Shaun Newman Podcast - #784 - Rustlers Basketball Pt. 5

Episode Date: January 23, 2025

On December 5th Lakeland College fired Chris King from his duties as coach of the women’s basketball program. Chris is a six-time ACAC Coach of the Year and a two-time CCAA Coach of the Year, not to mention they were on a 34 game unbeaten streak and a National Champ. In Part 5 of the series, I'm joined by a trio of insightful guests: former assistant coach Tori Dugan, Chris Thiele, who is known as the Reformed Bigfoot and is the father of an athlete, and Taylor Weaver, the Managing Editor of the Lloydminster Meridian Source Newspaper. Together, we delve into several contentious issues surrounding Lakeland College, including the decision to forfeit the season, the implications of freedom of information requests, the rampant rumors circulating the community, and Chris King is just the tip of the iceberg. Cornerstone Forum ‘25 https://www.showpass.com/cornerstone25/ Contribute to the new SNP Studio E-transfer here: [e-mail] Get your voice heard: Text Shaun 587-217-8500 Substack:https://open.substack.com/pub/shaunnewmanpodcast Silver Gold Bull Links: Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/ Email: [e-mail] Text Grahame: [phone]

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This is Tammy Peterson. This is Danielle Smith. This is James Lindsay. Hey, this is Brett Kessel, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Thursday. How's everybody doing today? Before we get on to the show, how about we talk a little silver gold bull, shall we?

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look into when it comes to precious metals and they can help with their in-house solutions, whether buying, selling, storing your precious metals. Text or email, Graham, down in the details, down in the show notes, his number and email is there with any questions you might have around investing in precious metals or for future silver deals exclusively for you, the SMP listener. Anytime you're on Silver Gold Bull and just make sure to reference the S&P. You know, I was waiting on Guardian to get me an ad read. And I thought I'd have a little fun today.

Chat GPT and me were going back and forth. I was like, can you do? I'm assuming there's a ton of people that have used to, you should do a commercial. Okay, so here, this is Chat GPT's sales pitch for Guardian plumbing and heating. Okay. Are you tired of leaky faucets or chilly? rooms. Look no further than Guardian plumbing and heating in Lloyd Minster.

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with it because it's like a part of it, I should have read it hot. It said, sound of a leaky faucet. Anyways, I'm having a little bit of fun today. Happy Thursday, everyone. It's, yeah, you know, I stopped in at Guardian. They gave me a couple of tools that I was, if you tune into the substack, you'll see some of the stuff that I've been working on this week out at the, new studio so uh show to the the boys over at guardian um that i had uh one of them in checking out

the furnace the other day at the house so shout out to ozzie as well for uh for uh taking care of me i guess on this side for all your plumbing and heating needs guardian plumbing that uh guardian plumbing anyways it doesn't matter blue color roundtable um we're going to be the first the first podcast i've made it up in my mind is going to be some of the guys who are laying their hands on this new studio So that's going to be a ton of fun. Substack, it's free to subscribe to. You get the week and review every Sunday, 5 p.m. And that'll get you caught up on the week.

You can become a paid member there. That's the only place you can support the podcast, you know, and get some cool behind the scenes things we've been working on. You'll hear it again today. The paid membership vote on questions to ask upcoming guests. and that's the way to be a part of that conversation, I guess. The Cornerstone Forum, it is heading to Calgary, May 10th, and we got quite the list of speakers that are going to be there,

and quite the community, and I collect a group of all of you show up. So if you can only make it by yourself, don't worry. There's going to be some cool people to sit with. You don't need to have a full table. Anytime someone sat at a table with a bunch of random people, by the end, they've got some interesting conversations going on, and nobody goes away going, that wasn't fun. I'm going to be guest hosting it this year with Chris Sims.

She helped last year and newcomer Tom Bodrovix. He was on the podcast a while back. He hosts Palisades Gold Radio. So that's going to be a lot of fun. We got the trade show happening as well, so if you're a company, check out substack. The details come out there every Sunday now until the event, just so you can refresh you.

You've got to find some ideas and get in contact. We'd love to see some different businesses there showcasing what they can do. And, well, the new studio. It's coming here in 2025. If you want to be a part of it, skills, labor, materials, money, I'm doing this value-for-value thing. I'm going to be building inside of it a wall working on the idea.

It's a loose idea at this point, but I want to make sure that anyone who donates money or materials, labor, skills, et cetera, can get their name or their company name on the wall. and we're going to find a way to kind of, you know, give you the old hat tap or hat tilt for being a part of it. The latest Nancy Fleming, Donald Valiant, this week today actually. Harris Electric is out there doing some electrical work, so that's pretty cool. And just shout out to all the businesses and people who've made it possible to be building a new studio. And if you want to be a part of it, you know, you got time.

and I hope you'll shoot me a text or what have you. You just inquire and we'll see what we can do. There's been a lot of cool conversations had with people about how they can get involved. If you're listening on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, Brummel, make sure to subscribe, leave a review, comment, share. If you're on X, give us a retweet. This is a story here in Lloyd Minster that is near and dear, and this is part five coming up. So let's get this out there to the world and continue to put a spotlight on what's been happening here. How about we get on to that tale of the tape?

The first is a former assistant coach of the women's basketball program. The second, a father of one of the athletes and the third, the managing editor of the Lloyd Minster Meridian Source newspaper. I'm talking about Tori Dugan, Chris Thiel, and Taylor Weaver. So buckle up, here we go. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Today I'm joined by Tori Dugan, Taylor Weaver, and Chris Thiel. So thanks for hopping back in the studio, folks. Thanks for having us.

Well, before Christmas, you know, like, I don't know, did three parts and, you know, it was pretty big things going on then. And then, you know, Christmas happens. It kind of dies off because everybody's with, well, myself included. And but now, like we just passed January 17th. We had the girls back on just before that. And I don't know, it just feels like every time I think maybe it's time to just leave it alone, if I ever do think that. I think at the same time, there's just things going on that probably deserve to get some spotlight put on them.

And so I guess I just want to, I don't know, I guess I just want to start with, thanks for joining me. But January 17th was, I don't know, a big day in the conversations I had leading up to January 17th, right? Because that was the day they were supposed to be back on the court. and then it came and went. Any thoughts on just January 17th before we get into anything else? I know that it was very hard for the girls, mentally, obviously, and knowing that this is supposed to be the second semester kickoff of their national championship run. And yeah, a few of them actually left town and were in a place where they knew they were going to get a lot of love.

But for me as well, it's hard to know that there are teams still playing. I think when the ACAC bring out their standings each week and just seeing our name's still on there and nothing being spoken about from the league as well is a little bit disappointing. But yeah, knowing teams are just going ahead playing their season as normal where we should have been a part of it has been very hard and disheartening for sure.

You know, when you were on the podcast the first go-around, Torrey, I woke you up at like 4 a.m. Australia time. And now you're sitting in studio. So you're coming all the way back across the world. I don't know. I assume that's because, well, actually, I don't know why that is. I'm not even going to assume anything. I'd be curious if you would tell us why the heck you came, you know, because you're staring at it.

