Kennedy stands by CHL report on abuse

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This article was published 27/01/2022 (1019 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A week after the Canadian Hockey League attempted to downplay a report looking into abuse within its ranks — a report the CHL itself commissioned — Sheldon Kennedy says he stands by the work that was done.

“I personally believe that we, as a committee, met all of the requirements requested by the CHL for our study,” Kennedy said in an email to the Free Press Friday, “which includes: the process we followed, the interviews we conducted and the recommendations and outcomes we produced.”

The report was released last Friday, conducted by an independent panel that included Kennedy. Despite the report being completed and presented to the CHL board of governors in Dec. 2020, it was only made public last week — a full year later.

Among its outcomes, it revealed elite junior hockey in Canada has a systemic culture resulting in maltreatment becoming an “embedded norm.” It also found that incidents of off-ice misconduct are rarely reported, owing, in part, to a “code of silence.”

“… Off-ice misconduct does exist (in the Canadian Hockey League), and that the systemic culture in the League has enabled this to become a cultural norm,” the report states. “Maltreatment that, outside of hockey, would not be acceptable, has become an embedded behaviour in this hierarchical organization and the level of acceptance is too high.”

The CHL comprises three junior organizations, including the Western Hockey League, Ontario Hockey League and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

The report was written by a three-person panel — Camille Thériault, former premier of New Brunswick; Kennedy, a former NHLer and abuse survivor and advocate; and Danièle Sauvageau, a former police officer of 33 years and Olympic gold medalist. The panel was asked by the CHL to investigate allegations of bullying, discrimination and harassment within the three leagues.

While the CHL called the report “an important step in the process of ensuring that the CHL player experience is amongst the best in sport,” and that “the findings and recommendations were informative,” it claimed that it “was not entirely responsive to the terms of reference.”

“As such, a second, more detailed review of the league-level policies was required,” the CHL said.

The panel’s methodology included reviewing the league’s existing policies; complaints filed from the member organizations from 2017 to 2019 regarding maltreatment; interviews with some of the country’s top experts in abuse in sport; confidential interviews with agents, current and former players, coaches, owners, among others; as well as a Leger survey that was completed by 31 league GMs, 59 coaches, 98 staff members, 259 players and 212 families.

What followed were 13 findings and the same number of recommendations.

The Leger survey found that 52 per cent of families, as well as 40 per cent of staff, 32 per cent of players, 25 per cent of coaches and 23 per cent of GMs, believe bullying exists in the CHL. Furthermore, 41 per cent of families, 33 per cent of staff, 24 per cent of players, 20 per cent of coaches and 19 percent of GMs believe discrimination also occurs.

The survey also uncovered that 65 per cent of GMs and 54 per cent of coaches don’t believe the CHL is facing any of these challenges.

Kennedy disagrees with the CHL’s stance that the independent panel didn’t meet its outlined expectations. The panel is not legally permitted to comment on its research process, but Kennedy believes the report paves a way to a brighter future in junior hockey.

“In order to see REAL culture change pertaining to the many critical social/human issues that continue to make the headlines, there needs to be a sustained effort to educate on the prevention of bullying, abuse, harassment and discrimination in sport,” Kennedy said. “From the beginning to the end of one’s journey. This change is possible and can only happen through leadership and accountability.”

To make up for its perceived shortcomings of the first report, the CHL tasked Rachel Turnpenney of Turnpenney Milne LLP, a law firm out of Toronto that practices exclusively in the area of workplace law, to conduct a second review. Turnpenney did not interview any current or former players, her report confined to “written policies, procedures and programs and information provided by the member leagues about their current player wellbeing programs.”

The report also provided comments, as well as noted some inconsistencies, against the independent panel’s 13 recommendations.

In a story published last week, the Free Press identified a timeline of events that suggested the CHL was under pressure to reveal the first report, or risk having it made public through court-ordered action.

A motion was put forward on Dec. 1, 2021, by Koskie Minsky, the Toronto-based law firm handling an ongoing class-action lawsuit against the CHL, to have the independent review panel’s results be released. The motion was to be argued in court next month.

The motion seemed to create a lose-lose situation for the CHL. Had they lost in court, the CHL would have been forced to publicly reveal the findings of the independent panel. Even if the CHL had won, they would have been seen as actively trying to suppress the findings of a report they commissioned.

Days after the motion was filed, the review by Turnpenney was commissioned and then completed a short time before last week’s public release of both reports.

In an emailed statement to the Free Press, the CHL said it wasn’t going to discuss its litigation strategy, but claimed that “well before the plaintiff filed his motion we had begun the process of commissioning a second report and had also indicated we would be making the first report public.”

The formation of the first report by the independent panel was commissioned in July 2020 as a response to the class-action lawsuit, which was brought forward just days before, led by former players Dan Carcillo and Garrett Taylor.

The plaintiffs claim the CHL and its teams, as well as their respective executives, “have perpetuated a toxic environment which condones violent, discriminatory, racist, sexualized, and homophobic conduct, including physical and sexual assault, on the underage players that they are obliged to protect.” The affidavits, filed by 14 former CHL players, cover a 35-year period, between 1979 and 2014.

“The Independent Panel Report appears to reflect much of what the Plaintiffs and the Class Members have reported in their affidavits filed in the class action. In particular, their allegations with respect to toxic culture, abuse, fear of retaliation and a closed-environment,” said James Sayce, the lead lawyer in the class-action suit, in an e-mail to the Free Press. “This type of conduct has no place in sport, and more generally in Canadian society. We will continue to push this class action — there are thousands of putative class members who deserve an opportunity to share their stories.”

Jeff.Hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jeffkhamilton