The Decibel - Mass resignation at Hockey Canada

Episode Date: October 12, 2022

On Tuesday, the CEO of Hockey Canada, Scott Smith, left the organization and the entire board of directors resigned. The organization has been embroiled in controversy for months over its handling of sexual assaults, specifically the fact that Hockey Canada used funds – paid in part by registration fees – to settle sexual assault claims.Globe and Mail columnist Gary Mason has been writing on this for months. He explains the culture problem he sees at Hockey Canada and in hockey more generally, and what it might take to fix it.Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at [e-mail]’s Note: An earlier version of these show notes stated that Scott Smith had resigned.

Hi, I'm Mainika Raman-Welms, and you're listening to The Decibel, from The Globe and Mail. On Tuesday, Hockey Canada's CEO, Scott Smith, and its entire board of directors resigned. This comes after widespread criticism of the organization's culture towards sexual assault. But will these resignations actually change anything? This is not simply a Hockey Canada problem. I mean, Hockey Canada kind of personifies the problem, but there is almost a toxic masculinity problem inside, certainly junior hockey in Canada.

Globe columnist Gary Mason has been writing about this story for months. I spoke to him on Tuesday. This is The Decibel. Gary, thank you so much for speaking with me today. My pleasure. So there's pretty big news that came out on Tuesday from Hockey Canada. The CEO, Scott Smith, and the entire board have resigned. How significant is this?

I think it's massive. I mean, it's not very often that you see an entire board resign from an organization as big as Hockey Canada. Scott Smith's departure probably isn't a surprise. He was on his way out. It was just a matter of when. But the fact that the entire board resigned along with him was a bit of a surprise. We expected some resignations, but I think that the departure of the entire board is a surprise. but it's also it's very welcome because I think the entire board had to go because I think they all shared the same philosophy, beliefs, attitude towards the scandal that has enveloped this organization. How big is this board? And do we know who makes up this Hockey Canada board?

Well, the board is about, I think it's eight members, including the chair. One thing that struck me about the Hockey Canada board was it's very, very male dominated. It's not very diverse, sort of ethnically diverse by any means. This, of course, follows the news of Andrea Skinner, who is Hockey Canada's interim chair. She resigned on Saturday. And there have been lots of calls for CEO Scott Smith and the board to step down. Why was this so important for people to see this board and the leadership at this organization step down? Well, because of the sort of terrible secrets that this board kind of knew about and sort of oversaw for so long. And of course,

I'm talking about these secret slush funds, for lack of a better term, that existed, you know, to pay off sexual assault claims made by, you know, women over the years, among other things. We initially learned that there was one main fund that had a store of cash in it that was being used to pay off, in some cases, the alleged victims of sexual assault by hockey players in Canada. And then more recently, the Globe and Mail, which has been responsible for a lot of the most important revelations in this story, discovered that there was a second fund that was also being used with about $7.8 million in it, I believe, that was also being used for these purposes.

I think Canadians, fair-minded Canadians, were absolutely appalled that these sorts of funds existed inside this organization and that these funds were being funded by the registration fees of little kids and little girls across the country. I mean, that is, you know, when you think about it, I mean, it doesn't take much to think about how horrific that is, that you're using the registration fees for these little kids that go play hockey to pay off in part against members of the Canadian junior hockey team over an alleged group sexual assault in 2018 after Hockey Canada functioned. And then when we found out that Hockey Canada had made this payment to this woman, that sort of opened this incredible Pandora's box of information about, well, wait a minute, where did this money come from? A fund? What is this fund for?

And then that's when we really started to peel back the layers of the onion of this organization. And we discovered, you know, some pretty terrible things, some very, very upsetting things. People that not only upset parents rightfully, but upset sponsors and hockey organizations across the country that were appalled that this kind of activity was taking place. It's been happening in the last week as well, because Hockey Canada has lost nearly all of its major sponsors. We're talking Bauer, Tim Hortons, Canadian Tire, Scotiabank, TELUS, and the list goes on. What kind of impact did that loss of sponsors have on this situation? I think it was the critical component. If it had only been media criticism of the organization, they would have hung in there without any doubt. You know, they would have withstood the storm, the media storm. But it was when the sponsors started speaking and sort of making a statement by disassociating

