Soakin’ in the Tubb: Eh, Oh, it’s time for Hockey Canada to go

By JAMES TUBB on July 30, 2022.

I played 13 years of minor hockey that were covered under the Hockey Canada umbrella. With that, came monthly magazines when I was young featuring other minor hockey athletes across Canada with tips and stories on those who donned the red and white before making the jump to the NHL.

All it cost was a small part of my registration fee going toward Hockey Canada. If only we knew then what we know now about where that money was going.

I can’t imagine my parents would want to stroke that large cheque for minor hockey if they knew a small portion of their hard-earned money was going toward helping Hockey Canada pay $7.6 million in nine settlements related to sexual abuse.

With the information that has come to light over the last week from Hockey Canada in the probing from the House of Commons Heritage Committee, I am still at a loss that those in a position of power when these incidents were covered up are still in the same, or more power.

Hockey Canada CEO Scott Smith was looked in the eye by multiple members of parliament and told that they had not only lost trust in him and Hockey Canada but believed that he should resign. He responded he feels he is the right person for the job but would resign if his board told him to.

I guess he didn’t understand that those people who he serves, who keep Hockey Canada funded and have made it the national institution that it has become, just told him to quit.

It’s time for change within Hockey Canada. Starting with removing those in charge to rebranding the same logo that has been around since 1995 and is now tied to these disgusting scandals. The national hockey institution needs to put in work toward re-establishing trust with parents, fans and the greater public across the country.

For longer than I have been alive, Hockey Canada and the world juniors have been a staple in Canadian homes come the Christmas Holidays. Now? I don’t know how the IIHF allows Canada to participate or even host the games, which they are this summer and winter.

Piles of medals aside, what has Hockey Canada done to earn the honour to host the world’s best U20 hockey talent? Because as we’ve seen, they have done a lot that would make them undeserving of the honour, for a very, very long time.

Medals and on ice prestige don’t get back what members of Hockey Canada took from a young women in 2018, another women in 2003 and likely other years. Nothing will.

People must be held accountable, and that includes however many players were involved in these assaults or knew of and did not report them. I don’t care if they are members of the Hockey Hall of Fame or had a cup of coffee in the NHL. Those scumbags deserve their day of reckoning.

The rescheduled world juniors will be in Edmonton from Aug. 9-20. I truly hope the TSN broadcasts of these games don’t avoid what is one of the biggest stories in the country. Each Team Canada game, or even every game of the tournament, should be paired with appropriate information on the developments of the cases in an effort to keep viewers informed.

It is going to take a long time and a lot of changes for Canadians to regain any trust in Hockey Canada, but it can be done. It just has to start immediately and it has to mean something from an organization that was at one time a sense of pride for the country but has turned into our most shameful export.

James Tubb is sports reporter at the Medicine Hat News. He can be reached at jtubb@medicinehatnews.com