Like everything that brought you here is no more right now. Obviously, Chris is still in town. It's not, I'm not saying he's not. but certainly the program and everything else is, well, it's up in smoke right now. Yeah, well, first of all, I not only owe it to Chris and his family to stand by them, but I owe it to the girls as well. And I know that a few of them have come back and have been incredibly loyal to us and Chris. But, yeah, when I was home, I was meant to be home for five weeks.

And when this happened, I was quite absent from my family. Like, I was there a part of it, but I was not there because I just, was trying to make sense of this entire situation. But to receive the amount of community support as well on top of everyone else has been absolutely incredible and I couldn't not come back. Obviously I want to stand by Chris and the girls but the community support has been absolutely outstanding but I think that end point to this is I want to make sure justice is served and that Chris gets what he needs and deserves and

And same with the girls, but also the community as well. We're all screaming for answers. The girls aren't being listened to. The community are not being listened to. And yeah, this is the 21st year of basketball at Lakeland College. And Chris has been a part of basketball for 19 of those years. 17 is a coach and two as a player. So I know there are a tremendous amount of alumni that are also screaming for answers as well.

So I'm here having a voice for not only Chris and the girls in the community, but also a ton of alumni. that are incredibly disgraced from this situation as well. Chris, you have an, the first go around when you're on, you have an interesting view of this as well, right, with being a parent of one of the athletes. Walk me through, you know, since we last chatted, you know, you had holidays, and I know you've done a ton of work of trying, I think,

and you can clarify this, of trying to get, you know, whether it's board members or other people within Lakeland College to, you know, I'll voice some concern or voice or some answers to some of the concerns raised. Yeah. Some of the emails that I sent have gone really unanswered. I've gotten some very basic responses back, but it's been pretty much we're not telling you anything. I asked to when the next board meeting is because I thought you should be able to go to a board meeting and ask some questions.

And this is a major topic. They all the board members know about it. And they know the controversy that this has caused. the community and they don't seem to want to I'm not going to say acknowledge it but they don't really want to talk too much they're being pretty quiet and tight-lipped about it so I asked when the next board meeting was it's January 29th it is kind of open to the public but they're doing a virtual meeting and they're yeah so everyone will be sitting across from on a screen and I was told that I'm not allowed to ask questions.

I'm not allowed at the board meeting. I can't ask. Apparently that's not a thing they do. They don't, that's, whether that's normal or it's just for this time and for me, I don't know. They don't want to be held accountable. Yeah. So I'm not allowed to ask questions. I'm not allowed to speak.

I can't. And then there's a good chance that they'll go in camera, you know, close to the public. for a portion of it. And that's somewhat normal for board meetings or the potential of it, right? But so then I asked, I said, well, if I submit something in writing ahead of time, can that be presented to the board or can the board acknowledge my questions by the, in that format? So they have a, and they said no.

So when you see they said no, who are you talking? At times I'm like we shouldn't name names at times. I'm like, that's exactly. Like, is there a position that's, is this the board members saying that? Or is this like some HR secretary? Yeah, it's the admin assist for Alice, then the president. So that's who I was told to go through. And that's the answers I've been getting.

And so then I also have been messaging one of the board members and saying I'm not allowed to speak and I'm not allowed to ask questions. And it was pretty quiet on the other end of that. professional but not really not really giving it. The question part is really intriguing to me right because like as soon as you won't take questions I mean how is it a meeting if you can't ask questions and and what's the point of the public being a part of it if they're not allowed to ask questions yeah so it sounds like it's just more of a governance meeting or that's their role it sounds like they're they're trying to say that they don't have a direct part in the operations and how things are

run. It's more at a governance level is the response I got on one of them. But I don't know, I'm disappointed. Um, so I guess we'll see. I'm going to still, I'm still going to show up and listen in. Um, I'm hoping that with the, you know, the amount of community outcry and, and things that have been going on in the media, that maybe this will be a topic for discussion already amongst them, but I don't have. of my hopes. I set very high on that. Well, Taylor, to bring you in the conversation, you've been, well, I don't know, I feel like you've been a dog on a bone, so to speak. 100%. From a media standpoint, my hat's off to you, because instead of letting things disappear,

maybe, you've been at the forefront of keeping it in the public eye. Since, you know, before Christmas till now, you've, you know, named names, right, of the girl who it is. You've reached out to that program. contact with the ACAC you've been you've been all over maybe bring people up to speed on on what's been going on on your world for sure um well i mean as of late i i will admit uh i did take a bit of a break over christmas and try to just enjoy the the holidays a little bit with some some family and friends but i mean no it's this is not going away for me for the community for the three other people in this room um and i mean even this uh last night and this morning making some phone calls to the ACAC and I was just telling Tori, you know, when you when you phone an

association's communication and marketing person, you expect them to be able to give you some information. Well, I called the ACAC's marketing person last night, told him who I was and what the purpose of the call was and immediately this comms rep gets very defensive on the other end of the phone. Can't speak to that. I asked her three or four different very simple questions about ACAC ruling and regulations and the answer I got was you need to contact Alan Rogan at Lakeland College or the ACAC CEO Mark Kozak. I left Mr. Kozak a very detailed voicemail last night and this was like 4 o'clock in the afternoon mind you but it did not hear back and then I

actually fired off an email to Allen this morning just for some clarification because as we're all aware the lack of communication on all fronts has been beyond frustrating and then even making those phone calls yesterday I think solidified the fact for me like when when she got defensive all the end of other end of the phone means I'm digging into something they do not want out there or talked about, right? And it was, you know, there's a new rumor that the manifest hardship the school applied for was, was denied, which can mean a number of things, but I don't know what that means. And I was thinking maybe the ACAC board members or the CEO would be able to, you know, enlighten me on that. And I'm sure they are, but they're not willing to do it.

What is for the listener, manifest? Manifest hardship. It is, so it's a essentially a, essentially a, letter, I'm pretty sure, that the school submits or files to the association. And so Lakeland College filing for manifest hardship, I'm pretty sure it essentially means, I mean, it's on the rules and regulations on the ACAC website. But if a school cannot complete, if an institution cannot complete a season, they can file for manifest hardship. And that means they cannot complete a season due to an act of God or something out of the control of the institution.

So they're saying them canning Chris King was an act of God or what happened. Something out of their control. And there's fines, of course, in place there. But apparently they were denied that process. And I'm just kind of curious what that means. And as well as if the local girls here are going to get their eligibility back, because that's another big question. And I think that's why they put the letter in that way of saying that they're going to apply for manifest hardship

is because then the girls would be able to regain their year of eligibility, is my understanding. I think that's what was told to them at a very brief comment. So if they've been denied, denied, then the girls will be denied as well, essentially. We're saying this is tied together? Denied the year of eligibility back, I think. I have been told by multiple sources that they were applying for manifest hardship to get out of the fines that they have to pay for the forfeiting for each games this season.

