Canada's 2003 World Hockey Junior team also accused of sexual assault

[StanleyCupOneDay]

On 7/22/2022 at 11:20 AM, Vinny in Vancouver said:

Are we the only country whose junior teams are being accused of sexual assault? If so, we should maybe learn how other countries are implementing their programs? If the allegations are true, what would possess the minds of these young men to treat a woman as an object? Is our glorification of the players or the game somehow enabling this behaviour? Is it too much time spent away from parents or school or moral/spiritual support groups? We need to find out - for everyone's sakes.

I guarantee it isn’t only Canada sports programs with these issues. It’s men sports in general that has this problem and it’s been ongoing for decades if not centuries. Only recently has this kind of behavior been deemed unacceptable by our society and generated public backlash. Even 10 years ago this would be a “boys will be boys” waved aside issue. Other countries aren’t as concerned about the protection or safety of others, just about winning those medals. I also guarantee you far worse has happened with other country’s players in their sports programs.
 

Canada is usually (but not all the time) ahead of the curve of the world when it comes to right vs wrong issues and in recognizing the need to rectify and change what is and isn’t acceptable as we evolve further as a society. That’s not saying we’re some perfect country, we most certainly aren’t. There are definitely far more others that are worse though; the states for example. You think drunk sex that’s alleged as an assault gets one bat of an eye from anyone down there reporters included? How about Europe? Don’t get me started about the atrocities that occur in underdeveloped country programs.
 

Just because no one’s been accused doesn’t mean nothing bad has happened. The only difference between the rest of the world and us is ordinary Canadians care enough now for reporters to dig into both past and current incidents/assaults and so they’re being brought to light while the rest of the world’s atrocities against women are still hidden in the dark.

[EddieVedder]

On 7/25/2022 at 6:09 PM, stawns said:

I could tell some horrible stories from playing Jr in the 80's.  High level hockey players are not great people, for the most part.

Tell them.  Theres no reason not to.

[StanleyCupOneDay]

On 7/23/2022 at 9:28 PM, Jaimito said:

Who filmed and kept the video? That's perverse. 

Edit: just the tsn link above. Then what took them so long to reveal this? Maybe it's the Kyle Beach incident and changing culture of not tolerating silence.   

Disturbing. 

I said it at the time, but the Beach assault basically was the crack that finally at long last broke the dam around assaults/unacceptable behavior in hockey (maybe even sports in general). There’s many more stories still hidden in the dark. For the first time that I recall the overwhelming majority of the male dominated hockey world response was empathy for Beach and anger at anyone who knew (let alone the person who perpetrated the vile act). This was a different and new kind of response. It quite honestly happily surprised me. There of course were still those who blamed the victim or didn’t believe him, but they were a very, very small minority.
 

Once victims of crimes feel comfortable enough that they will be believed (by far the most important factor in deciding whether to come forward or not) they start to come out to tell their stories. And one person leads to another feeling comfortable in coming forward. That person leads to another person and so on and so forth. As one of the clearest recent examples of this phenomenon look at what happened after 1 woman accused Trump of sexual assault. It lead to 22 others coming forward as well as a Republican woman telling her story coming out against former Senatorial Republican candidate Roy Moore in freaking Alabama of all places. Those other victims have said nothing for decades and would continue to be silent if not for that brave and courageous first person who started the domino effect. 
 

Any previous incident/assault reported in the hockey world was treated as ho hum or waved aside by the public/hockey community at large, but now that the paradigm has shifted after Beach and the standard response has become belief of the alleged victim and anger/disgust towards those accused (and anyone who knew, but did nothing), it’s leading more victims to feel safe to tell their own horror stories. Don’t believe for 1 second this is the last story to come out from Canada hockey, Canada sport or Canada in general, there are hundreds if not thousands more waiting to be told and far more then that around the world we haven’t heard yet.

[stawns]

17 minutes ago, EddieVedder said:

Tell them.  Theres no reason not to.

of course there is, I'm not telling explicit stories on a site that lkely has kids on it

Edited July 27, 2022 by stawns

[Gurn]

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/sports/other/hockey-canada-has-paid-7-6m-in-sex-abuse-settlements-since-1989/ar-AA101fnx?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=ddb5940d04444e27a8136ff7280bf8c3

 

OTTAWA — Hockey Canada says it has paid out $7.6 million in nine settlements related to sexual assault and sexual abuse claims since 1989, with $6.8 million of that related to serial abuser Graham James. 

The hockey governing body has been under fire since it was revealed the money in its multimillion-dollar National Equity Fund — which had been reserved for uninsured payments including sexual assault and sexual abuse claims — comes from player fees. 

The fund was also used to pay for the services of a law firm that has been investigating an alleged sexual assault in 2018 that has Hockey Canada officials before a committee of MPs this week. 

Sheldon Kennedy, an advocate for sexual abuse survivors and one of James’s victims, has called on Hockey Canada’s leadership to resign as a result of their handling of the allegations. 

MPs asked Hockey Canada president Scott Smith if he would step down.

Smith says he is prepared to take on the responsibility for change, but if Hockey Canada’s governance decides he is not the right person for the job, he will accept that.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 27, 2022.

The Canadian Press