themselves with the organization. That's when people like Scott Smith had no choice and the board had no choice because they were losing. I mean, sponsorships make up 40% of Hockey Canada's funding. So when they start walking out on you, you basically have no organization. And then on top of that, you had provincial hockey associations and provincial hockey organizations saying, we're not giving you any more hockey registration fees either. So their entire source of funding started to dry up. And those were the critical developments in this story that And so I think it was like, you know, just for the sake of their own brands

and what this said about them being associated with Hockey Canada, I think a lot of them just said, we have to end that association until the actors that are involved in this, you know, from Hockey Canada's perspective are gone and there's a change in leadership and hopefully a change in

the culture inside that organization. I'm glad you started talking a little bit about the, I guess, the culture that's at play here, because I think because there's been this ongoing testimony at a parliamentary committee at the federal parliamentary level, and this testimony started up again last week. What have we heard here? And what have we learned about the inner workings of Hockey Canada during those hearings? Well, I think what we really learned is that it was a very secretive, very non-transparent organization. The fact that these funds existed they've only came they only came to light because of court cases and reporters reading documents and transcripts from court cases so it's a very very secretive organization and i think the the heritage committee hearings

have really helped shine a light on how this organization has operated for years. And I think it needs to be said, Scott Smith, the CEO who just stepped down today, he's the current CEO. But there were CEOs that came before him that were just as responsible for the you know, the behavior that we've seen inside this organization. They oversaw these slush funds as well. You know, there's a lot of people that deserve criticism here. I mean, Scott Smith's in the hot seat right now, and rightly so. But there's some people that deserve a lot of criticism that, you know, were in those

positions before he took over. We'll be back in a moment. I know you've been paying attention to the recent hearings, Gary. I guess, is there any particular moments in the recent hearings that stand out to you, is kind of really emblematic of what's going on? I think it has to be Andrea Skinner's testimony. I guess it was last week, the interim chair, when she went in there and basically was defiant and sort of non-apologetic for what Hockey Canada has been doing. And she basically dug in and said it wasn't a Hockey Canada problem.

It was a societal problem. Suggesting that toxic behavior is somehow a specific hockey problem, or to scapegoat hockey as a centerpiece for toxic culture, is in my opinion counterproductive to finding solutions, and risks overlooking the change that needs to be made more broadly to prevent and address. She said when someone asked her what letter grade she would give Scott Smith, she said, well, she was a hard marker, but she gave him an A. And I think everybody was like, holy smokes. But, you know, I think the one thing that she did say that I would have to kind of agree with her. And that is, this is not simply a Hockey Canada problem.

I mean, Hockey Canada kind of personifies the problem. But there is almost a toxic masculinity problem inside certainly junior hockey in Canada. And that problem, which is basically these kids, you know, going to small towns across the country and they're like fetid like young gods and they come to believe that they can expect anything that they want, including young women. I mean, that problem is not going to go away with, you know, a new board and a new CEO. I mean, it's just not. It's a very saying that the leadership at Hockey Canada is not particularly diverse. And the fact that they have one of the few women at the top, Andrea Skinner, who is out there giving testimony there.

There's just something a little bit. I don't know if you read into that at all, an irony there, Gary. But there's just something maybe a little strange about the fact that they put the woman out front there to defend that. Yeah, I think that's a good point. Here's the other thing. I mean, they hired one of the biggest, most expensive public relation firms in the country, Navigator, that was, you know, allegedly going to help them kind of navigate their way through this controversy.

And the messaging of Andrea Skinner's messaging at that committee hearing couldn't have been worse. It couldn't have come across as more toned up. And part of me felt sorry for her. I mean, you know, because I think it was an agreed upon messaging from the entire board and the entire organization. And unfortunately, she had to be the one that got out front of it and delivered it. And she just paid a horrible price for it. There have, of course, been other incidents of sexual assault in Canadian hockey before. Why is it that this scandal and this situation is resonating with people and with sponsors so strongly? You know, that's a very good question.

