Menu

Moncton

hockey-image-facebook-1024x585-1

Hockey Canada reports members of 2003 world junior hockey team accused of group sex assault

, , , , ,

Hockey Canada is reporting members of the 2003 men’s World Junior Hockey Team have been accused of a group sexual assault.

It released a statement on Friday saying it has reached out to Halifax Regional Police regarding the men’s team. Halifax was the co-host city in 2003.

The national sports organization says it learned of the alleged incident after being contacted by TSN reporter Rick Westhead looking for comment after several witnesses provided “explicit descriptions of an assault.”

“The details in Mr. Westhead’s email were deeply disturbing and Hockey Canada immediately contacted Halifax Regional Police, as Halifax was the co-host city of the 2003 IIHF World Junior Championship, and also notified Sport Canada of the information shared with us,” the statement says. “We have urged Mr. Westhead to immediately speak with police and to encourage his sources to do the same.”

It was Westhead’s reporting which exposed a settlement lawsuit about an alleged group sexual assault in June 2018. A woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by eight CHL players in London Ontario, at a Hockey Canada golf event. Some of the accused players represented Canada at the WJHC that year.

Those allegations came to light in May. That resulted in the organization losing government funding and shedding big-name sponsors like Scotiabank, Canadian Tire, Tim Hortons and Telus.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau criticized Hockey Canada during an announcement in Nova Scotia on Thursday saying there needs to be a real reckoning with the behaviour Canadians saw.

“I think there’s a lot more that Hockey Canada is going to have to do before Canadian parents like me start trusting them.”

The organization has confirmed staff heard a rumour about “something bad at the 2003 World Juniors.” The information was reported to Sport Canada. Hockey Canada hired an investigator to try to find out more. It says they didn’t get the details before the reporter reached out to them.

Hockey Canada is urging anyone with information on the incident to come forward and is calling on the police to open an investigation.

“Hockey Canada is committed to bringing an end to the culture of silence in hockey. That is why we are publicly calling for anyone with knowledge of this incident to come forward to police, and we are being transparent in how we learned of this alleged assault and the steps we are taking to address it.”

Halifax Police spokesperson Cst. John MacLeod has issued a statement to our newsroom. He says they will carry out a thorough investigation.

“I can confirm that late last night, we received a report related to a historical sexual assault that is alleged to have occurred in Halifax in 2003,: the statement says. “It is not our practice to provide information in relation to individuals involved in investigations unless charges have been laid and sworn before the courts. We take all matters of this nature very seriously and will be conducting a thorough investigation.”

The 2023 World Juniors are scheduled to be played in Halifax and Moncton.

**With files from Huddle’s Derek Montague. Huddle Today Limited and Acadia Broadcasting Limited are each part of the Ocean Capital Group.**

img-1303-2-scaled-1

Retired Firefighter Remembers Ground Zero After 9/11

, , , , , , , , , , ,

Twenty years later, September 11, 2001 is still fresh on the minds of many.

That includes retired firefighter from Moncton, New Brunswick Bob Leblanc.

“We working working that day. It was morning and the TV’s were on CNN at the time. We couldn’t believe it. It just kept unfolding, and unfolding. Not many of us got any sleep, we were just fixated on watching TV that day.”

He went to Ground Zero about a month and a half after the attacks.

“I just wanted to do something to help. We did a boot fundraiser in Moncton and raised thousands of dollars. I talked to the Chief and asked if I could go to Ground Zero to present the cheque,” Leblanc says.

Leblanc describes it as surreal, as the buildings were still smouldering and crews were digging through the rubble, “We took a taxi down to Ground Zero and we asked them to take us as close as they can. The four of us got to this plywood makeshift wall that was all the way around Ground Zero. There was a policeman at the gate, and we asked if we could get any closer. We showed him our ID and he let us in. It was like Planet of the Apes kind of surreal. Everything was dead quiet and gray. We got so close that the four of us have a piece of the World Trade Centre.”

He remembers one of the eeriest moments, when things went dead silent, “All of the machinery would stop. A fire truck would back up and come into Ground Zero. They found a firefighter. Once they recognized his jacket and what station he was at, they would call that station to come down and carry him out, in honour. That was really eerie to see the truck pull up and see the flag over the stretcher and see them bring the firefighter out of Ground Zero.”

Leblanc was also one of 343 firefighters chosen from across North America to return to New York City for a parade a year later, “They needed 343 firefighters, in Madison Square Gardens, to represent all of the firefighters that perished, and we were all given a flag. I was lucky enough to be chosen from across North America. “It rained all weekend for the parade, it never stopped. It was unbelievable, and there was still 50, 000 firefighters walking in the street.”

(Photo: submitted)

 

“When we arrived in New York in firefighter uniforms, the three days we were there, everywhere we went we were treated like kings. But we felt guilty because we weren’t the ones digging, and didn’t know those who perished. But it gave us a sense of pride.”

Leblanc says he doesn’t think about 9/11 as much as he used to, but when it gets closer to September 11 every year, he takes out his book and looks at the pictures.

“We risk our lives everyday. We don’t think about what is going to happen once we are inside. We train for that, but as far as a total building collapse like that, I don’t think they expected that was going to happen. We have a thing in the fire department, Risk a lot to save a lot. A lot is a life. Risk a little to save a little. If it is just building, there is no one inside, we aren’t going to risk our lives. That day, they risked a lot not knowing it was coming down. No one knew. Engineers, two to three years later talked about it and said there was no reason that building should have come down. So that’s why so many perished,” Leblanc says.

(Photo: submitted)