‘Ringleader’ in Manitoba high school hockey hazing complaint loses suspension appeal

A Manitoba high school hockey player implicated in a series of sexualized hazing acts against rookie teammates has lost an appeal of his lengthy suspension from Hockey Canada activities for violation of several sport-related codes of conduct. 

The player, who is a youth and cannot be identified, appealed to the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada after being suspended from sanctioned events for a nearly five-year-period for acts committed around early 2024.

He was a veteran player who took part in “assigning” team rookies to perform tasks for older players, and was himself also “assigned” a rookie player, a third-party independent investigation found. 

The investigation revealed over “an extended period,” the youth took part in acts including spanking rookie players on their buttocks while they lay on a hotel bed during a tournament, according to a decision from the resolution centre dated May 20.

In that case, he was described as a “ringleader” or “co-ordinator,” the decision said.

The player was also implicated in purchasing a “sex kit” that contained objects used to assault rookies at a separate tournament, the decision said. The items included a “whip/paddle, blindfold and handcuffs.”

The investigation found the player “was implicated by multiple player witnesses as participating, and in some cases leading, the hazing of rookies using the sex kit in a team hotel room,” the decision said.

The decision says the player was also implicated in threatening violence against junior players and publishing images of the hazing.

“Specifically, he posted a number of sexualized images relating to the spanking incidents, as well as images of a sexual nature clearly intended to intimidate the rookie players,” arbitrator Jeffrey Palamar wrote in the 15-page decision.

The document doesn’t identify the team the player played for at the time. Hockey Manitoba submitted a formal complaint regarding the player’s misconduct to Hockey Canada in May 2024. The youth had already been suspended prior to that.

Hockey Canada then turned the complaint over to an independent group it commissions to handle maltreatment allegations.

Following an investigation, an adjudicator suspended the player for a further three years last December, meaning he’d be barred from a swath of Hockey Canada-sanctioned activities, including playing, coaching or even spectating at events until Dec. 31, 2028.

He faced the prospect of being banned for life. 

The decision makes no mention of whether the player also faced criminal charges.

Suspension ‘excessive’: player

The player appealed the adjudicator’s decision, saying the suspension handed down was “excessive and disproportionate.”

He argued it failed to take into account how long he’d already been on an interim suspension, his age at the time of the hazing and actions he’d taken to better himself with restorative programming through school.

He and others on the team were “subject to widespread scorn” as a result of the allegations, the investigation found.

The player proposed ending his suspension in either June or August this year. 

Palamar, a partner with Winnipeg’s Taylor McCaffrey LLP law firm and a long-time arbitrator for various tribunals, rejected that, saying the penalty imposed was fair.

“By any fair measure, the misconduct was very significant,” he wrote. 

Palamar noted the independent investigator found the player to be “evasive” in answering questions.

The player also never disputed the factual findings of the investigation, which included critiques of his demeanour and “lack of accountability,” though he contended he was just following legal advice, Palamar’s decision said.

“It may well be [the player] conducted himself in the investigation based upon advice he had received. If so, that was a conscious choice he made that came with the risk to these conclusions being fairly drawn,” Palamar said.

“The findings … were serious and included physical, psychological and sexual maltreatment involving minors.”