Canadian Heritage Committee on June 20th, 2022

[Scott Smith]

I don't believe that the police asked our third party investigator for the report. The advice we received from our independent investigator was related to our code of conduct, which at the time covered only.... It was broad enough only to cover on-ice hockey events, so tournaments and camps—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have one minute.

[Scott Smith]

—and we've broadened that. We've increased our education on that, and we continue to do so.

As I mentioned earlier to one of your colleagues, I also identified that we have adjusted and modified some additional requirements on alcohol service at fundraising events.

Thank you.

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

Would you please provide the emails, letters and texts that were exchanged between the head of communications at your organization and the senior management people concerned at Hockey Canada regarding the events surrounding the gang rape allegations?

For transparency's sake, the committee would also like copies of the exchanges that you or members of your senior management had with the Minister of Sport, the members of her staff and Sport Canada, as you called it, from 2018 to the present.

The minister says that was the first time she was advised of the situation. Did you have any contact with her predecessor?

May we presume that Sport Canada or the department was aware of the situation?

[Scott Smith]

As Mr. Renney mentioned earlier, we made contact within days with our principal contact at Sport Canada, Nicole Mulligan. I do not recall—and I apologize for that—if the then Minister of Sport would have been advised, but certainly the current Minister of Sport was advised the day before this became public.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much. Your time is up.

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

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I'll go to Peter Julian for the New Democratic Party.

You have six minutes, Peter.

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

Thanks very much, Madam Chair.

This is important testimony. These are horrific allegations. Canadians want answers, there is no doubt, and our thoughts are certainly with the victim.

I wanted to just come back over your testimony from earlier. You told us, Mr. Renney and Mr. Smith, that you were advised on the morning of June 19 by the stepfather.

Mr. Smith, you said the police were contacted between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. that evening.

[Scott Smith]

That's my recollection, yes.

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

Can you please tell us what happened at Hockey Canada between being advised in the morning and advising the police that evening? What were the discussions internally?

[Scott Smith]

Mr. Renney and I were both on a flight back; we were in a car to London and then on a flight back to Calgary. I believe we arrived in Calgary at—I'm going to estimate—around 12:00 or 12:30. We had our first conversation related to the message that came in. Then we had an opportunity to review it with additional staff members, meaning our now-retired senior vice-president of risk management and insurance. I believe that was at two o'clock. He then had the discussion with the law firm. We reported this to our insurers. I believe that at six o'clock eastern—my times are Mountain Time—so I guess at four o'clock Mountain Time, the London Police Service would have been advised.

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

I think most people would ask why, given that these were horrific allegations known since the morning, the police were not advised until the evening. Why did you have those internal discussions first, including advising your insurer?

[Scott Smith]

We just wanted to make sure we went through the steps that were required, and then we divided those steps up and assigned the responsibility.

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

I would question you on the delay in responding or advising the police, but you also mentioned earlier in your testimony that you don't know ultimately the number of players that co-operated with the investigation that Henein Hutchison coordinated. To this day, you don't know how many players co-operated and how many players did not. Is that true?

[Tom Renney]

I would tell you that's true. We have not received a complete report as yet, and with that being said, I can't tell you that we've confirmed a number of players who identified and communicated with the investigation. I don't know that number specifically. I'm going to give you an opportunity to hear a guess, which is that it might have been four to six, and I apologize for not being more succinct.

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

I'm sorry. Was that four to six who did not co-operate or four to six who did?

[Tom Renney]

That's four to six who were able to participate in a discussion. Beyond that, I don't know.

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

My goodness. The vast majority of the players did not participate or did not co-operate with the investigation. Is that—

[Tom Renney]

I can't answer that. I apologize. I don't know for sure, but I can tell you that because of the incomplete report, there is not much more that we have to offer in terms of information along those lines.

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

You can understand that's quite shocking to hear. There are serious allegations, and yet there does not appear to have been a follow-up from Hockey Canada to determine...to make sure that players were co-operating with the investigation. You can understand how people would be surprised and shocked by that.

[Tom Renney]

I can, and if you don't mind, I will ask Mr. Smith to bring a little more definition to my answer.

[Scott Smith]

I believe the number is larger than that. I just don't have it at my fingertips. I may be able to pull it out in some of my reference documents here.

I'm like you. If I were in the Canadian public, I'd want to know that we did everything we could to determine what happened that evening. We encouraged all players to participate fully in the investigation, and it definitely wasn't four to six. It was a larger number than that.

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

It's disturbing to me, though, and I think it would be disturbing to many Canadians that you don't actually know the number or that all players did not co-operate.

Mr. Smith, we referenced earlier the interim report, and we asked that Hockey Canada share the interim report with the committee. I believe I'm quoting you. You said that you didn't think it was appropriate because there are “other investigations”. I wrote that down and put it in quotation marks.

Are there other investigations that are currently taking place around impropriety of any nature of players that are linked to Hockey Canada?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have one minute, Peter.