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Ottawa Gee-Gees hockey players feel ‘smeared’ by team suspension that followed rape allegations

Ottawa Gee-Gees hockey players feel ‘smeared’ by team suspension that followed rape allegations

There is an active criminal investigation in Thunder Bay, Ont., into allegations of sexual assault against University of Ottawa Gee-Gees hockey players, and that ought to be where the focus remains.

Four weeks after that story hit the news, though, the university's choice to impose a collective punishment on the entire men's hockey program is drawing heavy criticism. On Tuesday, graduating goaltender Harrison May, who wasn't on the Thunder Bay road trip where the incident took place, became the first player to speak to the media since the suspension was imposed, telling CBC Ottawa he felt bitter over "just the way they handled it, to suspend the whole hockey team and not, really, fully explain it." Patrick Burns, a defenceman and alternate captain, also wrote an open letter where he felt his "good name have been smeared by the very university I spent so much time working to promote."

The hurt Burns and May, along with other teammates who are cooperating with the Thunder Bay police's investigation (key condition), is very real. It should be taken into account to some extent, but it is far from the whole story. Feeling their pain shouldn't mean losing sight of the fact that this is the kind of coverage that flows from having only one side being able to talk to the media.

The victim cannot go public, obviously. Police are investigating, and uOttawa cannot comment without compromising its internal review of the men's hockey team.

Collective punishments are never going to be popular. It does seem to be the way, for good or ill, that Canadian universities deal with a varsity sports team hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons. That can range from the relatively benign such as forfeiting a couple games for alcohol-related misbehaviour. Or for something that seemed sensational at the time, like when Waterloo punted away its 2010 football season after that so-called steroid scandal that didn't result in any coach or administrator losing his job.

It sucks to be a graduating Gee-Gees hockey player, although one should put herself/himself in the shoes of every other varsity athlete whose team doesn't have players presently facing rape allegations. Honouring the graduating men's hockey players at the same time that others might have dishonoured the university is not going to fly. Hence the shunning, alas.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.