Liberal, Bloc MPs vote against questioning Canada Soccer officials over drone scandal
CBC
A parliamentary committee will not question the coaches of the national women's soccer team about the Paris Olympics cheating scandal, after Liberal and Bloc Quebecois MPs voted against launching a study on Monday.
The team was penalized during the Olympics this summer for cheating by taking drone footage of an opponent's practice.
NDP MP Niki Ashton put forward a motion at the House of Commons heritage committee to study what role officials from the team and Canada Soccer played in the scandal.
Ashton wanted to hear from suspended head coach Bev Priestman, former head coach John Herdman, analyst Joseph Lombardi, assistant coach Jasmine Mander and Canada Soccer's CEO.
Ashton said the scandal damaged Canada's reputation and there are still questions that need to be answered.
"It's important for parliamentarians, on behalf of Canadians, to seek some accountability and ensure that we are truly supporting our athletes, especially as we gear up for co-hosting the World Cup in 2026," she told the committee.
Six MPs from the Bloc and the Liberals voted down the motion, while five MPs from the Conservatives and the NDP voted in favour.
Ashton said she's very disappointed that the study won't happen.
"This is a Liberal-Bloc cover up," she said. "Canadians have a lot of questions about what is happening, how deep this mess goes and what it will take to fix it."
Ashton said Canada does not need to have any lingering questions about its ethics ahead of the 2026 World Cup.
Sport Minister Carla Qualtrough, who is not on the committee, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither did Martin Champoux, the Bloc committee member who voted against the motion.
Lombardi was arrested in Paris after authorities captured a drone that was spotted flying over New Zealand's women's soccer team as they practised three days before they were set to face Canada in the Olympics.
The Canadian team was docked six points in the Olympics group stage by FIFA. Canada Soccer was fined about $313,000, and Priestman, Lombardi and Mander were each suspended for a year.
Findings from an independent external review into the scandal are still forthcoming.
The Vancouver Canucks announced Friday that they have traded captain Quinn Hughes to the Minnesota Wild.
Canada's Kevin Drury battled his way to a gold medal that left him in tears at a World Cup ski cross event on Friday in Val Thorens, France.
Soccer fans have accused FIFA of a "monumental betrayal" after latest prices for World Cup tickets began to circulate on Thursday.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is “disappointed” that the main arena slated to host ice hockey at February’s Olympics isn’t yet completed with less than two months to go before the Games are scheduled to be played.
A two-year suspension from competitive swimming has forced Penny Oleksiak to answer questions about drug use, train by herself in public pools and defend her legacy as Canada’s most decorated female Olympian.
Hockey, one of the premier events at the Winter Olympics and one that is welcoming NHL players back for the first time in more than a decade, will take place on ice shorter than NHL-regulation size.
Summer McIntosh capped swimming’s U.S. Open with the event record in the women’s 200-metre butterfly on Saturday in Austin, Texas.
Some bronze medals are worth their weight in gold. Valerie Grenier's third-place finish in women's giant slalom at the Mont-Tremblant World Cup certainly fits that category.
The men’s World Cup draw in Washington D.C. was going well for Canada until Pot 4.
The draw for the 2026 World Cup takes place Friday at 12 p.m. ET at the Kennedy Center in Washington, for the purpose of dividing the 48-team field into 12 groups of four. Once the tournament starts, 32 teams will advance from those preliminary groups to the single-elimination knockout rounds.
The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., buzzed with activity and speculation on Thursday in advance of Friday’s all-important draw for the 2026 men’s World Cup.
By the time the management group for the Canadian men’s national hockey team emerges from marathon meetings on Tuesday, as much as 80 per cent of the roster going to Italy next February should be written in pen.
Canada’s ski mountaineering athletes have their Olympic dreams on the line this weekend at a World Cup event in Solitude, Utah.