Hockey Canada's actions suggest they didn't take allegations seriously

Hockey Canada's approach to the parliamentary hearing in June, inquiring into the handling of 2018 sexual assault allegations, suggests the organization did not take the scrutiny of its 'toxic' culture seriously.

Video Transcript

JULIAN MCKENZIE: I would love to know from you, Sam-- of all the details that have surrounded Hockey Canada over the last how many days and weeks and months, is there something that stands out to you that's, like, more frustrating than anything else-- or maybe not even a detail, but just anything about how this all has unfolded that's just really frustrating?

SAM CHANG: Yeah, I think-- I mean, all of it is pretty frustrating. I thought, for starters, the manner in which Scott Smith and Tom Rennie showed up at the first parliamentary hearing where they were woefully underprepared, I thought that was embarrassing. That they weren't able to answer questions put to them by members of parliament was embarrassing.

And, frankly, I think they shot themselves in the foot. Like, the reason they have to go back for two days now with way more witnesses is because of how badly they performed in the first one. I think it was clear to me that they did not take it seriously and that they thought this was going to go away.

I think the two other things that have stood out to me is Hockey Canada releasing that statement a couple of days ago where they said, it's come to our attention, that they heard a rumor that, quote unquote, "something bad" happened at the 2003 World Juniors-- they said they had heard about it a few weeks ago, which no one ever heard about. And then they said they hired an independent investigator who wasn't able to find anything.

But somehow, they were able to put out this statement to say, oh, well Rick Westhead called us yesterday and he had found out all of this stuff. So you're telling me you hired an independent investigator who in two weeks could find absolutely nothing, but Rick Westhead spoke to multiple witnesses and had a full story? Like, that smells.

Either your independent investigator is completely useless or you didn't take this very seriously again. And the last thing that's really frustrated me is I think-- and I appreciate that some sponsors have said they're redirecting their funding. But the cutting of funding to Hockey Canada as a result of the men's program actions is negatively impacting the women's program through no fault of their own. And to me, that discussion has been lacking as well.