Earlier today, after the London Police Service held a press conference regarding the investigation into several players of the 2018 U20 Team Canada roster, Hockey Canada released several updates of their own. The major takeaway from the report is that all members of the 2018 U20 Team Canada roster remain suspended from Hockey Canada-sanctioned events, pending an appeal process started in 2023.
For this specifically, Hockey Canada is investigating whether or not any team members breached the organization’s code of conduct and what sanctions should be imposed on the individual players. With respect to the investigation and the legal process, Hockey Canada was unable to comment further and did not give a clear timeline as to when the appeals process may reach its conclusion.
Depending on the timeline, this will bar all players from the 2018 U20 Team Canada roster from playing in any international events, except the “4 Nations Face-Off” in 2025, as it is an NHL-sanctioned event. Without getting into the specifics, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Hockey Canada, Katherine Henderson was quoted as saying:
“Hockey Canada recognizes that in the past we have been too slow to act and that in order to deliver the meaningful change that Canadians expect of us, we must work diligently and urgently to ensure that we are putting in place the necessary measures to regain their trust, and provide all participants with a safe, welcoming and inclusive environment on and off the ice”.
Outside of Hockey Canada, TSN’s Darren Dreger reports that the Calgary Flames, New Jersey Devils, and Philadelphia Flyers will receive cap relief for players currently on leave who have been charged in the 2018 Team Canada legal proceedings. Without specifying how much cap relief the teams would receive, it is reasonable to assume that the full dollar amount of each player’s contract will now be taken off the books for the foreseeable future, meaning $2.3MM, $2.2MM, and $3.98MM, respectively.
“Tried to help you hide from reality, guess it didn’t work.” – Dube’s Beard
love how hockey Canada is taking this diplomatic approach like “we have to do our due diligence.”
A. you fostered this behaviour then tried to help cover it up
B. I think, did they break the code of conduct will be evident based on the police investigation.
I live in London, and I think it’s extremely notable that none of the original LPS investigators from 2018 are on the current investigative team.
I strongly suspect at least one of these players is going to face jail time. We’ll let the courts do their thing, but none of these guys are good people. I hope none of them return to the league.
@PyramidHeadcrab — Does that sound like the original investigators may have been on the take, or simply trying to bury the incident until the victim pressed the matter?
So we have a new police chief here in London. Under the previous chief, there were widespread reports of the LPS not taking survivors seriously and failing to investigate, along with an extremely poor relationship with Black and Indigenous Londoners, including accusations of “starlight cruises” where Indigenous people would be driven out of the city and dumped on the nearby reserve, whether they actually lived there or not.
Public trust in the LPS is extremely low, hence the change in leadership. I don’t think it’s a matter of trying to bury evidence or anything like that, more just an “I don’t wanna deal with it” attitude under previous leadership. Local organizations like LAWC (London Abused Women’s Centre) have been very critical of how the LPS has handled this case from day one, and it’s been a major political issue in the city here.
@PyramidHeadcrab — I live a billion miles from there, but much of what you describe is very similar to what I see where I am. I don’t care for so-called law enforcement that doesn’t want to do their jobs properly. When it comes to alleged crimes like this, there is no excuse to be “slob-jobbers.”
The worst part is that our city council is undergoing budget deliberations right now, and the ONLY organization that is getting its full funding ask unchallenged is the LPS. Transit is getting 0$ in new spending, despite property taxes finally being evaluated at modern numbers (they had been using 2016 valuation for a long time). It’s an absolute gong show.
Guess it’s time to Defund the Police in London. Lol how’d that work out last time? It didn’t. Anywhere.
You can have a functional police force without spending mammoth amounts of money. The problem comes when “tightening the belt” doesn’t apply to police the way it applies to literally everything else.
The #1 issue for just about everyone on earth, other than criminals, is to feel safe & secure. Money well spent imo.
Sir, that might work in Canada where you can fight crime on horseback, but here in America we need entire SWAT teams to tear gas 18 month olds in incubators.
@66, you’re an idiot!
Ooops, I triggered a snowflake.
He needs to feel safe from those toddlers with medical needs.
