longer any victims. I don't see that yet. I don't see zero tolerance when in a code of conduct you can simply refuse, and the majority of the team can refuse, to participate in an investigation.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have 40 seconds, Peter.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

I don't see Hockey Canada coming forward with the transparency that is required, when you're not prepared to talk of other investigations that are ongoing.

What has changed? What has changed at Hockey Canada, when you don't have the answers that Canadians are seeking today?

[Scott Smith]

I'd like to clarify, and I stand to be corrected on this, but I'm fairly confident that 12 to 13 of the 19 players who were at the gala participated in the investigation. The numbers that Mr. Renney referred to were not necessarily the numbers of those who did participate, but those who did not. I just wanted to clarify that.

With respect to the other incidents, or other issues, that we have, we would be prepared to talk about those, but it's not something that we've prepared for, because it wasn't expected to be part of the mandate today. The mandate today was to discuss the incidents around the 2018 gala.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

But it's a broader mandate. We're talking about—

[Scott Smith]

No problem. We hold that broader mandate, but I'm talking about our preparation here today before this committee.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

We need transparency.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much, Peter.

[Scott Smith]

You have it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

We have finished this round. I want to thank the witnesses for coming and answering our questions, but I am surprised, as Mr. Julian and others have noted, that you did not come prepared to answer other questions that pertain, in general, to this issue of conduct.

As chair, listening to all of this, I am surprised that this happened, that even though the victim was paid a sum of money, and even though we have all agreed we don't want to find out who the perpetrators were, there was no internal investigation that would have identified the perpetrators, or all the people, at that event.

I think there was impunity here, and it's not good enough to say what you're going to do. I wonder why it took you four years to find a person who would deal with this kind of conduct. This is something that should have happened almost immediately. This should have been an internal thing that Hockey Canada wanted to do, again, to be transparent and accountable.

However, I thank you for coming, and for answering the questions.

I would like to suspend this meeting for our next witness.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Colleagues, are we ready to begin?

[An hon. member]

Yes, Madam Chair.