Real problem in Hockey Canada scandal is the culture of silence

It has ruled the hockey world for time immemorial, and it's what drove Hockey Canada to handle an alleged sexual abuse in 2018 in the worst way imaginable

Hockey Canada’s desperate attempt to have this go away quickly and quietly has backfired badly.

With more troubling revelations stemming from the alleged sexual assault involving Canada’s 2018 World Junior team surfacing seemingly with each passing day, we’re learning an awful lot about how hockey works. Actually, what a lot of us already knew about how this game works is being confirmed to us. And it’s being done so in an ugly public forum in the worst possible way. But that might ultimately turn out to be a good thing.

The more we learn about this incident and the way in which Hockey Canada chose to handle it, the more I’m convinced that the culture of silence and the hockey world’s tolerance of those in power favouring families and friends are at the root cause of so much of what is wrong with the best game in the world. The problem on the surface is still toxic masculinity, for sure, and that has to be addressed. That’s what drives a lot of these incidents. But it’s the silence that follows and the rear-end covering that continue to allow that culture to continue to thrive.