I mean, as well as a manifest hardship for the girls to get their year back, that's totally correct as well. And yeah, I've heard from multiple sources as well that that was voted down. So then they're fined a sum per game? So then they find a sum per game, and that apparently they're in jeopardy of having a team next year as well. That is what could happen if they were denied a manifest hardship. But again, I think it's hard.

hard for, it would be hard. Yeah, Lakeland were denied the manifest hardship, but then where does that leave the girls with their eligibility? Like, I know there was a board meeting held in the ACAC on Friday. There has been nothing spoken about that. But what I think needs to be owed to the girls, I'm going to go back at the statement that was released by Alan Rogan that their priority is to the girls. I would call a little bit of BS on that. I don't think Al maliciously went out to hurt the girls or hurt Chris by any means. But the lack of communication to the girls is terrible. I, for one, after Chris was fired,

haven't heard a single bleat from Lakeline College. I'm not just an assistant coach. I had played eight years previously within the five years of eligibility at Lakeline College, so essentially 10 years within the league and at Lakeline College. Didn't receive a single ounce of communication. I've since not, like I said, have not heard anything.

But the girls are just sitting around waiting. I know that the girls have been very upfront with the college, especially Alan Rogan communicating their intentions for second semester. That has been very evident since the suspension of Chris when he was not able to coach their last two games. They stood with him. They didn't play. And since then, their intentions have never really,

majority of them have been to never play second semester. So I've also heard rumors that Lakeland were caught off-site with this, that they didn't realize that the girls weren't going to play second semester. The communication from the girls has always been that they were not going to play second semester. And I do not think the ACAC are aware of, well, they're not. The ACAC are not aware of the full situation. I don't think so. Otherwise, the girls would be listened to. The school preachers, we protect our students, especially the president, preaches.

her love and care and that the students come first. Same with the athletic director. The athletes come first, the protection of the athletes. I do believe that they have looked after one individual and not the rest of the girls. And the girls, as mentioned, have not been listened to. Chris, you spoke about when you were on last,

seven of the girls went in and met with the president, vice president, and the athletic director and said, this did not happen. none of these things happened. And they sat there like Chris said, didn't really say anything, didn't open up about anything. And to me, I'm like, what kind of leadership is that? What leadership is within Lakeline College?

I think right now what we're seeing is a dictatorship over leadership. It's their way or the highway. No one can get any clarity. Obviously, I'm feeling for Chris and his family during this time and is absolutely terrible. He deserves way better. But these girls deserve way better. and that statement that was put out, and I'll speak for the girls who were on here before.

I know they'll ask that question. They're also terrified to answer that question because Lakeland have threatened them. If you say that you didn't play second semester because of mental health reasons over, you didn't play because you're standing with Chris, then they'll get their year back. Like, what is that? Their mental health has been suffering because they know this is the wrong decision. the only person really that they had is a support system was bettering them in basketball but also in life off the court

is now not a part of being able to coach them so they were standing by him which has been absolutely degenerative to their mental health. I just, I think the girls are totally just scared of what Lakeland are capable of. I know I have no idea what they're capable of in an institution that I trusted for 10 years I'm absolutely, I'm ashamed of.

Just curious, when they came on here and I read off the media release where it has comments and everything else, by them coming on here, the school reached out to them and said... There was an email sent, yes. An email was sent by the athletic director stating that them doing any kind of media or podcasts,

basically saying that they need to be careful because it might show them worse for wear. Yeah, which, I don't know, kind of feels like a threat, doesn't it? Just a bit. Just a bit. Just a bit. I have a question from Substack. Usually, well, we just started doing this.

Normally I'd start out with it, but I wanted to get everybody, I don't know, an injection of like up to speed. Because, you know, like, it's been a month since us three were in the same room. And obviously, Tori, you were gone when I was doing it. it. So one of the things that happens when you come in studio is you get a one-ounce silver corn. So that's compliments of silver gold bull. And so I appreciate you all coming in the studio and doing this. The next thing is I'm going to shoot it over to substack because this is Kevin Damon. This was a question that got voted up on there. And it said, did coach Chris King have an ongoing disagreement with someone in management, an athletics director or someone even higher up

looking for a give me a reason, give me a reason moment. And this is people listening to it from Notin-Loyd-Mister going like, some of this doesn't make sense, right? They're not, they're hearing this story. This is the fifth time it's been brought up on this podcast. They're trying to make sense of like what's going on because I continue to bring people back on to talk about it. And if this is, well, I don't know, I guess just your thoughts on did he ruffle feathers

and did he have, was he a marked man? I guess it's kind of, I'll read it again, did coach Chris King have an ongoing disagreement with someone in management, an athletics director or someone even higher up looking for a give me a reason moment? There's definitely rumors out there, hey? I've heard that, yeah. Yeah, there's rumors, but I'm not going to confirm or deny either. Yeah.

I think back, though, like, okay, if that did happen and you're looking for a give me a reason, we have this installed and it has always been. in when I came in as a freshman. As a year goes by a school year, you come in and it's a clean slate. Like, people are allowed, even if like an argument did happen or whatever it may be,

I am not a believer in grudge holding by any way, shape or form. I think Chris's like winning record obviously speaks for itself, but the amount of, the amount of good things that he's done for a ton of the girls within, that have come in and out of the program as well.

Okay, if that is true, I am just like, what has that got to do with him being a basketball coach when his priority should, like, your priority should always be with the team that he has each year. So if that's the case, then I mean, Lakeland have a lot to answer for them. Well, the next thing I'm curious to have you three address, I had the girls address it because I was telling them, like literally that morning that I went and I interviewed him, I think it was the morning or the morning before, one of the two. I ran into a new person who hadn't listened to any of it, but it heard the story of Chris and the first question out of their mouth was,

you know, like, was he sleeping with one of the players? Was it sexual? And I'm like, no, I mean, that's the way you would look because the media release basically said nothing. And the way it happened so abrupt, your mind jumps to really dark places, right? Men's coach. You've been around Chris for,

essentially a decade. You have a daughter who's playing for Chris and you've been, as far as media goes, I've been here as long as Torrey. And you've been all over it. Can we just discuss this for a few minutes to make sure if there is any questions about this, this nail

or the nails put in this coffin of being anything to do with sexual? Because I've brought it up now, I think twice. I want to bring up a third time in case somebody is new to this and they're listening in Part 5 and they go, you know, and they don't go back through or something. Because that's one of the Things that really bugged me right off the beginning is the amount of people that thought it was sexual.

And my own dealings with Chris, I always was shocked and impressed, maybe not shocked, was always impressed. It had his detailed understanding how the public would look at, even closed door meetings, and how professionally was about understanding that and not putting himself in compromisable positions, if you would. But that's my own view on it, and I'd be curious. You three have a different lens and have been around in an office. awful lot and in cases a heck of a lot more than I. So I just thought I would get your input on it.

