Alleged group sexual assaults by members of the 2003 and 2018 Canadian world junior hockey teams are just now being investigated by police in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and London, Ontario.
This past Friday, Halifax Regional Police confirmed that it is investigating an assault at the 2003 junior championships. Shortly after that announcement, police officials in London said they are reopening their investigation into a 2018 incident.
Via CBC:
“Two of Canada’s men’s world junior hockey teams are being investigated by police following alleged group sexual assaults in 2003 and 2018.
The two police investigations are the latest developments in an ongoing crisis that has rocked Hockey Canada and led to its funding being suspended by the federal government and several major corporate sponsors.
According to TSN’s reporting, there is an allegation of group sexual assault where more than a half-dozen players from the 2003 world junior team were recorded while engaging in sex with a woman who was “naked and non-responsive.”
It also emerged that Hockey Canada was using its National Equity Fund maintained by membership fees from across the country to pay off sexual assault claims. Hockey Canada said in a statement Thursday that it will not use the fund in that manner moving forward.
“Hockey Canada is committed to bringing an end to the culture of silence in hockey,” Hockey Canada said a statement Friday. “That is why we are publicly calling for anyone with knowledge of this incident to come forward to police, and we are being transparent in how we learned of this alleged assault and the steps we are taking to address it.”
Four retired NHL players, who were part of Canada’s 2003 world junior hockey lineup, say they were not aware of the alleged group sex assault involving members of that year’s team. Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau, Jordin Tootoo, Carlo Colaiacovo, and Nathan Paetsch took to Twitter over the weekend, stating that they hadn’t heard of the incident before the allegation surfaced in a TSN report on Friday.
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