Madam Chair, I am Randy Gumbley a consultant with the World Association of Icehockey Players Unions.
Before I address this committee on the decades of various forms of abuse suffered by CHL players under the leadership of the pro hockey league, the Canadian Hockey League and its partner NSO, Hockey Canada, I'll say that I do so with the intention of creating awareness in order to create much needed change in the culture of hockey and sport in general, while protecting athletes' rights. I hope that this committee will be able to foster new-found trust for parents, athletes and sponsors within the amateur sporting system in Canada.
In 1968, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau appointed a task force to investigate amateur sport in Canada. The task force found that amateur sport should have no affiliation with pro sport. It demanded that immediate and drastic action be taken in the following areas: the binding of minors into contracts; contracts that deny players rights and indenture players into a form of slavery; and how major junior hockey was operating under the guise of the amateur system.
The Downey report recommended the following changes: prohibiting teams from entering into contracts with minors; restricting contracts that prohibit the players from having the freedom to associate both in inter league and intra league; and separating pro sport from the NSOs. These recommendations helped form what we know today as section 48 of the Competition Act.
Sadly, over a half century later, these very same issues are alive and well. These athletes are still at the mercy of the cartel hockey group.
In 1976, players playing in the CHL had entered into contracts that require them to pay 20% of their future earnings back to CHL clubs if they made the NHL.
In 2001, the Canada Revenue Agency tax court ruled that players in the CHL were employees and debunked the student amateur athlete classification from the CHL.
In 2013, the CHL was notified of wage and hour violations. The next step that the CHL took was extraordinary in nature. The CHL conspired with the NSO Hockey Canada to change the classification of players from professional to the highest level of non-professional. Then the league issued a memo to its clubs to no longer comply with the Canada Revenue Agency regulations. The QMJHL voided all player contracts that used to classify players as employees.
In 2014, finally, the CHL was sued for $180 million for wage and hour theft.
In 2018, at a Portland senate hearing, the CHL was informed by players of various forms of abuses in the league. The Portland government denied the WHL requests for employment standards changes. Weeks later, the CHL tried to intimidate spokespersons just days before a Quebec National Assembly hearing on employment laws by threatening the players with a libel suit if they spoke out against the abuses in sport.
In 2018, a criminal complaint was filed with the Competition Bureau of Canada, stemming from a clause in a player contract that demanded that the player pay a $500,000 release fee if he left the league.
From 2014 to 2020, the CHL, while using Hockey Canada's amateur insurance policies, defended their class action to the tune of about $20 million in legal plus another $15 million in settlement money, which came out of the amateur system.
The CHL managed to circumvent hour and wage laws in various provinces across Canada. No one questioned why, if the laws had to be changed, the existing laws weren't enforced,.
Hockey Canada and the CHL have managed to create a system where the CHL attempts to claim amateur status for financial gain, but maintains a pro system to systemically contaminate players from scholarship eligibility in the NCAA.
In 2018, 2019 and 2020, Hockey Canada, the IIHF and office of the minister of sport were informed of the various forms of abuses. This fell upon deaf ears.
In September of 2020, the players sued the NHL, Hockey Canada and CHL for anti-competitive acts.
In 2020, players also sued in a very high-profile case, which we know today was Daniel Carcillo and Garrett Taylor.
I ask you, where is the justice when athletes go to court, but the cartel is able to lobby officials to change laws during the middle of a trial?
Where is the justice when the Competition Bureau takes four years to act on a complaint, or when the NSO conspires with a pro sport league to deprive athletes of not only a wage but also of access to educational scholarships? Where is the justice when Hockey Canada assumes $125 million in a slush fund that is meant to be used for uninsurable events, but, when a referee suffers a severe, life-threatening, crippling spinal injury, Hockey Canada offers him $345 for a payment and said the insurance wouldn't cover him? That referee, Derrick Henderson, spent the next 10 years in courts trying to be paid.