I'll let you two. Well, I mean, I can start, I guess, as a, as a parent. I mean, who wouldn't jump to that if you didn't know part of the story, right? As a parent. And, um, but of course, like we, we've never had any inclination. My daughter has never had any, um, made any comments of interoperative. appropriateness or, you know, things during, during last year, the early part of this season, anything like that. There's never been anything inappropriate with Chris. He's always been

very professional on how he interacts with the team, how he comes and goes with a team room. Like, he knows when he's allowed to enter the room, when he's not allowed to enter the room. He stands outside for a period of time. And then he goes in with the coaches, the other, the two female assistant coaches. And, you know, like he's always very upstanding that way and above approach as far as what we've always, you know, seen and heard. But it's hard for the community not to speculate, you know, and I'm glad in a way, I don't know if Chris King was glad, but that, you know, his termination letter became public that we talked about last time because it details the things that, you know, that were on there. And, and there is nothing like that on there.

And so, yes, I think, you know, we have to just keep putting it out there over and over that there was nothing inappropriate from a sexual nature, you know, no grooming, nothing like that where, you know, it's all about the accusation of one player and how, you know, her response, you know, and dealing with whether it's perceived or, you know, discipline that he put on or that the team put on, you know, we've gone over this so many times. but even in the comment section of articles, like there's people that jump in that know nothing and then they start to make comments

about those same type of rumors that it must be something inappropriate, right? And then people are like, no, no, like, have you not heard any of the, no? And then they, you know. Well, that's why I bring it up again because like, you know, this wasn't somebody trying to start a fight.

They were generally curious. Like, I don't know, was it something sexual? I'm like, no. And actually, I can't even hate on you for saying that, because if you just read the news release, you would jump to conclusions. You'd be like, well, probably. In today's day and age, this is what it is. Taylor, you've been around the team, like you say, as long as Tori. Yep.

Your eyes on it, because you're a guy who's paid to investigate, right? Of course, yeah. Have you ever picked it? You know, I don't know. Have you ever been like, well, that's a little bit questionable? Not at all. And I think the testimonials from the players you've spoke to speak volumes to that, especially Andrea Stitt, you know, she's been around the game forever and she knows a good coach from a bad coach or you should.

And I mean, yeah, every single player you talk to, the answer is no. And yeah, like having people showing up late to the party in the Facebook comment section and just lighten the match again, there's no need for it. But no, I mean, I, yeah, I have been around the team since I've lived in Lloyd Minster. And yeah, you know, I, you can easily see Chris doing his thing in the hallway, waiting, you know, getting his time in or whatever. But no, I never had a sniff of that whatsoever in my 10 plus years here. Yeah, I feel bad for Andrea. Andrea.

You call Andrea. You call Andrea, yeah. My apology is because I butcher her name every time and she laughs at me every time. But it sucks because if she doesn't get her year back, she's done. She's done. Yeah. And, well, that sucks. That, like, you know, the athlete me, that sucks.

Because you're standing up for what. what is right by all accounts at this point. It sounds like she's standing up for what is right. And for that, she's paying a price that doesn't seem to equal. And what they signed up for too, right? They signed up to come to Lakeland and be coached by Chris King. Right?

It's not just, okay, we'll finish the year under some unknown coach. We don't know who that is. You know, they wouldn't even tell who the coach is that they, would have have arranged to finish off the second they made some comments about the qualifications or what this person has done and so we're able to kind of put two and two together a little bit on who that may have been well I mean I brought it up last time I know all the girls were rightfully so their students they're athletes you brought up the college writing questionable emails right but regardless I sit here and I'm like well

I mean are we going to talk about the names or we not going to talk about the names I I feel like I'm getting in line with where Taylor's has. Like, well, these are the people. Like, we're all wondering who they are. Yeah. And if you're gonna hire a coach who, you know, is got relations with one of the people working in the college. It's just like this.

It just gets bad. You can't, like, this can't be real life, except here it is playing out right in front of us. Yeah. I don't wanna be that person to, like, jump on to and answer each person's comments, questions. But I do wanna provide clarity on the situation that people are like, what was he even investigated for?

He was investigated for patterns of abuse within coaching. So with that as like obviously pushing players too hard, running them too hard, or whatever that might be. That is what he was investigated for. There was absolutely nothing sexual, but as mentioned, a male coaching, a female team, the people who aren't uneducated about the situation. I even spoke to parents at the Holy Rosary senior tournament last Friday, and parents were like that's the first thing that we thought of,

because Lakeland have provided absolutely nothing. And I ultimately think that that falls on the school, the institution, because they were the ones that made the decision. Well, and the thing is, you could put it out, and then when you heard the first thing and people started talking with sexual, then you could have followed up with it. Listen, folks, nothing sexual. No, yeah.

That isn't, that isn't really, as far as I'm concerned, that isn't releasing any information they can't provide other than just a clarifying statement of, Listen, it had nothing to do with sexual or sexual in nature, right? That would have been an easy way to dampen it again. Instead, that has not been the case. No. Yeah, like, I was, it just makes absolutely no sense because, like, myself and Marissa were

both investigated and we said that on our episode of the podcast. But we have received absolutely no outline of what the investigation entailed, the details of the investigation. The investigator did not even provide a. us any details about what was even being investigated for anything. There was no details whatsoever. Was the investigator, I don't know if I asked you this, the first go around. I think I know the answer, but was the investigator somebody within the college, or did the college hire somebody to come in investigate? The college hired a third party investigator. And when I was called,

when I was contacted to be investigated, it specifically said, this is why I'm getting really frustrated at the college when they're saying, oh, there's more to the story, this, that the only thing that was stated within the investigation was the events that occurred on September 30th involving the player that made the complaint. That was all that was outlined. So I was investigated, obviously, and the investigator was, it was not an investigation, put it this way, it was an interrogation. She was looking for facts. that would match the story that she was already told by the complainant and the two other girls who went out because they were the three who were also investigated. Now, I don't know if more were. But it was very, very targeted. Anything that she brought up and I would say to her, this did not happen. She then tried to find something that did happen. It was not an unbiased investigation. It was very targeted, very biased. She did. She did. She did. knew what she was looking for, which is not the way investigations are supposedly meant to be

conducted. A lot of people are saying this is safe sport related. Chris is supposed to be contacted by safe sport. So this tells me that it was just Lakeland College related. Yeah, so I will give clarity on that. We have not received a single bit of communication from safe sport, which you're meant to if it involved them. And yeah, I voiced my feelings with the athletic director that this was not a fair investigation. And after Chris was suspended, Alan had told the girls we went in together. He told the girls that Chris was suspended. Now I'm going to backtrack a little bit because the conversation that the girls had with

the VP, the president and the athletic director, when the girls went in and said that they were meant to just go on the bus and a coach would. be found for them while they're on their way. That was told by the athletic director when the girls were told that Chris was suspended. I was in the room. So the fact that they were told that that was not said. That was 110% said. Just to slow you down, I assume people have listened to the first four parts.

