Bauer Hockey has grow to be simply the newest firm to pause support for scandal-plagued Hockey Canada, an group that continues to draw widespread criticism for its dealing with of an alleged group sexual assault involving members of the 2018 males’s nationwide junior group.
On Tuesday, Bauer Hockey introduced it was pausing a multi-million-dollar dedication as the official equipment provider to the Hockey Canada males’s groups.
In a press release, Bauer mentioned Hockey Canada can nonetheless purchase merchandise for the boys’s packages and it’ll redistribute the income to “improve accessibility and fairness in lady’s, ladies’s, para hockey and different underrepresented communities.”
The producer mentioned it would proceed to provide equipment to the ladies’s packages.
“Our objective is to drive significant change, not influence athletes,” mentioned the assertion from chief govt officer Ed Kinnaly and vice-president Mary-Kay Messier.
“Crisis can create alternative for significant change. Our hope is that collectively we begin on a path ahead quickly and that we will use this to carry a renewed focus again to what’s most vital for the sport of hockey — creating alternatives for teenagers and households via the sport of hockey.”
Bauer’s determination is simply the newest domino to fall in response to information that the hockey group has paid out almost $9 million in settlements since 1989 to 21 folks alleging sexual abuse. The bulk of the cash went to compensation for complainants within the case of Graham James, a former junior ice hockey coach who was accused of sexually abusing gamers on his groups.
It later got here out that a fund made up partially with gamers’ registration charges was used to pay for that settlement.
Interim board chair resigns
Over the weekend, Andrea Skinner resigned as a director and interim board chair of Hockey Canada, days after a controversial parliamentary committee assembly the place she defended the group.
In entrance of MPs, she described Hockey Canada as the sufferer and mentioned her board would not consider senior management “ought to be changed on the idea of what we take into account to be substantial misinformation and unduly cynical assaults.”
Major sponsors — together with Nike, Tim Hortons, Canadian Tire, Esso and Telus — responded by slicing ties with Hockey Canada completely or by withdrawing funding for males’s hockey this season.