‘Names have to be named’ in 2003 World Juniors sexual assault allegations, activist says | 24CA News
WARNING: This article incorporates graphic content material and will have an effect on those that have skilled sexual violence.
Six months after Halifax police opened an investigation into an alleged group sexual assault after the 2003 World Juniors hockey match in Halifax, a victims’ rights activist says well-paid present and retired NHL gamers are being protected — and he or she needs that to cease.
“I think that names have to be named,” mentioned Judy Haiven, a retired professor, social activist and founding father of Equity Watch, a non-profit group set as much as battle discrimination.
“Those young men who were in the 2003 juniors, most of them, probably all but one that I know of, went on to play in the NHL.”
In October, an NHL spokesperson informed 24CA News, “At this point, we are monitoring the 2003 investigation opened by the authorities in Halifax.”
Haiven has gathered background details about the gamers on Team Canada’s roster. Every staff they’ve performed for is listed and, though many are actually retired, she mentioned it is not arduous to seek out a lot of them.
“If it’s true that there is a videotape, and I believe that’s true, I don’t understand why these people haven’t been outed yet,” she mentioned.
“My real concern is the hockey players. Right now, my real concern is stopping this from happening.”
The Halifax investigation is considered one of three involving junior gamers in Canada between 2003 and 2018.
New courtroom paperwork that embody interview transcripts and search warrant requests reveal why police investigators say they’ve cheap grounds to accuse 5 World Junior hockey gamers of sexually assaulting a girl in a London, Ont., resort room in 2018. Some of the fabric within the 94-page bundle has been redacted, together with the names of these concerned and particular intercourse acts.
Halifax police opened its case in July after TSN first realized of an alleged video through the top of the Hockey Canada scandal over revelations that Hockey Canada settled sexual assault claims utilizing cash generated from registration charges.
“I seen a hockey player of the 2003 World Junior Team, a Canadian player, take a video camera and turn it towards himself and say, ‘This is going to be a lamb roast.’ There was five or six naked players all masturbating with one person having sex with a girl on a bed who seemed extremely intoxicated,” mentioned a person who says he noticed the video in Halifax almost 20 years in the past.
24CA News has agreed to maintain the person’s identification confidential as a result of he mentioned he fears he may endure damaging repercussions, each professionally and personally
“I recognize two of the players and both of them went on to have NHL careers,” the person mentioned in an interview final August.
24CA News has reached out to gamers on that 2003 staff. At least three who responded say that thus far, they have not been contacted by police.
The Halifax police will not say who investigators have interviewed, however Const. John MacLeod says the case is lively.
“They’re speaking with everyone that they need to in relation to the investigation so they can they can move this forward,” he mentioned.
MacLeod will not affirm if investigators have heard from an alleged sufferer, saying he would not wish to taint the investigation. There’s no statute of limitations, he added.
Investigations going again many years are tough “whether that be from evidence that may or may not be lost or we’re dealing with some memory with individuals that they might not remember specifics,” he mentioned.
“We’re going to treat the victims and the individuals involved with respect and dignity and we want them to come forward so that we can help them in any way that we can.”
“Any information, whether it comes from memory, whether that’s evidence or anything we can have, if that’s brought forward to us, it would be helpful,” MacLeod mentioned.
Hockey Canada’s unbiased third social gathering has additionally employed an investigator with the SportSafe Investigations Group to look into the allegations.
Ottawa lawyer Jennifer White mentioned her mandate is to make factual findings on what occurred, whether or not Hockey Canada knew about it, and in the event that they did, what they did about it.
She hopes this World Juniors match will spark some recollections and that folks will contact her and supply info, particularly if they’re uncomfortable talking with police. She may be reached at jwhite@sportsafe.ca
“Those 19-year-old junior hockey players are now in their late thirties, which of course brings a different perspective to things,” she mentioned in an announcement.
“We really want to find out if anything happened and if it did happen, what happened?”
‘She should not be pushed by that strain’
Catherine Laroche can perceive why the sufferer could not wish to come ahead.
“No one calls us. No one comes and asks if you’re OK,” the mom of two daughters mentioned, sitting in a hockey rink in Terrebonne, Que.
Laroche is aware of precisely what it is wish to report allegations of sexual assault involving a serious junior hockey participant who change into an NHL star.
She says it occurred at a home social gathering in June 2015. She had two glasses of wine earlier than going right into a sauna with a younger man.
She believes both a person who was additionally within the sauna or considered one of his associates spiked her bottle of water with GHB, a drug that has been linked thus far rape circumstances.
“Someone took me into a room, had sex with me, and after that I was found unconscious beside a toilet bowl filled with vomit,” Laroche mentioned.
She went to police to make a report in 2020 nevertheless it was six months earlier than a detective contacted her to make a videotaped assertion. Ten months later, a brand new detective was assigned to the case however mentioned she would not begin talking with witnesses till January 2022.
Laroche finally determined to drop the allegations as a result of going by way of the justice system wasn’t a part of her therapeutic journey.
“I had an anxiety attack, you know, and it was like five years later, six years later,” she mentioned. “I’m scared. I’m scared of not being believed. I’m scared about what people will say.”
Laroche now works with male faculty and minor hockey gamers, serving to them perceive the idea of consent.
Since talking out, she has additionally heard from many ladies with related tales to hers — though not the one within the alleged Halifax incident.
Her recommendation to that lady?
“It depends on her needs in her process. Like if she wants to create something out of it, if she wants justice, if she believes that her mission is to come out and to show other girls to share their voice, it really depends on what’s vibing inside of her,” Laroche mentioned.
“It must be a lot of pressure, but she shouldn’t be driven by that pressure. She should be driven by what speaks to her inside.”
Back in Halifax, Judy Haiven hopes the alleged 2003 sufferer is not being triggered by all of the protection of this match.
She and others have an on-line petition demanding that a few of the earnings go towards applications supporting survivors of sexual assault.
