Canadian Heritage Committee on June 20th, 2022

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

Were any of the players' teams notified of this allegation from 2018, prior to the settlement and the allegation we've seen?

[Scott Smith]

You mean the players' teams at what time?

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

I mean between 2018 and the spring when the lawsuit was launched.

[Scott Smith]

The players' teams were advised in June or July of 2018. I'm sorry, but I don't want to misstep on the dates. It was within days of the incident, and they were encouraged to participate in the independent investigation.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

The teams were notified of this allegation.

I have one final question. Mr. Renney mentioned in his opening comments that Sport Canada was informed, as per contribution agreements. Who at Sport Canada was informed, and on what date?

[Tom Renney]

We did inform.... I apologize for my memory.

I'm sorry, Scott. Thank you.

[Scott Smith]

I believe on June 26 we informed Sport Canada through our sport consultant and our principal contact, Nicole Mulligan.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much. That's the end of your session, John.

I will move now to Anthony Housefather for the Liberals, for six minutes.

Go ahead, please, Anthony.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Thank you so much, Madam Chair.

Thank you, gentlemen, for being here today.

I want to start by saying that I recognize all of the good work that is done by the staff and volunteers at Hockey Canada and all of the different sports federations in the country. I don't view this as an adversarial proceeding. We're here to get information on behalf of Canadians. Hopefully we'll all treat this process in such a way.

You said that on May 3 you were served. There was a claim filed on April 20, 2022, against Hockey Canada, the Canadian Hockey League and the eight John Doe defendants who were alleged to have been involved in the incident. All of the John Doe defendants were served at the Hockey Canada address. How did you transmit that claim to the John Doe defendants?

[Scott Smith]

We actually were never formally served with the claim. Our offices remain closed due to the pandemic, so the attendance at our office is quite sporadic. We received a copy of the statement of claim through the Canadian Hockey League. Our counsel spoke to the plaintiff's counsel, and we waived the requirement for serving. We communicated with the players' representatives.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

You communicated directly with the counsel or representative of the eight different players.

[Scott Smith]

It was with their representative.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

When Hockey Canada settled the lawsuit, did you settle on behalf of only Hockey Canada or was it on behalf of Hockey Canada, the Canadian Hockey League and the John Doe defendants?

[Scott Smith]

We settled on behalf of all the defendants.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

You paid out a settlement—whatever that amount was, because it's confidential—on behalf of all of the different defendants in the case?

[Scott Smith]

We took the responsibility on the basis that we wanted to respect the young woman's right to privacy. You can appreciate that we've known about this since June 2018. We received the statement of claim through the Canadian Hockey League. We took responsibility to speak to the plaintiff's counsel, and we entered into settlement discussions immediately.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

I understand, but just to be clear, that means that none of the eight alleged accused contributed to the settlement amount. Is that correct?

[Scott Smith]

Hockey Canada took responsibility, yes.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Let me come back, then. You were aware from 2018 of the identity of the accused. Have any disciplinary actions been taken against any of the alleged accused in any way?

[Scott Smith]

For clarity, we are not aware. We were not able to confirm the identity of the accused—

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

That's different from what I understood.

[Scott Smith]

—through our third party investigator.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Let me understand and come back, then.

They served you with the documents. You were never advised of who the eight John Doe accused were. From the independent investigation you did through Henein Hutchison, for whatever reasons—lack of co-operation or whatever—you were never actually able to ascertain who the eight people were.

[Scott Smith]

As you can appreciate, we wanted a third party to conduct that investigation for us. If they had been able to confirm, there would have been discipline. Actually, it would have gone to a three-person adjudication panel. Neither that third party nor the London Police Service were able to confirm who the accused were.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

From your own perspective, while protecting the identity of the alleged victim, Hockey Canada never thought it necessary to try to determine internally, from the limited number of players who were on this team, the actions of the accused?