Third-party review into Hockey Canada calls for more leadership oversight
A third-party governance review led by former Supreme Court justice Thomas Cromwell has said that the directors for the board of Hockey Canada “needs to be fundamentally rethought.”
The 221-page document, completed on Oct. 31 and released on Friday, was made in response to Hockey Canada’s handling of sexual assault allegations against the 2018 and 2003 World Junior Championship teams.
The organization has been under intense scrutiny since a report in May revealed that Hockey Canada settled a sexual assault lawsuit related to an alleged incident at a 2018 gala in London, Ont. None of the allegations have been proven in court at the time of publication.
One of the biggest pressure points was Canada’s use of funds – namely the National Equity Fund – to pay off sexual assault claims. In July, reports surfaced that Hockey Canada paid just under $9 million to settle 21 cases of sexual assault since 1989.
Cromwell said Hockey Canada was right to have funds such as the NEF, but, in this case, an appropriate amount of oversight or transparency was not there.
Cromwell recommends that Hockey Canada provides “timely disclosure of publicly available information to its members regarding ongoing and potential claims.”
Hockey Canada’s board of directors agreed to step down in early October on the same day that CEO Scott Smith left the organization. The election for the new board of directors will be held on Dec. 17, 2022.
“The complexity of the organization’s leadership challenges have outgrown the responsive capacity of the present board recruitment and election processes,” Cromwell wrote in the report. “The current board nomination process has not provided Hockey Canada with the wide range, depth and diversity of experience, both professional and personal, that the board collectively requires to govern this complex organization and to lead significant cultural change.”
Among the various recommendations, the report asks for a more balanced gender representation on the reformed board of directors so that no more than 60 percent of the board will be of the same gender. The report also asks for at least one athlete representative to be on the board – someone who is currently a player with a national team or has competed with an international team at some point over the past eight years.
The report also calls for a nominating committee to work with a board recruitment firm to help find suitable, quality candidates for the board.
Many of Hockey Canada’s top sponsors paused or completely severed its support for Hockey Canada over the past few months. After backlash from provincial hockey bodies, Hockey Canada also agreed not to accept player fees for 2022-23 – fees that had been used as part of the NEF.
“Confidence takes time to build, but can be quickly lost,” Cromwell wrote. “Hockey Canada’s recent experience is a testament to that.”