NHL must do more than ‘monitor’ child abuse allegations against Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini
The National Hockey League has 32 franchises. Those franchises are the league’s lifeblood. The owners represent those franchises, the tie that bonds a city to the team and the sport. So when a piece of news surfaces shedding negative light on one of those owners? Theoretically, it’s a matter the league should take seriously, out of moral decency or, if you’re cynical, also out of self-preservation.
Especially when we’re not talking about casual hearsay or flimsy accusations fired across social media.
No, the allegations made against Vancouver Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini as part of a Vancouver Family Court testimony Tuesday are not only grave and serious, but sworn in written affidavits from his own adult children.
According to a CBC News report, a British Columbia Supreme Court Judge heard allegations from his four children that he physically and psychologically abused them when they were young. Affidavits describing the abuse were submitted to the court. The children’s testimony was part of a hearing to determine if Aquilini should be required to extend his child support and assist three of his four children with university expenses.
As Gary Ross, Aquilini’s PR representative, told Sportsnet, Aquilini “categorically denies” the accusations made by his children and his ex-wife Tali’ah.
Tali’ah Aquilini’s lawyer, Claire Hunter, read aloud portions of a letter sent to Aquilini by his eldest daughter in March 2020 on behalf of her younger siblings.
“Your relationship with us is a direct consequence of your treatment toward us, whether you’d like to acknowledge it or not. We all hold many individual accounts of your abuse towards us,” she wrote, as outlined by the CBC News report. “I would like to formally state that myself and my siblings … wish to have no contact with you, nor would we like you to have access to any of our contact, medical information or other information regarding our lives.”
Nothing has been proven in court. In fact, this current court case has nothing to do with and will not pass judgment on whether or not Aquilini abused his children. Rather, this case is solely about financial support. At the very least, it is fair to say that these allegations are disturbing and serious.
The NHL responded on Wednesday by essentially saying: Hey, we’ll keep an eye out.
“We are aware of the allegations that have been made in the Family Court proceeding in Vancouver and have been in touch with Mr. Aquilini and his lawyers regarding the same. Clearly, the parties have been involved in a most contentious divorce. Mr. Aquilini has advised us that he categorically denies the allegations. We plan to continue to monitor the situation and, if necessary, will respond as we learn more as events unfold,” an NHL spokesperson said in a statement.
Which begs the question: how serious must the accusation be for the NHL to deem it “necessary” to launch its own investigation into the matter? What is the threshold for a response?
More to the point: What is the harm in launching an investigation? If the allegations are unfounded, then so be it.
When Evander Kane was accused of betting on hockey games – by his wife in a post on Instagram, not under oath in court – the NHL addressed the allegations within hours via its own Twitter account and immediately launched an investigation into Kane’s behavior with the help of a third-party company’s integrity services and bet monitoring.
“The integrity of our game is paramount and the league takes these allegations very seriously,” the NHL said.
As nuggets of information continued to pile up regarding Hockey Canada’s mishandling of allegations made by an unnamed woman about being sexually assaulted by eight members of the 2018 Canadian World Junior team, the NHL announced at the 2022 Draft it was launching its own investigation into the matter.
There is thus recent precedent for the NHL reacting decisively to serious accusations involving its own members. Doing so did not require a critical mass of evidence. In those cases, the NHL was participating in helping collect more evidence.
And yet, when an owner is accused in a sworn statement by his own children of abusing them? The response cannot be to just ‘monitor’ the situation.
It’s as if the NHL hasn’t learned anything from the Blackhawks scandal from one year ago, in which case Chicago was found to have covered up sexual abuse of player Kyle Beach at the hands of then-video coach Brad Aldrich. The NHL declined to launch its own investigation, leaving it up to the Blackhawks, who for months adamantly denied wrongdoing and attempted to dismiss the case in court, saying that the allegations “lacked merit.”
That’s essentially what the NHL is saying here. Trust us. “Mr. Aquilini advised us that he categorically denies the allegations.” So if he says it, it must be true? That’s what the Blackhawks said. They were ultimately fined $2.5 million by the NHL, paid significantly more than that in a settlement to Beach, and the organization was forced to clean house in the wake of the scandal.
I don’t have the slightest inkling on whether the allegations against Aquilini ring true or false. That isn’t my job. But I have no misunderstanding about their severity.
To me, it doesn’t matter if there’s a financial incentive on the side of his children; if you’re claiming your own father did such heinous things, you’re aware of the long-term consequences an investigation could bring. You’re thus serious about what you’re claiming. And that alone should be grounds for the NHL to launch its own investigation.
Aquilini represents the NHL in Vancouver. The Canucks franchise, as much as it is a business, is also a public trust. It’s not a good look for the NHL to slough off the allegations as the collateral part of a “most contentious divorce.” It connotes the idea that the league gives more leeway to its billionaire owners than to its millionaire players. It says clearly that the owners are the ones the league works for, as opposed to the other way around. And that’s a balance of power the NHL has always seemingly gotten wrong, as their counterparts in the NFL and NBA make no mistake in letting owners know who really holds the hammer.