Sending Hockey Canada execs to the farm team won’t solve structural issues

OTTAWA—It is August; the time of year many parents begin to register their children for fall and winter sports. Among those sports, of course, is hockey. I registered my son for another year in minor hockey with no hesitation. However, it was not without emotional complication. Our family’s experience with minor hockey, so far, has been excellent. From volunteer administrators, to coaches, to fellow parents and players, the environment has been positive, upbeat, and respectful. As someone who has been an on-ice assistant coach and helper, I have been rightly required to do a number of Hockey Canada-mandated courses, including Sheldon Kennedy’s Respect in Sport course, which is excellent, and do the requisite police checks. Having been the volunteer chair of another national sports organization, Rugby Canada, and seen through my son’s journey what other sports are doing to promote safe and healthy places to play, Hockey Canada—at the very minor level—does as good or better than others. But as has been recently well documented, learnings at the minor level clearly aren’t being carried forward by by some in certain high-performance settings. Well-documented allegations now circulating about members of the 2003 World Junior men’s team and the 2018 team have rightly captured national attention. Both sets of allegations are horrific and deeply disturbing. Thankfully, police services are now looking into them, one hopes with great vigour. While due process must be followed, the full weight of the law must be meted out. Hockey Canada has had its federal funding frozen. Sponsors and partners have stepped away from the organization. The prime minister, the sports minister, and a parliamentary committee have all weighed in, demanding everything from the resignation of the executive and board to a cleansing of a toxic culture. While the politics is easier here, solving the problems within an organization is not so simple. On the politics, Hockey Canada is a Canadian institution. The sport itself is central to our national identity. While I don’t doubt Parliamentarians are legitimately concerned about what has been reported in relation to the behaviour of players in two national teams, it is a tad opportune for many of them to just simply call for heads to roll. Parliament itself in recent years has been the subject of much criticism for how it deals with sexual harassment and abuse allegations. In some ways, Hockey Canada’s struggles present a nice diversion from the work that still needs to be done across Parliament Hill and government. Through work in the sports world, I have gotten to know a little both Tom Renney, the former CEO of Hockey Canada, and the current president Scott Smith. My experience with them is they were thoroughly decent, thoughtful, and wise. It is not for me to determine whether Smith and his executive team should stay or go, as well as the board of Hockey Canada, who, I suspect, are all volunteers who joined with the best of intentions. Yes, they should all be held accountable. Yes, like just about every national sports organization board in Canada, they should work on diversity or representation. Yes, safety of participants needs to be the No. 1 priority. I just don’t know if blowing up the organization solves the cultural problems that exist in hockey and in other sports. Hockey Canada is the tip of the spear when it comes to high-performance sport. Unfortunately, many of this country’s high-performance environments can be rarified environments where athletic performance takes precedence over human and societal development. The federal government itself funds a highly productive (if medals matter), high-performance sport organization called Own the Podium. Excuses are made for unacceptable behaviour outside the arena because the quest for gold is more important. In no context is it acceptable or legal to sexually abuse or harass anyone else. The call for heads to get lopped off is an immediate, visceral reaction that may be the right one, but if we are going to truly help the victims of sexual violence and prevent such incidents in the future, a deep dive into the system and environment—not just a guillotine—is required. Tim Powers is vice-chairman of Summa Strategies and managing director of Abacus Data. He is a former adviser to Conservative political leaders. The Hill Times