They've read Taylor's articles. They've been paying attention to different things. When you bring up the girls in this meeting, this is roughly, and correct me where I'm wrong here, about a week after and there was seven athletes that went in to meet with this seven athletes that went in to meet yeah and said that this did not happen and were asking for answers because their world had been turned upside down um and like chris had mentioned in the last podcast that he was on they were not they didn't they weren't willing to communicate with the girls they what they told them was yeah it's too late anything that you do it's too late it won't bring chris bratt back um which is

with that point I'm going to jump to after when we were told Chris was suspended. I met with the athletic director and I was in tears. He did ask how I was and like the athletic director did seem upset about this situation. But I went in and we spoke and he asked how was I started crying and then he asked a little bit about the investigation and I told him all that what I just said about how it was very biased. She didn't want to hear anything that we had to say um and yeah was he basically was just like well during the time like he he had his hand on his head he was like what the heck because when this investigation before that we knew that something was going to happen because because of what the girl was like i'll put it that way um she wasn't any

playing time she was very um unimpressed with the way things were going for her individually um that when this situation happened, we had a little bit of an inkling that maybe something would come from it. So we did the right thing and reported everything to the athletic director and the athletic therapist. So Alan Rogan was aware of this situation the whole time. Do I think that it went above him? Yes, I do. I definitely think this situation went above him, but it's the way that he's handled things afterwards that I'm really disappointed in. During that time where Marissa and I were voicing our disappointment with the way the investigation was conducted, he did say that we can put in a complaint after the investigation was completed. Now by that time, now knowing this, by the time

the investigation was completed, my complaint to the third party investigation wouldn't have meant anything. If the girls are not being listened to, if the community are not being listened to, by sure has held my complaint about the investigation would not have been listened to. So get your head turning. Well, the thing I like to remind myself is you got people listening from all across county, you've got people listening in the United States. And that's it. Times are going, well, I'd be going like, huh, this is, you know, an odd story, but what makes it sitting in Lloyd Minster, it's Lloyd Minster. Like, this isn't, and I keep pointing to Amundonton or something, right, but I'll take Los Angeles, you know, you got millions upon

millions of people. Lloyd isn't that? It's like, we pretty much know people on the board of directors, and we know the people that are the, the athletic director, and we know the ins and outs of Lakeland College. We've got tons of people we know and respect who work there. I I mirror what the girls sat in here and said last time. It's not like I hate everybody at Lakeland. No, that's ridiculous. No, so many good people who worked there, right? But something's really odd about this, and it's happening right in our backyard,

and nothing seems to be changing. And so, like, you bring up freedom of information, you know. I don't know if Taylor brought it up, but certainly I think the last time we talked, that was brought up. And, you know, in my digging into that a little bit, it costs a bit of money, sure. But it's the time again, right? By the time anything actually happens, the season's gone. It's lost.

So what are you hoping to gain? Well, it's like, well, some transparency on the story would be nice. And then what? It's like, because by that time, Chris is left town because he's going to have to go find a job. He's got three young kids for feet sake. This isn't a guy who's just going to sit around and wait for Lakeland College figured stuff out. Like, it's going to be gone. You know, you've got a daughter, Chris.

I assume if she's got eligibility left, she's eventually just going to go, like, I want to keep playing basketball. I've got to go somewhere and find it, you know? And I mean, Tori, I look at you and I go, eventually you're going to have the same decision to make too, which is, you know, if you're sitting anywhere in Canada going on, what is going on in Lloydminster? Why is it such a big deal? You know, why has it got five parts on this show, let alone how many articles in the local newspaper? It's like, this is a big deal. Like, this is, everywhere I go, this is a conversation and topic. And everybody just wants to find out what the heck went on.

And then whether or not the crime. was worth the punishment but the fact that there was last like we talked Chris and Taylor is that there was no like oh here's here's his first one oh and there's a second one and there's a third one you know it's like from zero to 10,000 and then some yeah there's no progressive discipline right and and it doesn't match it doesn't match the situation the immediate termination doesn't match what they are claiming to be the reasons it doesn't make sense. And, you know, when you talk about the FOIP, I finally got around to submitting my own FOIP. They got, I just got acknowledgement this morning that they've received it, the payment,

because I had to send it to the Vermillion campus. I couldn't drop it off here in Lloyd. So that put me off a few days by the, by Canada Post standard. But they, I think like 30 some questions is what I submitted. And we'll see what they, what they, sorry, 27, 27 questions, but some of them have multiple parts to them. And again, it's not going to be direct. They're not going to answer what happened in the HR investigation, but I'm trying to ask questions that are going to piece together some other things that a lot of people have had rumors around and speculations around

about maybe some of the, how long some of these types of HR investigations have been going on, right? And when did we see a spike in third party investigations? was there a correlation to a certain person coming into their position at a certain point? And the culture of how things are investigated. It seems to be a big part of this and the culture of the executive. And the board members, again, they don't seem to want to engage in this. And they're saying that's not our job. You know, we're a governance board.

What I would say to them is, you remember when Trudeau didn't want to engage with the trucker convoy and I know I'm bringing in a lot of politics here. How did that go over for him? Not very well. And the thing is, is like maybe the story of Chris King and this, because, you know, a lot of people keep asking me, when's Chris coming on? And I'm like, well, I think he's tied up in legal. Maybe somebody can clarify that for me. But, you know, I hope at some point Chris comes on and can share his side of this, right? Because one of the things I can't do right now, or Chris can't do is come on and talk. Henceforth trying to bring some different people

with different perspectives on. But the thing that college has to understand, by starting to talk about it from where I sit, I'm sure Taylor has his own thoughts on this. I've learned that Chris is the tip of the iceberg. Like this isn't just one story about a basketball coach. This is where it begins. And I've already been reached out to

by multiple people within Lakeland College or former Lakeland College, maybe I should say, that have their own stories, that are just as wild. And you start going, oh, this is not going to be fun. So you can engage with it in two years or you can start engaging with it now

and get ahead of this thing. Like I mean, and I say ahead of it because it's already running down the hill from you. You know? And one of the tactics, and I brought up last time in politics, just leave it. We'll just go away.

The summer's coming. Season, basketball season land. I don't know. I don't know about that. I can't speak for Taylor. like you've set things on a course now that have to be resolved. I mean, you doing the freedom of information on your own, there's others doing it.

There's more going to be doing it. And like, just get ahead of it. Start talking. Start finding a way to, because this, this happened in COVID too. Nobody wanted to come on here and talk. And then people came on and talk because they had to, had to talk to the public outcry. Like all of Lloyd is, is like in an outcry mode right now.

