Canadian Heritage Committee on June 20th, 2022

[James Maloney, Liberal, Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON]

Thank you for that.

Are there any other steps that in your view you could be taking right now to further this investigation that would not run contrary to the wishes of this young woman?

[Scott Smith]

To the best of our knowledge right now, no, there are not, based on the feedback we received in September 2020 from our third party investigative firm.

[James Maloney, Liberal, Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON]

Thank you, gentlemen. I appreciate that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

I now go to the Bloc Québécois and Ms. Larouche for two and a half minutes.

Go ahead, please.

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

Madam Chair, I will be taking the floor.

We're discussing sexual assault allegations here. In light of the answers that you've given today, my sense is that the Hockey Canada Foundation hasn't been all that proactive. It has conducted investigations and prepared reports, but those reports are incomplete. It's responsible for the out-of-court settlement. You're quick to pay and cover up the affair, even though you didn't know what had happened.

The Hockey Canada Foundation demonstrated a form of complicity in covering up this affair. There was talk of an independent investigation, which was conducted without speaking in particular to the persons responsible for organizing the Hockey Canada Foundation gala where the incidents occurred. I sincerely hope you didn't put pressure on the victim to secure that out-of-court settlement.

I'd like you to release the minutes of the board meeting and those of the Hockey Canada Foundation from June 2018 to the present. In addition, I'd like to know how many times these sexual assault allegations appeared on the agendas of those meetings.

I'd also like to give you some food for thought. The Kyle Beach affair was settled, and the name of the person responsible for the sexual assault was removed from the Stanley Cup. Ten years later, the trainers and executive directors who decided to cover up the affair were fired.

The Victoriaville Tigres players who behaved so scandalously, including Logan Mailloux, were suspended for a year.

What's key in national and international sport is the team logo. It seems that's how it works. When the Russian players were involved in a doping scandal, they were stripped of their team logo but were still able to participate in the Olympic Games. They weren't penalized for their federation's lack of action or, in that case, its complicity. They played as Olympic Athletes from Russia.

It seems to me that the only acceptable penalty for your sloppiness is to demand that you not play under the Hockey Canada logo for the next year. The idea is to force you to consider the culture that Hockey Canada conveys and to make you accept your responsibility. I think you've acted as a John Doe 9 in this matter.

What do you think of that?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have 39 seconds.

[Scott Smith]

First of all, to suggest that it was a cover-up or that we swept it under the rug.... I'd like everyone to step back for a second. With respect to the incident in 2018, the police were notified; we engaged a third party investigator; we notified Sport Canada, and we offered support to the young woman. That is not an indication of sweeping something under the rug.

The process that we undertook to settle this is common in civil claims. We have a situation in which both parties were represented by qualified counsel. Agreements such as this are common. They are intended to protect all concerned, and they are mutually agreed to, so no one was silenced.

I adamantly oppose the suggestion that we covered this up or swept something under the rug related to an incident in 2018, which we have been dealing with over the past four years.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

That's the end of that time. I now go to Peter Julian for two and a half minutes.

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

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

What happened to the victim was horrible. Nothing in your testimony today suggests that there has been a change of course as a result of these serious allegations.

I'm struck by one fact. When you discussed the code of conduct, you mentioned that most players on the team weren't required to take part in the investigation.

Have you made any changes in that regard?

If another horrible crime were committed, like the one alleged in 2018, would all the players now be required to take part and cooperate in the internal investigation conducted by Hockey Canada or in the police investigations?

Investigations lead to truth and justice.

[Scott Smith]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

First of all, we share the view that these allegations are troubling. As we've said from the outset, we take them very seriously. If there's any Canadian watching today who thinks that Hockey Canada doesn't take these seriously, we do.

We've shared with you on a few occasions and in the answers here that we've improved and enhanced our code of conduct. We've strengthened the education. Because these players are registered members of other teams, we will be working with our partners to make sure we can compel people to participate in an investigation when it takes place under our care and under our responsibility. That is a work in progress as we speak today. It's not something, as you asked, sir, that has concluded, but it's certainly a priority for us and a work in progress.

We've focused our efforts on education.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

You have 12 seconds, Peter. I know you like to have the last word, but you have only 12 seconds.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Smith, earlier you mentioned two more complaints that are currently under investigation.

Are those investigations related to sexual assault allegations?

[Scott Smith]

I believe I've answered a couple of times that I wasn't prepared to speak to the specifics of those today. I didn't see that as part of the mandate of today's discussion. It's not—

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

[Scott Smith]

I'm under oath. I don't want to tell you something I don't know. I apologize.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

Now I'll go to Karen Vecchio for five minutes.

We still can't hear you, Karen.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

Can you hear me now?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Now we can hear you, yes.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

Fantastic. Thank you. I'm sorry about that. You would not think that I'd done this for the last two years.

One quick question to start off: Is there a non-disclosure agreement regarding this settlement? Is there one that is available, or is there a non-disclosure agreement on this settlement, Mr. Smith?

[Scott Smith]

The minutes of settlement are covered under settlement privilege.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

Okay. I'm going to come back to this question.

There were some questions asked about these types of behaviours happening. I want to try to work with you on the theme of assaults.

How many complaints has Hockey Canada received regarding bad behaviour of the players? I want to look at overall—not just sexual assault, but overall. You've described about one to two per year. Does that one to two a year include other types of assault, or just sexual assault?

[Scott Smith]

I believe the number that I shared in response to the previous questions was related to sexual assault. Over a year ago, our members and our board approved a new rule with respect to maltreatment to eradicate all forms of discrimination.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

Fantastic. I'm going to go into that. I have read that report. I've already read your lines of codes and things like that.

Two a year are just sexual. How about if we're looking at other sources? We're looking at any other type of treatment, on the ice or off the ice. Have you had any other complaints outside of just sexual assault?

[Scott Smith]

The answer to that is I believe we have. I can't provide you the details of that, unfortunately. I wasn't prepared for that today.