Five players from Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team have been ordered to surrender to London police to face charges connected to an alleged sexual assault in the Ontario city, according to a media report.
The players have approximately one week to surrender to police, two sources with knowledge of the investigation told the Globe and Mail.
Several members of the 2018 team have taken leaves of absence from their clubs, according to various statements from their current teams. Michael McLeod and Cal Foote of the New Jersey Devils, Carter Hart of the Philadelphia Flyers, Dillon Dube of the Calgary Flames, and former NHL player Alex Formenton, who plays in Switzerland, have all been given leaves of absence for “personal reasons” or to “attend to mental health.”
The Epoch Times was unable to confirm if the leaves of absence are related to the Globe and Mail’s report.The London Police Service has remained tight-lipped about the case thus far.
“We understand that there is significant public interest in relation to a sexual assault investigation dating back to 2018,” London police said in a Jan. 24 statement. Police said a press conference would be held on Feb. 5 to share information with the media.
The alleged charges are reportedly connected to the 2022 claims of a woman who said she was assaulted by players from Canada’s gold-medal-winning junior team at a 2018 event in London.
Hockey Canada settled the lawsuit in May 2022. None of the allegations have been proven in court.
Hockey Canada’s then-CEO Tom Renney and then-president Scott Smith were called to testify before MPs in Ottawa about the settlement. Following the meeting, the federal government paused public funding for Hockey Canada.
It was a move that several companies followed, including Tim Hortons and Telus, both of which reinstated their support by December 2023.
The government restored funding to Hockey Canada in April 2023, making the announcement just hours before Canada’s national women’s hockey team took on the United States in the gold-medal game of the International Ice Hockey Federation’s Women’s World Championship in Brampton, Ont.
“It was never a matter of doing it forever,” the former Minister of Sport Pascale St-Onge said. “It was so that the proper change was implemented in the organization. I set three conditions for them, they’ve met those three conditions and now we’re reinstating that funding, but it’s not a blank cheque.”
The three conditions St-Onge referred to included a commitment by Hockey Canada to become a full-signatory to Abuse-Free Sport and the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner as well as to make more frequent reports to the federal government.
Hockey Canada announced it had reopened the investigation in July 2022 and any members who did not cooperate would be banned.
“We’ve reopened the independent investigation into the alleged sexual assault in 2018. Any player who does not participate will be banned from all Hockey Canada activities and programs effective immediately,” Hockey Canada president Scott Smith told the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage on July 27, 2022.
Hockey Canada said the finished report was provided to an independent adjudicative panel for review, which had also concluded in November 2023. However, the organization said it could not provide details of the report to the public because a notice of appeal had been filed and the process must run its course.
“Pending the completion of the appeal process, all players from the 2018 National Junior Team remain suspended by Hockey Canada and are currently ineligible to play, coach, officiate or volunteer with Hockey Canada-sanctioned programs.”
The Epoch Times reached out to Hockey Canada but did not hear back by publication time.
The Associated Press and The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
