Hockey Canada left us with more questions than answers

In their appearance before a Canadian Heritage standing committee, Scott Smith and Tom Renney showed a stunning lack of organizational leadership

Hockey Canada’s outgoing CEO Tom Renney testified before Canadian lawmakers on Monday.

If you took the time to listen to or read about the testimony of Hockey Canada officials Monday in front of the Canadian Heritage standing committee, you’re probably pretty troubled by it all. And if you’re not, you should be. When you see a failure of leadership the likes of which outgoing Hockey Canada chief executive officer Tom Renney and incoming CEO Scott Smith displayed in front of the committee, it’s really disturbing. And when it involves an alleged gang rape by some members of the 2018 World Junior team at a Hockey Canada Foundation event, it’s even more nauseating.

We learned a lot about that terrible night of June 18, 2018, when after the Hockey Canada Foundation Gala, eight players are alleged to have gang raped a woman in a London, Ont., hotel room. But every revelation that emerged from the proceedings was tantamount to putting a finger in a leaky dyke, since each one sprouted countless other disturbing concerns and queries. That hearing Monday should represent only the beginning of the true investigation into this alleged incident, because the reality is that the information Hockey Canada supplied left all of us with far more questions than answers. Perhaps the NHL will get to the bottom of this, but it’s pretty clear this is not going away anytime soon.

After thinking about it for almost 24 hours, here are the most prominent questions and concerns I have about all of this: