Content warning: This article discusses sexual assault.
Former Hockey Canada chair Michael Brind’Amour and his interim replacement, Andrea Skinner, appeared Tuesday (via video conference) in front of the Canadian Heritage Committee on Parliament Hill to answer questions related to the organization’s handling of sexual abuse claims and, more specifically, on whether major leadership changes needed to happen. They opted for delusion and defiance in many of their statements Tuesday.
Hockey Canada has been at the center of a nationwide scandal in recent months in the wake of revelations that it used a discreet account called the “National Equity Fund” — supported, in part, by player registration fees — to settle claims of sexual abuse.
A recent Globe and Mail report indicated Hockey Canada also set up a secondary fund — the “Participants Legacy Trust Fund” — for similar purposes, earmarked for “matters including but not limited to sexual abuse.”
Brind’Amour resigned from his position with Hockey Canada in August in the wake of reports alleging members of Canada’s 2003 and 2018 World Junior teams were involved in group sexual assaults, with the governing body settling a lawsuit related to the 2018 incident.
Both Brind’Amour and Skinner addressed the 2018 settlement in front of the Canadian Heritage Committee, with Brind’Amour saying the organization settled the lawsuit because it “felt inappropriate to victimize the young woman in court.”
Skinner covered largely the same ground as Brind’Amour, saying Hockey Canada had “compassion” for the unnamed woman who filed the lawsuit and “wanted to do what we viewed as being responsible and respectful.”
Multiple members of the Canadian Heritage Committee asked Skinner about the current state of leadership at Hockey Canada. Skinner’s answers were almost uniformly defensive. The interim chair said she grades CEO Scott Smith’s current performance “as an A, under these circumstances” and said he presented the gold medals at the Women’s World Championship with the endorsement of a woman in a leadership position at Hockey Canada.
She said removing the current leaders “will be very impactful in a negative way to our boys and girls who are playing hockey. Will the lights stay on in the rink? I don’t know. We can’t predict that, and to me that’s not a risk worth taking.”
Skinner said calls for a leadership change are based on “substantial misinformation and unduly cynical attacks.”
Conservative MP Kevin Waugh was among those who expressed displeasure with the state of Hockey Canada’s past and current leadership during the session, telling Brind’Amour: “You’re part of the problem.”
Skinner remained firm in striking back against calls for leadership changes, saying she doesn’t believe senior management acted inappropriately and the executives in place are the ones the organization will move ahead with to carry out its “action plan.”
Multiple times, Canadian MPs from a range of parties read aloud passages from Hockey Canada’s board meeting minutes. After Brind’Amour and Skinner discussed the 2018 settlement, Conservative MP John Nater shared this excerpt: “We need to get ahead of communication and shift the narrative. Settlement payments must be viewed in a positive manner.”
Later in the proceedings, Liberal MP Anthony Housefather read from Hockey Canada’s Aug. 2 minutes, in which an unnamed executive criticized media coverage of the organization, supported creating a “communication strategy,” and said, “we need to start defending and stop sitting in the neutral zone.”
Skinner repeatedly expressed her belief that “no segment of society is immune” from toxic culture and said it is “counterproductive” to single out the sport as having issues, shifting the conversation to two politicians who recently faced sexual assault allegations.
After Tuesday’s session, TSN’s Rick Westhead reported that Canada Sport Minister Pascale St-Onge agreed to commission a full audit of Hockey Canada going back to 2016, adding to an existing commitment to perform a partial audit to discover whether the organization used government funds to settle the 2018 World Junior team assault claim.
Further, to previous reports, it appears current Edmonton Oilers chairman and former Hockey Canada executive Bob Nicholson will appear before the Canadian Heritage Committee for the next hearing, which is expected to take place after Thanksgiving.
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