Someone needs to step up

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This article was published 09/09/2025 (392 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Silence is golden. Until it is not.

The trial of the Famous Five junior hockey players in London, Ont. ended on July 21 with a “not guilty” verdict. The Crown indicated on Aug. 21 that it would not appeal the verdict.

Since then, silence. Not one of these players has had the courage to come forward and say, “I am sorry.” No, it seems everyone involved in this trial is entrenched in their position that they are blameless.

It is sad that none of these individuals is willing to be the better person and take responsibility for their behaviour. How unfortunate that no one has seen fit to step up, be honest and say, “I made a mistake, I’m human, I disappointed a lot of people, but I am going to move forward determined to right this wrong.”

Instead, these individuals have deferred to their advisers who have undoubtedly said there is too much at stake at this point to say anything. When the time is right, we will probably see a carefully crafted public relations statement designed to pave the way for their return to the NHL.

The effect of this silence has been to enable the online pundits to reinforce the right-wing view that women are untrustworthy and should be subservient to men. Matt Walsh, a far-right commentator, described the trial as a “hoax” and said the complainant, E.M., should be imprisoned.

Indeed, others have called upon E.M. to apologize to these young men for damaging their reputations and costing them millions in legal fees and lost salaries. Of course, those who take this position conveniently neglect to mention that these junior hockey players were representing Canada and had signed a code of conduct requiring them to adhere to a high standard of behaviour.

Then there are the right-wing religious commentators who use this trial to indicate that life would be much better if we embraced fundamentalist Christian values. In their patriarchal view, women should be submissive to men. After all, God created man first and then later woman to assist man.

The ensuing silence related to this trial has also enabled the academic/intellectual right wing to chime in that feminism is at fault here. Feminism, representing social, economic and political equality for women, has predisposed women to want to be degraded during sex. Denigration according to these sources is arousing because it is taboo.

It is a strange world that we live in. If you look south of us, it is a world that doesn’t respect women.

The U.S. president openly boasts of sexually abusing women while his Secretary of Defence posts a video of religious leaders — suggesting he supports their postion — saying that they would repeal the 19th Amendment which gives women the right to vote.

Silence is not golden when important issues are at stake. Neutrality favours the oppressor.

It is time for a statement from these former junior hockey players which affirms respect for women and takes responsibility for their egregious conduct.

The closest we have come to something like this occurred when Carter Hart’s lawyer stated that “Instead of pursuing restorative justice, the Crown forced a distressing and unfair trial to the detriment of Mr. Hart, his co-accused, the complainant and the Canadian public.”

It may well be that a restorative justice alternative to an adversarial trial would have resulted in a better outcome for all concerned.

A restorative justice process might have facilitated a more comprehensive look at the complexities and nuances of a case that had everything to do with culture, maturity, power and systemic failure.

Indeed, it may have shed light on who was harmed not only from a legal point of view but also from an emotional, moral and personal point of view.

As it stands, however, no one associated with this trial has emerged as a winner. The best that can be said about this trial is that the public interest has been served by the discourse surrounding issues of consent and how sexual violence victims are treated in the criminal justice system.

And somehow that seems like a rather Pyrrhic victory.

Mac Horsburgh writes from Winnipeg where he was a course conductor for Hockey Canada’s Speak Out program.