They want to know. like get to the bottom of this I'm sure Taylor's got more people yelling at them get to the bottom of this already like I get when are you bringing the next group on to talk about this well we're bringing them back on yeah well I mean one of my sources said to me

flat out janitorial staff at Lakeland College are worried about looking at somebody the wrong way because they're afraid a complaint will be put in their name and they'll be out the door next that's come to me as well like a number of occasions like staff are scared for their own jobs because they're like well if Chris, who has not received a single complaint in 17 years of coaching of this nature,

can just easily be tossed in the bin, then what does that mean for the rest of us? And gone are the days of old school coaching is what somebody else said to me. Oh, 100%. And I know some Lakeland staff have been standing by the girls and been sharing things on social media. They've been told to take them down by the college. Like, they're not even allowed to share their own views on the situation. but the fact that the investigation was like the investigator only spoke to the three girls who

went out and did what they did before the reprimand for forgetting the jerseys was supposed to happen their young 18-19-year-old girls of course they're going to try to defend their actions but the fact that the investigator listened to three 18-19-year-old girls over grown adults just speaks to the nature of where this investigation was targeted. Well, I got a ton of time for listening to an 1819, you know, that's calling a foul or crying a foul. But I remember after I had the first group on, and they're like, actually it was after I had you on.

I had the first two parts. Like I told it, no, that's not how it went. There's way more to it. Chris is in real tough, and they should stop talking about it. And so my question then, and my question still to this day is, at that time, I was like, okay, well, I got three players and two coaches. So we're saying they're all lying. Is that what we're saying? They're all lying. Everybody's lying. Okay, fine. They're all lying. But then there were seven players go to the meeting. Like, okay, so now there's seven players, there's two coaches. Plus there's Chris, that's 10. Are they all lying? And it just keeps stacking up. And I'm like, at some point, a good investigator would just look around and go, I'm missing something, right? Like I just got to go talk to these people. But once again, you know...

And why didn't they? That's exactly right. And that's, I keep coming back to that. Why didn't they? Were they told not to? And these are the people that you need to talk to. Probably because they don't want to find what they were going to find. Maybe, right?

And so, yeah, there's a couple options. They didn't want to find that. And they didn't want to put the time and the effort into, perhaps. Or they were told these are who you go talk to. And these are the questions that we want answered. And beyond that, that's out of the scope that's an interesting question Chris and so if there's terms on on what was asked of them as far as the contract

of what was asked of them this time that's if anyone's listening out there that is a third party investigator right to get hired to come in I would love to have a chat because like my brain goes you're just an interesting question because I call up third party I go listen got to have investigationist I personally think that's probably pretty reasonable, right? But now, why does that conversation go into, we only talk to these people, we're not going to talk to the rest of people? And why are we going to, why are we only going to ask, because so is that on the investigator or is that on the conversation had between

the investigator and the school? What point does that fall into? From my understanding with that conversation I've had is even, well, with the Chris King one or with any others, you know, the third party investigator is hired essentially. And I guess the school. submits a list of witnesses to talk to and so it's it sounds like it's already pre-set up by the time it gets to the investigator's desk and also it's beneficial for Lakeland at that point because their fingerprints are off of it they're not touching it except they direct the entire absolutely but but now the way how it all works right is they're not it's not on them to talk and I mean now with the ACAC

being so tight-lipped it makes me ask even more questions which is the athletic director is tight-knit with the ACACC CEO, so without a doubt in my mind that they've been told to keep it hush-hash. I have no idea how it makes sense that there was an ineligible player on the Lethbridge Kodiak's first semester, and that it's forfeit all of their wins first semester, but they can't announce that the defending national champions have forfeited their season. Like, we literally can't have any conversation about this, which how do we move forward in the world without having conversations? I do believe that Lakeland are hiding behind a computer glass, as is confirmed with them not wanting to meet in person. But yeah, this,

it's completely turned my life upside down, obviously. It's completely turned the girl's life upside down. But accountability needs to be shown. And this whole investigation makes absolutely zero sense. And if an investigation is going to occur with what happened on the September 30th, incident, then every other coach, every other coach within Lakeland College, every other coach within the CCAA should also be investigated because you can't tell me that this doesn't happen in a ton of other teams. Yeah, I, why do you, how do you fire the defending national championship coach with all of his amount of accolades? One of the things that was brought up in the investigation was, oh, we think that you guys are just all about winning.

I wouldn't have, I wouldn't still be in Canada if it was just about winning. Chris has changed my life for the better as well as numerous other athletes. It is bigger than basketball when it comes to Chris and he just wants you to succeed as a person. It's great if you are successful on the court, but he wants you to be a successful wife, a successful parent, a successful person in their job, whatever that may be. that's what gives him the biggest amount of pride. And I know I've really close friends that are alumni that he's been catching up with since they've graduated.

And I see his face when he sees them thriving in life. And that smile on his face is bigger than any basketball win. And I know that there are a ton of people speculating, as they are, but there are people within Lakeland College coaching staff that are putting the blame on Chris for sending determination letter out. I can tell you right now, and they're saying we've got proof. The termination letter was not sent out by Chris. It was not sent out by him.

I know who it was sent out by and it was not by Chris. Maybe the question to Tori, because, you know, obviously you're still chatting with Chris quite often, I assume, is you're seeing all these, like, false accusations, these false stories, things that are probably, what's your irritating Tori today? Is there anything else out there that you're like, because I didn't even thought. of the, I forget whose feed on Facebook, I think it was, that that termination letter got released back in the, back then, right? Man, that's a long time ago. We saw it right before we did the last recording, yeah. And it was, I was told it was leaked by a coach in Edmonton.

Yeah, so I mean, that's what, anyway, yeah. What are some other things, Tori, that you're like, you know, as this goes along, let's just clarify a couple more positions here. Or if it comes from the side of Lakeland College, you're like, this thing's, no sense because of X, Y, Z. Yeah. I feel like there's something every day that comes up that just completely blows my mind. And I know that I'm not the only one that thinks that knows that, but I just am incredibly disappointed with the school and obviously how they've handled it, but the things that were released in his termination letter did not occur. So again, he was wrongfully, I'm going to state this again, he was completely wrongfully dismissed. This school did not do any

kind of background checks on the girl that made the complaint and the nature of what she has been like during the time that she's been at Lakeland. Now, I'm going to make very clear I'm more angry at Lakeland than I am with this girl, with how they've handled things. They wouldn't know that she refused to come on team trips last year because her friends were coming to campus and she wanted to party with them. They wouldn't know that she vandalized school property and the amount of other things that she'd caused within the team that year. Now, I did say that you come in on a clean slate. She came in on a clean slate in her second year, for sure. But there was no research on the background of her, which I'm really disappointed about as well. But at the end of the day,

like, I trusted an organisation for 10 years that have absolutely disgraced me. We have, we communicated about this situation. We did every single right thing leading up until when we found at will being investigated. The athletic director was totally aware of what was going on. That's why I am a believer that this went completely over his head. But I applaud the girls when they're standing on what they believe in. And they use the term we're standing, you've got to stand on what you stand on. Chris was Alan Rogan's first hire of like when he became the athletic director at Lakeland College. I get that people want to follow the rules in line. But the fact that Chris is not, he's not being protected by the athletic

director. Now that's the legality is involved. I totally understand that. But Marissa or I have barely been contacted by the athletic director. But again, you stand on what's right. He was your first hire. Alan Rogan is retiring at the end of this year. So now they're just going to leave all of this to him. He's going to leave. and this new athletic director is going to come in and it'll be bye-bye. Like, they want all of this. So it's good. This is good for Lakeland, right?