@based – the problem is that in some areas (probably more than people want to admit) police are only selectively doing their job. “Defund the Police” is a movement saying of police won’t do what they are funded to do for everyone, then we should not fund them.
you can argue about feeling safe (most on the right only talk in feelings anyway) but the problem is many (often BIPOC) don’t feel safe with police, they feel targeted.
That is absolutely incorrect, most POC want police in their communtities due to high crime. @66 wow can’t believe I was called a snowflake. A woke keyboard tough guy calling me that. Hilarious! MAGA!
It’s all good, Bud. We get it.
You are scared of everyone and everything and need other people to make you feel safe and protected.
Correct or not, your feelings are valid and deserve to be treated as such.
It will be OK. Just keep telling yourself that.
yes police who defend everyone equally. that doesn’t happen unfortunately in many places.
On the baseball side, comments are usually closed for stuff like this. Hockey commenters must be better behaved. :)
@highflyballintorightfield — Not always better behaved. And, this might be an article oversight for the time being. Stay tuned…
Man, if you were in the live chat on the LPS press event today… Yikes. Generally a good crowd, but you did get a few jackasses in there being like, “LPS hate the Devils !!!” and lots of victim blaming. They were generally shut down though, which was cool to see. But some nasty comments for sure.
I think this website on the whole is pretty respectful though.
The original posting of this story last week was closed for comments. It depends on the author I find. Also with this having a lot more Canadians in the boards, politics don’t get thrown into the mix as commonly causing a stupid bunch of arguments and rants that have nothing to do with the story posted.
Strange take by that poster. NJD is probably the least impacted… Foote is like number 9 on the D chart and McLeod is a good 4th line C. Isn’t Carter Hart a starter? I’m not familiar with Dube so can’t comment on him. Anyway, innocent till proven guilty – you reap what you sow so hopefully justice prevails and they get a fair trial.
I agree with you on this. Hopefully the trial goes through professionally and isn’t a gong show for the PR bandits. I live in Calgary, so I can chime in about Dube as a player. He was ok the last few years, actually progressing consistently. Under Darryl Sutter he was one of the favourite players for the coaching staff. This year? He fell off a cliff, and now we know why. I was always hoping that he was innocent, but this years play especially, made it hard to not think he was mentally affected by what was coming forward.
The London Ontario police had NO business apologizing to the alleged victim, It’s was a classless move and an egregious over reach of power.
I came here for an absurd Wilf take and you delivered.
That’s it? That’s all you have? You remind me of the Maple Leafs, You bring nothing!
How do you bring the leafs in to this? oh Wilf never change. you are truly a Hockey Trade Rumors clown legend
You are welcome!
We only know about because of Rick Westhead. The police, hockey canada, players ,thier families were just thinking this bunch boys from suburbs. No crime here. IF you read looks like Mcleod was leader others just followed. It is unfair to punish all players. Makar @ Kyrou were not even in London.
what are you talking about? that paragraph looks like a bowl of alphabet soup.
letters everywhere but no cohesion
You do realize there’s allegedly a video of this event that has led to these charges, right? These charges didn’t just materialize out of thin air. Makar and Kyrou aren’t among those charged, so… Not sure where you got that from.
Hockey Canada only suspended these players because it became public. They were fine with paying off $3.5 million. What a joke.
Hockey Canada has suspended any and all players involved in that years team from international play until further notice. Not just the 5 named players in the case.
It’s still a joke. Hockey Canada paid $3.5 million to sweep it under the rug.
Yeah I read that today. Makes no sense honestly.
There are 6 victims to this alleged crime, and only 1 of them is assured of coming out of it set for life.
So, those 5 players S.A.’ed 5 other women we haven’t heard about in addition to the one we have…?
Thankfully no woman will ever interact with you.
you are seriously claiming people accused of assault are victims? that’s a hot take of there ever was one
Yeah that’s quite bold considering they’ve already been arrested. I realize many of them are pleading their innocence but this whole incident it seems hard to believe the guys pointed out by the victim would all be innocent. Pretty silly thing to say. I do agree innocent until proven guilty but we can use discretion and show respect to the victim who came out against these guys until the court system deciphers who’s guilty and who’s not.