WARNING: This article contains graphic content and may affect those who have experienced sexual violence.
Six months after Halifax police opened an investigation into an alleged group sexual assault after the 2003 World Juniors hockey tournament in Halifax, a victims’ rights activist says well-paid current and former NHL players they are being protected, and he wants that to end.
“I think you have to name names,” said Judy Haiven, a retired professor, social activist and founder of Equity Watch, a nonprofit organization created to fight discrimination.
“Those guys that were in the 2003 juniors, most of them, probably all but one that I know of, played in the NHL.”
In October, an NHL spokesperson told CBC News: “At this time, we are monitoring the 2003 investigation opened by authorities in Halifax.”
Haiven has compiled some background information on the players on Team Canada’s roster. All the teams they’ve played for are on the list, and while many are now retired, he said it’s not hard to find many of them.
“If it’s true that there’s a videotape, and I think it’s true, I don’t understand why these people haven’t been sued yet,” he said.
“My real concern is hockey players. Right now my real concern is preventing this from happening.”
The Halifax investigation is one of three involving youth players in Canada between 2003 and 2018.
New court documents including interview transcripts and search warrant requests reveal why police investigators say they have reasonable grounds to charge five World Junior hockey players with sexually assaulting a woman in a London, Ontario, hotel room. in 2018. Some of the material in the 94-page packet has been redacted, including the names of those involved and specific sexual acts.
Halifax police opened their case in July after TSN first learned of an alleged video during the height of the Hockey Canada scandal about revelations that Hockey Canada settled sexual assault claims with money generated from Hockey Canada fees. Registration.
“I saw a 2003 Junior World Team hockey player, a Canadian player, take a video camera and turn it towards himself and say, ‘This is going to be a roast lamb.’ There were five or six naked players all masturbating to a person having sex with a girl on a bed who looked extremely intoxicated,” said a man who says he saw the video in Halifax almost 20 years ago.
CBC News agreed to keep the man’s identity confidential because it said it fears he could suffer negative repercussions, both professionally and personally.
“I recognize two of the players and they both had careers in the NHL,” the man said in an interview last August.
CBC News has reached out to players from that 2003 team. At least three who responded say they have not been contacted by police so far.
Halifax police will not say who investigators have interviewed, but Const. John MacLeod says the case is active.
“They are talking to everyone they need to in regards to the investigation so they can move forward,” he said.
MacLeod will not confirm whether investigators have heard from an alleged victim, saying he does not want to contaminate the investigation. There is no statute of limitations, he added.
Investigations going back decades are difficult “whether it’s from evidence that may or may not be lost, or if we’re dealing with some memories from people who may not remember details,” he said.
“We are going to treat the victims and the people involved with respect and dignity and we want them to come forward so we can help them in any way we can.”
“Any information, whether it’s coming from memory, whether it’s evidence or anything that we might have, if presented to us, would be helpful,” MacLeod said.
Hockey Canada’s independent third party also retained an investigator with the SportSafe Investigations Group to look into the allegations.
Ottawa lawyer Jennifer White said her mandate is to make factual findings about what happened, whether Hockey Canada knew about it and, if they did, what they did about it.
She hopes that this world youth tournament will spark some memories in her and that people will reach out to her and give her information, especially if they feel uncomfortable talking to the police. You can reach her at jwhite@sportsafe.ca
“Those 19-year-old junior hockey players are now in their late thirties, which of course brings a different perspective to things,” he said in a statement.
“We really want to know if something happened, and if it did, what happened?”
“She shouldn’t let herself be carried away by that pressure”
Catherine Laroche can understand why the victim doesn’t want to come forward.
“No one calls us. No one comes and asks if you’re okay,” said the mother of two, sitting on a hockey rink in Terrebonne, Quebec.
Laroche knows exactly what it’s like to report sexual assault allegations involving a top junior hockey player turned NHL star.
She says it happened at a house party in June 2015. She had two glasses of wine before going into a sauna with a young man.
She believes that a man who was also in the sauna or one of her friends filled her water bottle with GHB, a drug that has been linked to date rape cases.
“Someone took me into a room, had sex with me and after that they found me unconscious next to a toilet bowl full of vomit,” Laroche said.
She went to the police to make a report in 2020, but it took six months before a detective contacted her to make a videotaped statement. Ten months later, she was assigned a new detective to the case, but she said she wouldn’t start talking to witnesses until January 2022.
Laroche ultimately decided to drop the charges because going through the justice system was not part of his healing process.
“I had an anxiety attack, you know, and it was like five years later, six years later,” he said. “I’m afraid. I’m afraid they won’t believe me. I’m afraid of what people will say.”
Laroche now works with college and junior men’s hockey players, helping them understand the concept of consent.
Since she spoke, she has also heard from many women with stories similar to hers, though not the alleged Halifax incident.
His advice for that woman?
“It depends on her needs in her process. For example, if she wants to build something out of that, if she wants justice, if she thinks her mission is to go out there and show other girls that share her voice, it really depends on what vibes inside of her. Laroche said.
“It must be a lot of pressure, but she shouldn’t be carried away by that pressure. She should be carried away by what is speaking to her inside.”
Back in Halifax, Judy Haiven hopes the alleged victim from 2003 isn’t being provoked by all the coverage of this tournament.
She and others have an online petition demanding that part of the proceeds go to support programs for sexual assault survivors.