Al takes the blame or takes all of this stuff and then he retires at the end of the year. So that's where I'm really frustrated is you could have stood up for your first hire and a guy that you've considered your friend. He said to Kim Caparro at the women's hockey, the cancer awareness game, Kim thanked Al, I mean, yeah, Al thank Kim, sorry, for putting those videos out that Nara Studios released from the Second Balance documentary. He said, thank you, that was really nice of what you did, although what's going on, I still consider Chris a friend. I don't know, it could just be me, but I don't know,

if Taylor's my buddy, I'm going to stand with him and stand beside him and make sure that some good has been bought to, to him. Yeah, I'm just shaking my head because he deserves so much better his family deserves so much better and I honestly am I'm going to say that Chris was too big for the college

his accolades big for himself he's done enough, done so much within the community bedded so many young kids and that's the thing when Chris was fired not only did his past players alumni through Lakeland College post for him with young kids grade 9 10, 11 and 12s that are posting for them on their social media with the amount that he's done for them.

Obviously, parents as well, but yeah, I'm just going to keep using the word disappointed and disgraced because some things could have been done a lot better and the fact that Al Rogan's going to retire at the end of the year and will basically, it'll be done. It's really disappointing. I knew it was soon. I didn't know what was the end of this year. That was another thing that was floating in my head is I understand if he's trying to separate himself from this, right? But do the right thing. I figured the only way Chris could be actually hired back is if they can somebody.

And once again, my brief story on Al, and I don't know if Al would remember this, but when I first came home from playing hockey, I applied to be assistant athletic director at Lakeland College. Didn't get the job. But one of the things I wanted to do is I wanted to bring hockey there. And at the time, you know, anyways, it doesn't matter. So I've had a few phone calls back then. But one of the things I told the girls was like, in my mind, from what I've seen in politics, and this resembles politics if I've ever seen it, is the only way you're getting Chris back in is if somebody gets fired.

Somebody getting fired is Al. And I'm sorry I'll say that, but you're the fall guy in this. He is the full guy. Right? You're the director sitting over him. So you replace him. You bring in the new guy. And the new guy goes, that was Al and you crap on Al.

and in you walk in. Chris, come on back. We'd love to have it. The problem is, I don't see that happening. Because someone else is there that needs to go. Well, and the truth of the matter is a retirement isn't the same thing as a firing. You need pound of flesh from probably a coach's perspective, I assume. And probably from the public's perspective, they need to understand what's going on.

And they need somebody to get punished for what's happened. But it's not happening. They're playing this stone wall. Now you know they're going to bring in a new athlete. athletic director. Oh, man. Like this is, you know, it pains me because I say this story every time I talk about this, but like when you have young kids and you know, you try and find, you know, our kids play hockey or gymnastics or there's kids that swim and on and on and on where all my kids basketball players, no. But we took him to basketball camp. Why? It was really well ran. And that immediately disappears from town, you know. It's the impact. And I hate to always. overstate it maybe, but I don't know if I am overstating it is one one guy can really have an impact on a community and Chris King and the group of people he surround himself with yourself included Tori have really had a big impact on the city and I think that's why it's still being talked about and whoever in Lakeland who underestimated that was a big oops right this is a giant landmine to step on and not realize the impact it was going to have coming back the other way you know they got a great thing going on at Lakeland with the campuses with the sports with the schooling and this is a big big I don't know black eye on him for sure when you um I think it's just the you know you said the

tip of the iceberg right which I'm not disagreeing with I'm with you there but I think because of who he was and what he's done that's why it blew up right I mean that's kind of state in the obvious I guess but I mean if it was I don't know any not to say anybody else but there has others though. There has. That's the thing. There has. There has. You're right, Chris. There's been stuff happening at the college that people seem to not want to talk about, whether they can't talk about it, they don't want to. They're afraid. Probably afraid.

But there seems to be a pattern happening and it'd be interesting to try and get to the bottom of that pattern or what's the common denominator that is within that pattern. Yeah. And I think that's important. And I think the more more that we talk about it, the more that people hear these conversations, even if we are bringing them up as sources or rumors, it may free somebody up or emboldened somebody or give them the courage to say, you know what, I know a little bit more information. I'm going to call that guy, Taylor, at the, at the Meridian and tell them what I know. Because there's more happening than

just Chris getting dismissed for something that probably didn't deserve to get dismissed. missed. And this is of course affects so much as we've all seen, but there's more to this. And that's the that's the, that's the puzzling part to all of this. Like why, why the, why these types of investigations and who's really pushing them and what's, there's a culture behind that of what is driving this. There's a, there's a, there's a certain standard that they obviously are feeling needs to be met and if you don't meet that standard you know there's been a lot of people exiting yeah lakeland some by their own and a lot but what i'm hearing is not of their own accord i received a private message from a former lakeland professor and she was stating her disgust in the situation

and did say that's a reason why i do not work at lakeline college anymore because of this stuff happening and the they have the security is very small because they can just get flicked like that which is really sad you know I I don't know if it's maybe it's my own

my own brain telling me maybe at times I shouldn't steer back into COVID but one of the things of sitting where I did for as long as I did when you talk about picking off little people and not becoming a bigger story I'm reminded of people like Ocean Wise

who was arrested on a pond in the middle of COVID, right? And was it a big story? What was kind of? But who's Ocean Wiseblatt, I guess is my point. In local town here, it was Miranda Courts at the pool getting tackled by cops for not wearing a face mask. And did that get national attention? No, it didn't.

But when your name was Jokovic and then Australia wouldn't let you into playing in a tournament because you weren't vaccinated, or your name was Aaron Rogers, or your name was Joe Rogan, it hits a different realm. And the reason I put it that way is Chris King in our world, and I think a larger audience is starting to understand that, was our version of Djokovic or Aaron Rogers, where his accolades are immense. And what he's done for the community is immense. And this isn't just somebody you can just kind of forget and act like Lloyd will be the same after it's done. This has changed things. And what we're learning as we talk about it more, and I'm glad you brought it up, Chris.

