Laying It Out: Ready or not, here we come

By Scott Schmidt on October 30, 2021.

It always unfolds the same way.

Someone comes forward regarding inappropriate conduct from a person of authority, and it gets swept under the rug. One day the incident comes out and people close to it act like they never knew.

The fact you can’t actually tell whether I’m talking about the premier’s office, or the Chicago Blackhawks, makes the point entirely. Just because the former involves a senior staffer speaking inappropriately to a young woman, while the latter refers to a coach who sexually assaulted a budding NHLer and was then allowed to celebrate a Stanley Cup in front of the kid, is irrelevant.

From an institutional standpoint, these two stories are identical.

Those who are abused, assaulted or degraded receive no justice, while the abusers, assaulters and degraders walk away without real punishment.

Those closest to the incident at the premier’s office, including the premier himself, freely admit they considered the matter resolved because Ivan Bernardo, the man from then-health minister Tyler Shandro’s office who acted inappropriately, stopped working there soon after due to an expired contract.

Of course, he left the job with no reprimand and went straight into a lucrative position at a law firm, while Ariella Kimmel, the former chief of staff who simply tried to get someone to care about the woman Bernardo harassed, was eventually fired for reasons she is now suing the premier’s office over.

In Chicago, the disgusting acts of video coach Brad Aldrich amount to rape. But not only was he allowed to celebrate a championship with the team, once that ended and they confronted him about sexually assaulting former first-round pick Kyle Beach, he was given the option to resign to avoid an investigation, and promptly accepted.

Case closed if you’re the Chicago Blackhawks. Not so much if you’re the children Aldrich went on to abuse at high schools over the next three years until finally being charged – charges the Blackhawks refused to co-operate with investigators on.

Nonetheless, despite such deplorable actions (or lack thereof) from the Blackhawks, Aldrich eventually received a whopping nine-month sentence and was forced to register as a sex offender. It’s unclear what happened to Aldrich’s latest victims, but Beach, a former 11th overall pick, never played a single game in the NHL, and currently plays overseas.

And we could easily have a discussion, a productive one even, about how it was a mistake to not view past assaults of hockey players as an issue of culture. And we could easily have a discussion, a productive one even, about how politics involves too many people who treat others like they are beneath them.

But the truth is, they both exist under the same umbrella of institutional cancer that forms our entire way of life. It’s not just hockey, or politics, it’s everything. This is how our society works.

These two stories are nothing more than the two stories of today – footnotes in history and merely stepping stones between the last stories of assault, cover-up and injustice, and the next.

Cold-hearted? Yes. But what’s the difference if I lay it out, or if I just wait for the future to do it for me? This is how we treat victims, this is how we treat their abusers, and this is precisely how we treat the people who stand by doing nothing but protecting their own best interests.

Unless, finally, it isn’t.

Unless, finally, something different occurs.

Stories of abuse, manipulation, corruption and cover-up have been around as long as any of us can remember. Incidentally, so too have the so-called ‘old boys clubs’ that provide the backdrop, whether they be in sports, our governments, or you-name-it in between.

That’s not to say all the ‘old boys clubs’ are specifically covering up stories of sexual harassment or assault, but it is definitely to say they are notorious for doing whatever it takes to protect themselves, and their interests.

Of course, when we say ‘old boys club,’ we’re really just talking about the culture of our institutions. That we describe it with a patriarchal term is unsurprising to say the least — men looking out for, or protecting each other for the so-called betterment of a common goal. It’s tried, tested and truly expected.

The good news is we are starting to see greater demand for exposure and accountability, not just for those who commit the wrongs, but for those who protect them along the way. It’s by no means reached a place of real change, but the public’s recent approach to incidents like these as well as the ‘old boys clubs’ at their helm, is a positive sign.

It took 11 years to come out, but at the very least the story in Chicago is ending some careers. Kimmel’s lawsuit is yet to be resolved, but it’s already led to UCP caucus member Leela Aheer asking for the premier to resign.

Clearly he won’t, but the heat from within is a small but encouraging sign of a collective intolerance for those who do nothing, or worse, look the other way — even if it doesn’t materialize until 2023.

Real change is gradual and, therefore cruel and frustrating along the way. If we’re just now dealing with those who protect the abusers, we’re obviously a long way from being rid of the abuse.

But it’s a lot easier to get rid of the people who commit those acts if we first lose the ones who offer them a place to hide.

Scott Schmidt is the layout editor for the Medicine Hat News. He can be reached at sschmidt@medicinehatnews.com

26
-25