Hockey Canada: 2nd world junior team investigated for alleged group sexual assault

Hockey Canada is investigating an “alleged group sexual assault” they say involved members of the 2002-03 world junior hockey championship team.

The allegation, which Hockey Canada shared publicly in a Friday press release, comes at a time when the organization is already under fire for its handling of an alleged 2018 sexual assault involving eight unnamed players who were on that year’s men’s junior hockey team.

In its press release, Hockey Canada says its staff heard a rumour two weeks ago about “something bad at the 2003 World Juniors.” The organization said it was given no details of “any sort” with regards to those rumours.

The organization said that on Thursday evening it was contacted by a CTV reporter, Rick Westhead, who they say had “disturbing details” of the alleged incident.

Hockey Canada said it had also recently spoken with Conservative MP John Nater who had “similar information” about the allegations.

“The details in Mr. Westhead’s email were deeply disturbing and Hockey Canada immediately contacted Halifax Regional Police, as Halifax was the co-host city of the 2003 IIHF World Junior Championship, and also notified Sport Canada of the information shared with us,” Hockey Canada wrote in its statement.

“We believe the alleged incident from 2003 should be investigated by the authorities, and we urge the police to open an investigation into this disturbing situation.”

Hockey Canada said it “will cooperate with and support the authorities in every way (it) can.”
Since the 2018 allegations first came to light in a TSN report in May, Hockey Canada lost government funding and corporate sponsorship.

by Global News