Sports Minister Pascale St-Onge has again slammed Hockey Canada for “a complete lack of transparency” after a second hidden fund emerged that would have been used, among other things, to compensate sexual abuse cases.
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“I feel like I lack the vocabulary to express myself at the moment,” Ms St-Onge said in a press crowd on Monday.
The minister reiterated her call for the resignation and replacement of a new team at the helm of the organization overseeing the whole thing
“Now I’m making it clear that resignations are needed,” she said. “I don’t think it’s possible to restore confidence in Hockey Canada and in the organization with the same people who allowed this system.”
In her opinion, the existence of a second secret fund “illustrates” that cases of sexual abuse were treated as “an insurance problem of Hockey Canada” and not “a matter of fighting nature itself, the problem, and changing the culture.” .
Pascale St-Onge is therefore calling for “more women” and more people “who don’t come from hockey culture”, including a “mixture of good people who know good governance practices”.
The news, published by The Globe & Mail on Monday, came on the eve of further testimony from Hockey Canada executives in the parliamentary committee on Tuesday.
For its part, the Bloc Québécois called for an independent inquiry to be launched, which was unanimously supported by the House of Commons over the summer.
“Almost every week we learn more about the toxic culture of how sexual assault cases are handled at Hockey Canada: two dozen million dollars for sexual assault settlements, multiple assault cases, the more the scandals pile up, the more alike they become.” explained Sébastien Lemire, Bloc spokesman for sport.
Ms St-Onge says she prefers to await the results of inquiries already underway, including a financial audit and two inquiries by local police forces into specific events. The National Hockey League (NHL) has also announced an investigation.