National Hockey League (NHL) Commissioner Gary Bettman said his league will conduct a full investigation to learn more about the alleged sexual assault committed by members of Canada’s junior team in 2018.
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Questioned on the sidelines of the NHL amateur draft, the chairman says we must try to find out more because the conclusions presented by the national federation through its independent investigator are deemed by a majority of observers, including the political class, to be clearly inadequate.
“We will try to research as rigorously as possible to see if we can learn more than we knew from previous Hockey Canada presentations. They didn’t have the information or some restrictions persisted at that level, Bettman said, as reported by the Sportsnet network. Our goal is to get to the point and really understand what happened.”
In addition, he added that his league is working with the players’ union to set the parameters of the intended process. He expects “full cooperation” from ice hockey players and their organizations.
“We want them to make sure their players are available to talk to us and tell the truth,” Bettman said. It’s terrible, frightening and unacceptable. However, since everyone involved remains anonymous, understanding what happened is a major challenge. But we will do our best.”
In troubled waters
Hockey Canada is in the hot seat after reaching an out-of-court settlement with a suspected gang rape victim in London in June 2018. Many companies have temporarily suspended their sponsorship partnership with the association while funding is granted by the federal government. The government froze time to gather more information on the alleged facts.
The NHL’s investigation will be led by new Vice President of Safety Jared M. Maples.
“He has an interesting and diverse background in this field. His most recent position was as Director of Border Security for the state of New Jersey. And you don’t put the rest of your CV on paper,” explained the Commissioner.