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Is there any hope for ice hockey when not even dead players, brain-damaged young men, victims of sexual abuse, drug-addicted time bombs and victims of racism do not get the sport to review its values and culture?
For over ten years, the NHL club Chicago Blackhawks managed to silence serious sexual abuse. An internal investigation shows that not only the club management knew what was happening – also a large part of the players knew what had happened in the club.
The details of it 107 pages long investigation shows that there is a strong culture of silence in ice hockey and that victims are left alone while perpetrators are protected.
In the middle of the playoffs, just hours after the Blackhawks won the semifinal against San Jose in the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs, Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman, Al MacIsaac, vice president of hockey, John McDonough, coach John Quenneville, vice general manager Kevin Chevaldayoff and Vice President Jay Blunk to discuss the allegations a player made against a coach at the club.
Player Kyle Beach had reported that he had been sexually abused by video coach Brad Aldrich. Aldrich is said to have used his position and power to force Beach into sexual intercourse.
According to the independent investigation presented earlier this week, the matter was discussed during the meeting. No action was taken but Aldrich was allowed to continue working as a video coach and the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup a few weeks later.
The investigation shows that the club knew about the abuses but chose to silence them. The sporting success in the spring of 2010 weighed heavier than a player’s mental and physical well-being.
This spring, Beach, then anonymously, went out and told about the sexual abuse. This prompted the club’s management to appoint an internal independent inquiry, which was published at the beginning of the week.
On Tuesday, the club announced that general manager Stan Bowman and vice president Al MacIsaac are leaving the club with immediate effect.
After Tuesday’s press conference, more details have leaked out about what happened at the home of video coach Aldrich in the spring of 2010. The details themselves are very unpleasant and shocking.
– The organization informed me that my accusations are unfounded and they made me believe that I am a liar, says Beach in TSN: s interview.
– This spread quickly in the team and I think everyone knew what happened. I was met by homophobic comments in the locker room and on the ice, he says.
According to the independent report, some players have insulted Beach. And there are still some people who are defending what happened and trying to tone down what Beach was exposed to.
Chicago Blackhawks team captain Jonathan Toews spoke warmly of both Bowman and MacIsaac, calling them “good people” and saying he thinks it’s a shame they “lose everything they care about”. Toews said he does not understand what it means to punish Bowman and MacIsaac.
Defending those who have silenced criminal acts (serious sexual abuse) as team captain shows a total lack of judgment.
Through his statements, Toews is part of the toxic culture that primarily enabled Beach to be abused, that he was pressured into silence and that in the long run allowed the club management to sweep it all under the rug as if nothing had ever happened.
Toews and teammate Patrick Kane say they did not know what happened during the 2010 season.
Toews can still take comfort in the fact that he is not alone in strengthening and preserving this culture in hockey.
Quenneville, who coached the Blackhawks and knew about the accusations, is today the coach of Aleksander Barkov’s and Anton Lundell’s Florida Panthers. The club let Quenneville lead the team in Wednesday’s game against the Boston Bruins. Prior to the game, Quenneville commented on the events in Chicago in 2010 and said he has a meeting with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman on Thursday.
Bettman will also hold a meeting with Kevin Cheveldayoff, now general manager of the Winnipeg Jets. According to the investigation, both Quenneville and Cheveldayoff are said to have been involved in silencing the sexual abuse in 2010.
The NHL fined the Blackhawks $ 2 million for failing to take sufficient action.
How neither the NHL, Florida Panthers nor Winnipeg Jets have drawn the same conclusions as the Chicago Blackhawks is another example of how the culture of ice hockey works. Coaches and leaders who have silenced serious sexual abuse may continue to work in the branch undisturbed while the victim of the abuse has been left alone with their trauma for over ten years.
The North American hockey culture, led by the NHL, has refused to innovate, develop and modernize. On the contrary, hockey has become more and more entangled in its own bubble.
In a culture where violence is glorified and normalized, where mental illness is seen as a weakness, where racism is not seen as something that must be addressed and eradicated and where players’ health is deliberately endangered in the name of entertainment, it is hardly particularly surprising that sexual abuse is swept under the rug. ways that the players’ in many cases fatal abuse.
In a culture where a coach is protected by his club to later be convicted of sexual abuse and where another coach’s argument that sporting success is jeopardized if the abuse allegations are addressed, it is clear that players also choose to remain silent and play unknowingly.
In a culture where the league fines a pittance in an attempt to polish its reputation and where the culprits go unpunished, the culture of silence will be strengthened and live on.
Is there any hope for ice hockey when not even dead players, brain-damaged young men, victims of sexual abuse, drug-addicted time bombs and victims of racism do not get the sport to review its values and culture?
Filip Saxén
Sports Manager
In the spring of 2010, Chicago Blackhawks video coach Brad Aldrich subjected player Kyle Beach to serious sexual abuse.
When the NHL club’s management found out about the abuse, they chose to silence the incident.
An independent report published this week states that the club management deliberately chose not to take up the matter or make a police report.
The club’s general manager Stan Bowman has resigned. He has also left office as head of the US Olympic team in Beijing.
The NHL has announced that it will investigate the events. To date, the league has fined the Blackhawks $ 2 million.
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