At the Leon’s Center arena, home of the junior hockey team from Kingston, Ont., a sense of outrage mixed with anticipation as fans gathered for a game grappled with the news that five former Canadian junior hockey players, four of them played in the National Hockey League – was accused last week of sexual assault.
The first hearing for the five defendants was held Monday at the Ontario Court of Justice in London, Ontario, a proceeding attended only by lawyers to set the hearing for the end of April. There the police, who first investigated but did not press charges in 2018, plan to hold their first press conference on the case on Monday afternoon.
The allegations have touched a nerve among fans, leading many to wonder how Hockey Canada, the nation’s sports governing body, responded.
The case came to light in May 2022 after TSN, a sports channel that broadcasts the World Junior Championship, reported that Hockey Canada had paid C$3.5 million, or $2.6 million, to settle a lawsuit filed by a woman who claimed she was sexually assaulted by eight Junior League players. At the time of the attack, all of the players were members of Canada’s junior national team.
It was later reported by The Globe and Mail newspaper that the settlement payment came from a slush fund supported in part by children’s hockey registration fees.
Although the NHL enjoys international fame and recognition, in many smaller communities hockey, the dominant sport in Canada, is more often defined by junior teams of amateur players aged 15 to 20.
Those accused of sexual assault are Michael McLeod, 26, now a center for the New Jersey Devils; Cal Foote, 25, Devils defender; Carter Hart, 25, goalie for the Philadelphia Flyers; Dillon Dubé, 25, center for the Calgary Flames; and Alex Formenton, 24, who is on leave from a Swiss professional team and previously played for the Ottawa Senators. Mr McLeod faces a further charge of sexual assault “for taking part in the offence”.
The players received vacations from their teams. Lawyers for the men said in separate statements that they would vigorously defend their innocence and declined to comment further.
The attack, according to the woman, occurred in London, a city about 120 miles southwest of Toronto. Police looked into the allegations in 2018, but dropped the investigation the following year. No charges have been filed.
The investigation that led to Monday’s court appearance was opened in 2022 after revelations about the legal settlement emerged.
Before he was fired as chief executive of Hockey Canada that year, Scott Smith rejected suggestions that the multimillion-dollar slush fund, formally known as the National Equity Fund, was a mechanism to hide allegations against players. “I strongly oppose the idea of covering this up or sweeping anything under the carpet,” he told a parliamentary committee in 2022.
Sexual assault cases are nothing new to hockey. But in the past, some of the highest profile ones have involved abusive coaches. Over the course of about two decades, Graham James, a former junior hockey coach, was convicted in three separate cases of sexually assaulting players, including Sheldon Kennedy and Theo Fleury, who went on to become NHL stars.
In addition to the police investigation that led to the charges, Hockey Canada and the NHL conducted their own investigations, but neither released details. On Friday, Gary Bettman, the NHL commissioner, said the league would wait until the court process, which could take years, is complete. He described the allegations in the case as “abhorrent, reprehensible, horrible and unacceptable.”
Mr. Bettman said there was no need to suspend without pay the four men who are still on NHL teams because their contracts expire at the end of the season.
“It becomes irrelevant in terms of timing,” he said at a news conference. “They still received most of their annual salary.”
About 3,600 people had gathered at Leon’s Center on Friday to watch the home team, the Kingston Frontenacs, take on the Oshawa Generals. After the game, which the Frontenacs lost, 5-4, some players met with fans at the autograph table.
Monica O’Neill, a nurse who has been a volunteer president of the team’s supporters club for about 25 years, said she would not judge the accused players until their cases were heard in court.
“It’s disgusting to me, actually, because we don’t know what happens behind closed doors,” he said after signing up some fans for a bus trip to a junior game in Ottawa. “We still don’t know who’s telling the truth.”
Michael McNamara, a lifelong Kingston resident and 32-year season ticket holder, said that regardless of how the criminal cases develop, Canadian fans will not be inclined to forgive the governing body.
“One way or another, the truth will come out,” he said. “But I think Hockey Canada will be ridiculed because of the way it was handled — big time.”