Canadian Heritage Committee on July 27th, 2022

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

You've had no other role in connection with any particular events within Hockey Canada?

[Barry F. Lorenzetti]

Madam Chair, specifically, our company has been a sponsor of Hockey is Hers, women in hockey through Hockey Canada.

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

Okay, but you haven't served as a chair of any of the tournaments or championships?

[Barry F. Lorenzetti]

No, I haven't.

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

Would you know the identity of the person who's responsible.... We heard testimony earlier about the national equity fund and that Graham James was the perpetrator who was responsible for a number of the payments that were made to victims.

Would you know the identity of the person who was responsible for the four settlements made through the national equity fund that were not related to Mr. James?

[Barry F. Lorenzetti]

No.

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

You'd have no knowledge of that?

[Barry F. Lorenzetti]

Not personally, no, sir.

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

Okay.

Just a remark from your initial comments, you stated that not all coverage was recoverable. I would appreciate it if you could elaborate a little bit more about that.

[Barry F. Lorenzetti]

Again, can you be more specific? Are you referring to 2003, the Carcillo claim? As I mentioned earlier, every incident or claim is different in our industry.

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

This was in your initial presentation.

In general, when you talk about not all coverage being recoverable, you mean in the same way that we've spoken about earlier, that not everything is able to be paid out of insurance.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have 22 seconds.

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

There may be, in some cases, a need for additional funds to be brought to bear.

[Barry F. Lorenzetti]

Exactly. That's a good point. It's exactly what I was attempting to say, and that, of course, is one of the reasons Hockey Canada set up this fund for that as well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much, Peter. That's it.

We now go to the Conservatives for five minutes. I don't know who that's going to be.

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

Hello, Hedy. It's me.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You got the luck of the draw today.

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

I sure did.

Thank you.

We're talking about the national equity fund. We're talking about the insurance that AIG would be able to provide. I know they mentioned that, immediately, on that day in 2018, their insurance company was aware of this.

Can you share with me the types of discussions that Hockey Canada had with you specifically in those first few days on whether or not they could use the insurance or whether they then had to dig into the national equity fund? Can you share with me the conversations you would have had with them?

[Barry F. Lorenzetti]

Madam Chair, let me be very specific to this point. There were absolutely no details furnished in 2018. This was simply an incident report, and that's all we were made aware of—an incident report. I believe that was June 19 or June 20.

What we would normally do under those circumstances is that my team would then report this incident report to AIG.

In probably under 10%, 7% to 8% of the time, incident reports turn out to be claims, so very few claims arise out of pure incident reports.

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

Okay, so there was an incident report that was sent up to AIG regarding this with Hockey Canada.

Did a report from AIG ever come down and just say what they would and would not cover? Was there any advice from the insurance company on what they would and would not cover?

[Barry F. Lorenzetti]

Madam Chair, as I'm attempting to explain, we didn't have any detail. It was a simple incident report.

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

So an incident report gives you no facts. It just kind of gives you: there was an incident; it happened in London, Ontario, and it was sexual assault. That's about all of the detail that you would have had from that.

The insurance company doesn't do any follow up? There's not a concern about what type of incident happened? It's just an incident, and it ends?

[Barry F. Lorenzetti]

Madam Chair, it's an incident report, and the insurer was satisfied that Hockey Canada immediately turned to a law firm to do an investigation, so that was well appreciated by the insurance company.

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

Although we heard about the investigation, the investigation obviously stopped right after they paid out, so no due diligence was done on that. That, to me, is very concerning. They started this system and they could continue with it but they decided not to. If they really want to change the culture of hockey, then do a full investigation on all the players. That was something I thought should really be happening here.

With the funds, for instance, getting away from the national equity fund, we talk about what would and would not be covered. Would AIG usually cover a situation where there was non-consensual sex? If it was a claim relating to non-consensual sex, is this something for which you would see AIG pay out?

[Barry F. Lorenzetti]

Again, I cannot speak on behalf of.... I also have client privilege and I can't speak—