Canadian Heritage Committee on June 20th, 2022

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

Going back to Hockey Canada, we know there were players involved. Were any coaches, trainers or managers also involved in what happened in 2018?

[Scott Smith]

As I've said on multiple occasions, neither the London Police Service nor our third party investigator could confirm what happened that evening. To the best of—

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

That's fair enough, but I'm asking one of the people who's in charge of one of the biggest and strongest organizations here in Canada, which is Hockey Canada. I am asking you. These are people who are working for you.

Were any coaches, trainers and managers involved in any of this?

[Scott Smith]

Again, I can't confirm. I don't believe so, but I can't confirm that.

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

The reason I'm asking you is that I think one of the most important things is leadership and the type of leadership we have. We can educate people all we want, but unless we're leading by our actions, it's not going to work out very well.

I want to turn it into.... How many times has Hockey Canada paid out to any complainant?

[Scott Smith]

Again, that is beyond the scope of what we're discussing here today. I think I made reference to that in an earlier question. I think there were settlements before my time of being directly involved in those, related to the Graham James incident. I am aware of that, but I don't have them all in front of me.

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

I'm looking at training and education when it comes to Hockey Canada, and at sexual harassment and healthy relationship policies. Obviously you would have those. What are the consequences for somebody who has been found to be in violation of one of your policies? What are some of the consequences for players?

[Scott Smith]

What we've talked about is that at a national level, we don't want to be in a situation in which we're handling that discipline. We would assign that to a third party adjudication panel so we could not be perceived as interfering in any way.

It's more perception than anything. I don't believe that Hockey Canada would interfere, but we want to avoid any perception that we would interfere with the discipline.

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

Thank you.

I think sometimes there may be discussions.... What's the difference between the CHL—which has the OHL, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, and the Western Hockey League—and Hockey Canada? What is the relationship between Hockey Canada and the CHL?

[Scott Smith]

Hockey Canada is the national sport organization. We're responsible for all national teams, from the women's under-18 team, which won gold last week, to the Olympic teams. We're also the governing body for about 650,000 registered players, in terms of prepandemic numbers.

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

Would you be the governing body under the CHL, then, with the CHL being—

[Scott Smith]

The CHL is an independent league that is a partner of Hockey Canada. We partner in the operation of our under-17, under-18 and under-20 programs.

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

I want to turn, if you don't mind, to Mr. Andrews.

You talked about the Order of Hockey gala and looking at restrictions you may have to place on that. Since Hockey Canada, I believe, is for children and youth under the age of 20, what is the average age of your players who come to these types of hockey galas?

[Dave Andrews]

Generally speaking, the players who attend are members of teams that win world championships. The example this year would be the women's under-18 world champions, the women's Olympic team gold medalists and the women's world champions.

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

You would have a cross-section of any of our U17 teams and national teams that would be playing annually.

[Dave Andrews]

Yes, it would be from any of those teams. I don't believe the under-17s would qualify. I might be wrong. I believe from under-18 up on both the men's and women's sides, if they were to win a world championship, they would be invited to the gala.

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

With Hockey Canada, what is the mandate of the foundation itself? What is it that you are raising monies for when it comes to Hockey Canada?

[Dave Andrews]

I'll be as brief as I can. We have a mission with our board of directors across the country to raise money, particularly to remove barriers to participation for young children across the country. We have the Hockey Canada Foundation Assist Fund, which has provided money to help with registration during the pandemic. We have the Hockey Is Hers program the main focus of which is to help us grow women's hockey.

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

Fantastic.

In all of that, do you have a sexual assault policy or an abuse policy for the foundation?

[Dave Andrews]

The foundation does not.

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

It does not have one.

Do you think that's something, as you're dealing with this...? We're looking at the fact that this is the Hockey Canada Foundation. We're seeing some of these gaps. [Technical difficulty—Editor] We know there's a problem. We've known for generations.

Are we all done? Thanks very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Karen. Perhaps somebody can pick up that question in another round.

We now go to Adam van Koeverden.

Adam, go ahead for five minutes, please, for the Liberals.

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Milton, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to the witnesses and their representation for joining us today. This is a very important meeting.

First I'd like to make sure it's on the record—I know it's been said in other words—that it is imperative and we insist that no documentation be presented to this or any committee that might compromise the identity of the alleged victim. I also feel it necessary to state on the record that in cases like this, victims are far too often obliged to make their identities known in order to legally identify an accused. That's a challenge for the system, and that's a problem with this system, in my view.

I have two adjacent questions. I'll be the next Liberal on the list.

I would like to start by discussing some of the issues that have occurred since. You've mentioned a few times changes to the code and how Hockey Canada is on a journey. Can you point to specific changes to that code of conduct, please?

[Scott Smith]

I believe I made reference to the depth of our education around the code of conduct, as opposed to maybe a situation in which it was reviewed not as extensively or thoroughly, or assessed and talked about with specific examples. We've added information with respect to sexual assault and morality clauses. We continue to review that and link it to overall education initiatives that are not specific to just the signing of our code of conduct. We're building out additional modules with respect to appropriate consent, sexual assault and appropriate behaviour.

[Adam van Koeverden, Liberal, Milton, ON]

Thank you. I'm glad to hear that sexual assault is included.

You also mentioned a zero tolerance policy for harassment and sexual abuse. What does a violation of this code of conduct result in?