because if you're listening to this, you're going, I know a bit more, because I've been reached out to, I know Taylor has, I assume Chris has, and I guarantee Tori has, you've got another piece of the story, or you're another person that's been let go by Lakeland. Reach out. Like, I have conversations off the record all the time, but it helps point you in a direction of, like, maybe I should go next. And the thing with Chris is he was larger, it's just our version of what has happened societal-wide. Lakeland isn't the only place this is happening at. That's the other thing, right? There's other colleges and universities where this is going on,

and it's playing out in different ways. And so, you know, like, I appreciate the three of you and any other person who has texted me, reached out, come on this podcast to come and share their voice, because it's not the easiest thing to do to come out and talk in a small community like this about people that we're probably going to run into. And I'm probably going to have to go on Lakeland College

because my kids are probably going to be doing something there over the next little bit. But if we don't talk about it, we act like this doesn't matter, and this really does matter. Yeah, I think that's also the concern of the members of the community is we've got to continue to talk about it, and it's also hard to keep the girls to get them to stay strong

because they are so deflated. They're mentally just taken completely back. And I'll say, Sean, when the three girls, when Andrea Beth and Sarah came on your podcast, I'd never seen a bunch of girls so low. That's like the lowest I've ever seen, and I've obviously been a part of Lakeland for 10 years. I've seen some terrible things happen,

like deaths or whatever that may be. That was the lowest I've ever seen any individual was when they came on to talk about it. And we've got to keep making noise, not only just for Chris, because as you mentioned, I obviously still am in conversation with Chris. he's at an incredibly low point in his life as well

and just keep pushing the conversation for justice to be served but we got to make we got to make Chris and the girls a priority to make sure that this does kept being pushed because I mean the right people need to be taken down the people who are responsible need to be taken down and yeah these poor girls and Chris just deserve so much better You know, I was thinking about this before I walked in when I thought I'd bring it up as it doesn't have to close us out.

But if there's any final thoughts from you three, by all means, my final thought for the listener of the podcast is Chris King was guest number 46 on the podcast. Way, way, way, way back when he was also guest 63 and then he was guest 128 when he started Hoop Factory. And so if you want to get a feel for who Chris King is, go back and have a listen. because Chris has been on the podcast and I hadn't really thought about it until this morning of like why does this matter so much to me and then I remember I'm like I've known Chris on and off for a good chunk of my life

but when it comes to the podcast world he's been in my studio and I've sat and had deep discussions with him I've had these philosophical conversations on sports and different things and some just lighthearted chats don't mean to make it all so deep and I just can't let

this one go. I don't know how to live in this town and not talk about what's going on until we get some accountability, some transparency. I'll be interested to see what comes with you, Chris and Taylor and Tori, for that matter, and everyone else. Any other final thoughts, Chris or Taylor or Tori before I let you out of here. Well, I think, you know, when you mentioned Chris being on your podcast, I go back to your podcast with Chris, Tori, like hold my clipboard, his own podcast that he started. Fair enough. You know, last year and this year. So if you guys are, trying to question who Chris is and the type of character he is, go listen to those podcasts. I mean, they were great.

I mean, the focus is primarily talking about basketball within the ACAC. But, you know, I think his character alone is, is phenomenal. And, yeah, I am hoping that we, we get some answers. I'm hoping that the type of questions that I've asked in my FOIP request, we'll start to shed some light and give some different clues because they're not going to answer direct questions of why did you fire Chris King inappropriately, right?

You have to ask them in a different way that they're somewhat compelled to answer the question. But I think once we have those, if they're willing to answer them, there's a good chance they're going to say, no, we're not going to answer any of those. And then I'm going to have to go to the Privacy Commissioner of Alberta to get them to weigh in and say,

is this a just request? Is it a reasonable request? But once again, it's time. And of course, they're going to try and charge me hundreds and hundreds of dollars to do this. Yeah, but one of the lovely things is then you come back on the podcast and we go, hey, Lloyd Minister, would you mind chipping in a bit of money and we'll fund that thing? Like, this is what they don't understand. They pissed off way too many people.

I'm pissed off about it. It's ruined the community. And I go like, so it costs us a couple hundred bucks. We're going to go figure it out. Oh, you're going to be a couple thousand? Okay, fine. We'll figure that out. And like, to me at this point, I'm like, well, I'm all in.

Let's find out what it is. And after the end, Chris is this bad human being, but they're like, well, dang it, I didn't know that. But I'm glad I kept digging so we could find out. And on the other turn, it could come out a whole lot worse for a different organization where they've done things and said, and it costs a bit of money. I think, well, I know as an individual of this city,

I'm behoved to support it. So if they come back, it's going to cost you a bunch of money, we'll figure that out. Yeah. And in my request, I also said, like, there's a clause in the in the FOIP process that if it's in the public interest, you can request a waiver of the fee. So I said,

I think this meets the criteria of a public interest. The whole community of Lloydminster, the public petition or the petition that went out to fair treatment of Chris King and to find out what's going on behind all of this. I think, how does that not meet the public interest criteria? In my opinion. So we'll see.

We'll see how it goes. And yeah, I'm looking forward to that. like you say, it might be a long drone out process, but we just got to keep things moving. Thanks for having us. I think for me, Tori's been talking a lot about the emotional toll on the girls. And I actually spoke with Sarah right after she was done on your show a couple weeks ago, maybe last week.

And yeah, even just obviously I couldn't see her, but I'm on the phone with her. And you can just feel how broken these girls are and having her say, you know, it's hard to find motivation. to get up and leave the house in the morning. And one of the questions I asked was, you know, what was your, because I think she's a fourth year, right? Yeah.

Fourth year player. I said, you've been around the block for a couple years with the school. Like, as a rustler, what was the biggest lesson you learned before the incident versus after? And she said, and you already touched on this, but the lesson before the incident was Chris King does his absolute best to put his players up here. And, you know, he tries to teach life lessons that don't just translate to court, but to life as well, right? He doesn't want to see you just be a great basketball player. He wants to see you be

a great human or a great wife or mother. But yeah, just the fact that she said verbatim, you know, he wants life skills to transfer court and to life. That really spoke out. But then the life lesson after the incident, which just, yeah, her answer was don't take anything for granted. And it really, that spoke to me and just how crushed these girls are. And it didn't really hit until just then. And then, yeah, with, you know, with Alan Rogan, I've known him for for over a decade. And I, in the email I sent to him today, just trying to get more clarification, I said, I've tried to keep you out of this as long as I could, but you're the only one I've been, everyone's pointing me to you because the ACAC CEO probably won't call me back.

And he did email me back, just stating that, you know, you're hearing more rumors and I have nothing to say, basically. Because he's only told what he's told by, like land. So, yeah, it's, it's a very. unfortunate situation on so many fronts and like we've said a number of times like every day there's new info or rumors or whatever it may be coming out and i mean every time i hear something i'm itching to jump and you know follow up on it um if i see if i see fit but uh yeah no the tip of the iceberg for sure sean and uh yeah we're not done yet exactly we are i want to like say to people

keep going keep pushing like when as you said we're not done yet um i do think that we will get to the bottom of this and that hopefully I'm just hoping that the world isn't as bad as what it's showing right now that we will get some answers but I just want to thank obviously everyone in this room for sticking with us I want to thank the community for doing what they're doing and standing up for what's right and really the people good people show when hard times come upon you and it's I've always known that we've had a really great community and a tight-knit community, but this is 100% solidified that. But then to the girls, just hang in there.

I do hope some good things will come to them and to Chris as well. But this is a really unfortunate situation and series of events, and I just hope that sometime soon the girls and Chris find some kind of happiness because they're in an incredibly dark place right now. Thanks for coming, my guys. Thanks for having us. Thank you.