I mean, I just think the times have changed. And it's just if this scandal breaks in the 1980s or the 1990s, do all these sponsors run away from Hockey Canada? I have my doubts. I really do. Maybe even in the early 2000s. I think that this is only something that could have happened in the times that we live in now. Like, really, I think, you know, it's just something has happened around this issue around, you know, cases of sexual assault now that, you know, society as a whole just finds the idea so repugnant that you don't want to be anywhere near, you don't want to be anywhere near this issue or seem to be on the side of the perpetrators. And in a sense, I think that is what we're looking at here. I think that that's kind of

what happened. Hockey Canada was seen to be on the side of the players who were alleged to have done these horrible things. They covered for them. They paid their liabilities. I mean, they said, don't worry about it, boys. We'll take care of this. And quietly, they did just that. And so when you think about that, society is just not, they're not prepared to accept that anymore. How likely do you think it is that a new board and a new CEO will actually create change within Hockey Canada? I think there's going to be enormous pressure on this new board and this new CEO. So now that these people are gone, do the sponsors rush right back and start supporting Hockey Canada? I don't believe that that's going to happen. I think these sponsors are going to wait to see what happens.

Who constitutes the new board? Do people have faith in these new individuals that are going to be recruited to take over an organization that is very, very badly damaged reputationally. So I think that it's really critical that they get this right. This new board has to be a board. It has to be constituted. It has to be comprised of people that will give Canadians faith that they're going to actually institute real change. And they'll go out and find a real change maker for the CEO's position. So I think right now we're kind of,

it's kind of wait and see, but there's some big, big decisions ahead for, you know, for Hockey Canada. And it starts with who this new board is. Hmm. I wonder what this means for kids playing hockey across Canada. Andrea Skinner, at one point during her testimony, she said she wasn't sure the lights would stay on in the arena if there was a mass exodus at the leadership level of the organization. What do you think this all means for people just trying to play hockey, got their know, the regular, the regular games and practice schedules, what impact will it have? I don't think it'll have any impact at all on little kids playing the game. I mean, they're probably blissfully, most of them are blissfully unaware of this controversy. I think their parents might have, you know, more to say about this. I mean, I think there's a lot

of parents, there's been a lot of discussion at, you know, at the hockey rink in the stands among parents about the whole thing. I think there were a lot of parents very, very upset about, about what Hockey Canada was doing. But more than that, that the idea that their, that their registration fees were being used in any way to kind of buttress and support this kind of behavior in these kind of decisions. I think parents were angry and rightfully so. So now that this change is happening at the top of the organization, how likely do you think that this will impact hockey culture itself in Canada? Will we actually see meaningful change in hockey

culture? Not tomorrow, we won't. Not, you know, next year. But I think we're going to start seeing it because I think people, sports organization, hockey organizations in the country, junior hockey in this country, they will have witnessed what has just taken place and they will have witnessed the wrath of the sponsors over, you know, what was discovered, what was revealed about Hockey Canada. And they'll know, like, unless they change, you know, the culture that they're responsible for, say, you know, say with a junior hockey team, a junior hockey team in Saskatoon. You know, if I was if I was the owner of a junior hockey team in Saskatoon right now, I'd be making, you know, sexual awareness, you know, that, you know, a big part, a big component of a young hockey player's education, you know, in that town. And not just like during their rookie year, but every year there needs to be a massive education campaign that takes place that that tells junior hockey players, you know. unacceptable never has been nor will ever be and your career could be over if you go anywhere near

this type of behavior that has existed for too long inside you know towns and cities across this country so i think that that you know that's not just hockey canada's responsibility i think that they need a bigger need to play a bigger role in it but you know i think it's got to happen inside junior hockey dressing rooms and, you know, ownership and all that sort of stuff. There's all sorts of levels of, you know, responsibility when it comes to this issue. So Hockey Canada didn't solve its problem today. It won't solve it when there's a new board in place or a CEO, but it could happen if that new board and that new CEO makes this area more broadly a priority. And, you know, education, they make education around this issue a priority. So, but that's

not going to happen this year. It's not going to happen next year. It's going to happen over a number of years, over the next few years, hopefully. Gary, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today. Oh, it's my pleasure. I've always wanted to do the show. That's it for today. I'm Mainika Raman-Wilms. Our producers are Madeline White, Cheryl Sutherland, and Rachel Levy-McLaughlin. David Crosby edits the show. Kasia Mihailovic is our senior producer, and Angela Pichenza is our executive editor.

Thanks so much for listening, and I'll talk to you tomorrow.