Thank you, Madam Chair.
Bonjour. I appreciate the opportunity to appear today.
Like many Canadians, sport has been very important to me throughout my life. Growing up, I was a competitive swimmer, and I played soccer and hockey at the elite level. I was captain of the Cornell University women’s hockey team and assistant coach for the University of Ottawa varsity women's team, and I have refereed at the highest levels in women’s hockey. I am a partner at a Toronto-based law firm, where I lead our firm’s mental health initiative and chair our diversity and inclusion program, which was recently internationally recognized.
Community service has always been a high priority for me. I have served as a mentor to girls’ minor hockey associations, founded and directed a running and reading program for disadvantaged children in Ottawa, and served as a board member of Hockey Helps the Homeless.
I ran for election to the board of Hockey Canada in November 2020. It was a way for me to give back to the sport. From the beginning, a primary objective of mine was to make the sport more accessible, safe, inclusive and welcoming to existing and new participants. Our board shares this perspective.
There has been a lot of talk about toxic culture in hockey and a culture of silence. These behaviours are contrary to the fundamental values of respect, safety, fair play and authenticity. They include bullying, disrespectful or demeaning language, harassment, sexism, racism and sexual abuse or assault. While hundreds of thousands of participants across the country have never experienced such unacceptable behaviour in hockey, unquestionably it does exist. Any instance of this behaviour in hockey should not be tolerated.
Regrettably, toxic behaviour exists throughout society. No segment of society is immune. Culpable behaviour such as sexual assault, whether in our educational systems, the business environment, the political sphere or our religious institutions, is evil and reprehensible. Suggesting that toxic behaviour is somehow a specific hockey problem or to scapegoat hockey as a centrepiece for toxic culture is, in my opinion, counterproductive to finding solutions. It risks overlooking the change that needs to be made more broadly to prevent and address toxic behaviour, particularly against women. When these issues arise, we must do our absolute best to deal with them in the most humane, sensitive and responsible way possible.
My perspective on the settlement of the lawsuit involving allegations of sexual assault in London in 2018 is that, as a board, we wanted to do what we viewed as being responsible and respectful, particularly regarding the wishes of the young woman involved. When the statement of claim was filed earlier this year, we handled it based on the information we had at the time and based on professional advice. Our instinct was one of compassion for the young woman and a sincere desire to respect her wishes and perspective. We were keenly aware of the alternative to settling, which was that legal proceedings in these types of situations can revictimize people in a very traumatic way. I personally did not want to see the young woman subjected to the cruelty and invasiveness of an adversarial court process involving cross-examination and harsh defence tactics.
Our board does not share the view that Hockey Canada should be making more leadership changes at this time. As a board, we continue to support the CEO and management. We believe it's in the best interest of Hockey Canada and all its participants that the organization’s leadership remain stable.
All nine positions on the board of directors are up for election later this year. We are in the midst of a governance review by a former Supreme Court of Canada justice, who is examining the structure and composition of the board and senior management. The board believes that Hockey Canada’s CEO and his executive team have the skills and ability to lead Hockey Canada, including through the execution of our action plan, on which we've already made good progress, and the other items in our strategic plan.
Like any group in our society, Hockey Canada has much to do to make hockey better, to do all it can to eliminate toxic behaviour, and to make our game more inclusive and mindful of the importance of diversity, respect and opportunity for all. We are actively promoting and accelerating positive change in the culture of hockey. We have and are continuing to establish additional safeguards and better reporting and handling of maltreatment complaints.
Across the country, our leaders at the provincial, regional and territorial levels are actively participating in efforts to track incidents of maltreatment and in reviewing and enhancing the education and training of players, coaches, officials, parents and volunteers to help address these issues. All of us involved in hockey play a part in eradicating unacceptable behaviour from the game. All of us must be empowered and encouraged to speak up and call out bad behaviour whenever and wherever it occurs.
Thank you again for inviting me here today. I look forward to responding to your questions.
