Hockey Canada members elect new board of directors | CBC Sports
Hockey Canada has a brand new board of administrators.
Now the actual work begins.
The embattled nationwide sport group’s members elected a slate of candidates to fill 9 vacant board seats Saturday.
Retired choose Hugh L. Fraser is Hockey Canada’s new chair, whereas former girls’s nationwide crew captain Cassie Campbell-Pascall is considered one of eight administrators.
The federation’s 13 provincial and territorial our bodies had the selection to just accept or reject the 9 names, which included 5 girls and 4 males, put ahead by an impartial nominating committee.
Nine people have been elected to the Hockey Canada Board of Directors, following a range course of led by an impartial Nominating Committee and a vote by Hockey Canada’s Members.
—@HockeyCanada
Three days after interim chair Andrea Skinner stepped down in October, Hockey Canada’s earlier board additionally give up — under-fire president and CEO Scott Smith left on the identical time — amid blistering criticism associated to the scandal-plagued group’s dealing with of sexual assault allegations and hushed payouts to victims.
“We understand the disappointment and the loss of confidence,” Fraser stated Saturday in a telephone interview with The Canadian Press. “There is a lot of work to be done in rebuilding Hockey Canada.
“Our focus is on making the game safer and extra inclusive and rebuilding that belief.”
Grant Borbridge, Julie Duranceau, David Evans, Marni Fullerton, Jonathan F. Goldbloom, Marian Jacko and Andrea Poole were also voted in as directors.
Their first order of business will be to hire a new CEO and rebuild faith in an organization badly bruised since May when it was revealed a woman alleged she was sexually assaulted by eight CHL players — including members of the 2018 world junior team — following a Hockey Canada gala in London, Ont, four years ago. None of the allegations have been proven in court.
The fallout was swift.
The ugly headlines included the revelation that Hockey Canada’s little-known National Equity Fund — maintained by fees collected from players across the country — had been used to pay for uninsured liabilities, including sexual abuse claims.
With nearly three decades experience at the Ontario court of justice, Fraser has been on the Court of Arbitration for Sport since 1995 and served on the first ad hoc court at the 1996 Olympics.
Born in Jamaica and raised in Kingston, Ont., he also competed in the men’s 200-metre track and field event at the 1976 Olympics and is the father of former NHL defenceman Mark Fraser.
“It means an excellent deal,” Fraser said of being selected from a pool of more than 550 applicants.
“I’m a passionate hockey fan and watched from the sidelines as latest occasions have unfolded.”
Liberal MP and heritage committee member Anthony Housefather said in a statement the new board represents “a various group of very certified individuals.”
“They even have an amazing problem,” he added.
“To say that Hockey Canada has been via a tumultuous time is an understatement,” Conservative MP and heritage committee member Rachael Thomas said in a separate statement. “The newly minted members of the board have the duty to gamers, dad and mom and the Canadian individuals to information the group right into a optimistic future.”
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Campbell-Pascall brings the most Hockey Canada experience to the table.
The three-time Olympian, who helped the women’s team capture gold at both the 2002 and 2006 Games, currently sits on the board of its foundation and was the first female hockey player inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.
An Order of Canada recipient, Campbell-Pascall was also the first woman to provide colour commentary on “Hockey Night in Canada” and is a regular on Sportsnet’s NHL telecasts.
Her husband, Brad Pascall, is an assistant general manager with the Calgary Flames and worked in senior management roles at Hockey Canada from 1995 through 2014, according to his LinkedIn page.
Borbridge, Jacko and Poole, meanwhile, have significant hockey administration experience.
A corporate lawyer from Calgary, Borbridge served on the board of the Girls Hockey Calgary Association and the Glenlake Minor Hockey Club.
Jacko, an Anishinaabe from Wiikwemkoong First Nation, is the assistant deputy attorney general for the Indigenous Justice Division in Ontario. She is also president of the Little Native Hockey League.
Poole, who runs an accounting firm, has sat as director of the Ottawa East Minor Hockey Association.
The other new board members come from outside the sport.
Duranceau is a lawyer and an accredited mediator, Goldbloom is a communications specialist, Fullerton has experience as a senior adviser and CEO, and Evans has worked in the consulting, advisory and real estate industries.
Fraser pointed to that wide range of expertise as crucial to Hockey Canada’s path forward.
“There’s clearly extra seen range than organizations like this have tended to show,” he said. “But we discuss range of thought as properly.
“The perspectives that everyone brings, I’ve just been so impressed.”
Former Supreme Court choose Thomas Cromwell headed an impartial evaluate into Hockey Canada launched in November. The 221-page doc concluded the federation was at a “crossroads” and referred to as for extra oversight and accountability.
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Cromwell’s report supplied a lot of suggestions, together with that transferring ahead not more than 60 per cent of board members be of the identical gender.
He additionally advisable the brand new board serve a particular one-year time period centered on bettering the group’s governance and security throughout the game.
The clock is already ticking.
“Trust won’t be rebuilt overnight,” Fraser stated. “But Canadians should know that the new leadership at Hockey Canada is very committed to getting it right.
“We have each confidence that we will accomplish that.”
