Hockey fans in Canada are struggling to make sense of a scandal that has led to charges against of five former junior hockey players.
At the Leon’s Centre arena, home to the junior hockey team in Kingston, Ontario, a sense of outrage mixed with anticipation as fans who had gathered for a game grappled with the news that five former Canadian junior hockey players — four of whom played in the National Hockey League — had been charged last week with sexual assault.
The first hearing for the five accused is scheduled for Monday at the Ontario Court of Justice in London, Ontario. There the police, who first investigated but didn’t bring charges in 2018, plan to hold their first news conference about the case on Monday afternoon.
The allegations have touched a nerve with fans, leading many to question how Hockey Canada, the nation’s governing body for the sport, has responded.
The case came to light in May 2022 after TSN, a sports channel that broadcasts the world junior championship, reported that Hockey Canada had paid 3.5 million Canadian dollars, or $2.6 million, to settle a lawsuit brought by a woman who said she had been sexually assaulted by eight junior league players. At the time of the assault is said to have occurred, all of the players were members of Canada’s national junior team.
It was later reported by the newspaper The Globe and Mail that the settlement payment had come from a slush fund bolstered in part by children’s hockey registration fees.
Although the N.H.L. has international fame and recognition, in many smaller communities, hockey, Canada’s dominant sport, is more often defined by junior teams of amateur players between the ages of 15 and 20.