Hockey Canada told feds it could self-govern safe sport cases, boasted of reserve fund
Global News
In a 2019 email to the Sport Minister's office, the organization voiced concerns about any third-party mechanism for investigations, and a new toll-free number for reporting abuse.
Hockey Canada asked the federal government in 2019 if it could self-govern its safe-sport cases, despite facing a “significant potential claim.”
In a three-page email to the Sport Minister’s office, Hockey Canada boasted about its safe-sport management that was “second to none,” but voiced concerns both about any third-party mechanism for investigations, and the new toll-free number for reporting abuse.
The email signed by Glen McCurdie, who was then Hockey Canada’s vice-president of insurance and risk management, also detailed Hockey Canada’s National Equity Fund used for uninsured liabilities, including sexual abuse claims, the organization has maintained since the “late 1990s.”
“It is no secret that Hockey Canada was forced into action regarding sexual misconduct specifically following the Graham James/Sheldon Kennedy revelations that rocked not only our sport, but the nation as a whole in the late 1990s,” McCurdie wrote in the email obtained by The Canadian Press.
“We take great pride in what we have accomplished and continue to accomplish. When we were first faced with this situation, we had financial issues to deal with, in terms of unfunded claims coming at us from hockey players, professional and otherwise. We also had to deal with the establishment of a program our members could access in the event they had similar concerns that were less public in nature.
“We dealt with our ‘financial obligations’ by addressing claim and reports of potential claims in an upfront manner.”
The sport’s national body has been under intense scrutiny since news of an alleged sexual assault following a 2018 gala in London, Ont., involving eight unidentified players — including members of that year’s world junior team — and subsequent hushed settlement broke in May.
Allegations of gang sexual assault involving the 2003 world junior team emerged in July.
