Ending hockey’s toxic masculinity

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/01/2024 (610 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Admittedly, I was never much of a fan.

Hockey arenas were never a place I frequented much, even before news broke about the high-profile sexual assault scandal involving several hockey players from the 2018 world junior hockey team and a 20-year-old woman known as E.M. But now, knowing what I know, I, and likely many other sexual assault survivors, find the sport all too triggering.

That might change soon, as Hockey Canada commits to cleaning up its toxic masculinity problem upon losing many of its sponsors and replacing its entire board after the bombshell revelations about a “National Equity Fund” used to settle sexual assault claims against its players and its handling of this particular group sexual assault involving E.M. And now, just last week, came the news many had been waiting nearly six years to hear: five of those hockey players involved in the 2018 alleged gang rape are finally facing criminal charges.

While this news does signal a turning point for survivors everywhere, particularly E.M., it must be noted that these hockey players are still receiving a bit of a ‘kid-glove’ treatment. Instead of being arrested by the London, Ontario law enforcement agency where the incident occurred, they’re being given a timeline to turn themselves in to police headquarters.

More will be revealed at a news conference scheduled for Feb. 6 by the same police agency that, nearly five years ago to the exact date, announced to E.M. it was dropping its investigation and labelling her case as unfounded.

E.M. is not alone in having her sexual assault allegations originally dismissed. Roughly 5,000 cases each year are deemed unfounded by police agencies across Canada, as reported in a bombshell 2017 Globe & Mail story by Robyn Doolittle about the rape culture in Canada and how victims are repeatedly dismissed and disbelieved by police agencies.

The number of unfounded cases — approximately one out of every five at the time — is particularly mind-blowing when you consider that upwards of 95 per cent of all sexual assault survivors never even report to police. Unlike E.M., so many survivors, myself included, keep the shame of what happened to themselves, burying it as deep trauma and desperately hoping the entire ordeal goes away.

But it doesn’t go away.

Not even for survivors like E.M. who bravely push ahead.

Even after being coerced by one of the assailants to drop the charges and threatening her that it wouldn’t turn out well, she persevered.

Even after being dismissed by police, she persevered, likely at her great emotional, spiritual and physical detriment.

In pursuing a civil lawsuit against eight hockey players, which was ultimately settled by Hockey Canada, she endured having the worst moments of her life documented in great detail and filed in a statement of claim that has been read and re-read and reported on by hundreds, if not thousands of people.

In this statement of claim, she admitted to meeting up with a hockey player at a place called Jack’s Bar in downtown London after the Hockey Canada Foundation Gala, being plied with alcohol, and then going up to a hotel room for consensual sex with the player. What happened next, according to her statement, is the stuff of nightmares. On invitation from the first hockey player, seven more hockey players then came up to the room to have sex with her, holding golf clubs and blocking her from the exit until they were finished.

As painful as it must’ve been to proceed with the civil lawsuit, it ultimately turned the hockey world upside down.

Then, after much public outrage, the London police agency re-opened its case in 2022.

Now, as this criminal case begins its lengthy journey through the process, undoubtedly E.M. will be subjected to even more public scrutiny as her worst nightmare plays out once again in public view. It’s not all for naught, though. Because of her bravery, she’s upending a heinous rape culture and the hockey world is undergoing seismic change.

Accountability changes everything.

Except the trauma. It always stays the same, a seemingly never-ending and insidious imprint left on all its survivors.

Yet for those of us in the shadows, we hope that one day, because of the courageous actions of E.M. and so many others like her, a light will shine so bright it will turn from this dark page. Maybe even lighten the hockey arenas for all of us once again.

Until then, if you or someone you know is the victim of sexual violence, help is available. Call the 24-7 Sexual Assault Crisis Line in Winnipeg at 204-786-8631 or toll free in Manitoba at 1-888-292-7565.

Rochelle Squires is a recovering politician after serving 71/2 years in the Manitoba legislature. She is a political and social commentator whose column appears Tuesdays.

rochelle@rochellesquires.ca