London Police to hold press conference Feb. 5 for update on 2018 Canada World Junior team investigation

The authorities investigating the sexual assault allegations against five members of the 2018 Canadian World Junior Championship team have released a timeline of when they will provide an update to the public.

On Wednesday, London Police Services announced they will be holding a press conference on Monday, Feb. 5.

In a release, the LPS says they are unable to provide an update at this time.

The press conference will be live streamed on the LPS’ Facebook page. The location and time for the gathering has yet to be determined.

This comes after LPS has ordered five players from the 2018 WJC team to come to London to surrender to face charges of sexual assault, according to The Globe and Mail.

The five players have not been identified, nor have they been officially charged.

The pending charges come from an alleged group sexual assault of a woman at a Hockey Canada gala in London in 2018. The event was for the team to celebrate its gold medal win in Buffalo six months earlier.

According to reports, the players have an undisclosed amount of time to surrender.

The case was initially closed in 2019, after London Police investigated the alleged incident. However, in May 2022, Hockey Canada came under fire after a settlement was reported between the organization and the alleged victim, with Hockey Canada paying $3.55 million.

In the monts after TSN reported the findings of the settlement, the Canadian government froze its funding of Hockey Canada – which was not restored until April of last year. It was reported that Hockey Canada used registration money to create a fund that would pay, among other things, settlements related to accusations of sexual assault and other forms of abuse.

The scandal led to the organization’s entire board of directors, along with CEO Scott Smith, resigning in October 2022.