Report: Hockey Canada managed reserve fund for uninsured liabilities, including sexual abuse claims

Content warning: this article discusses sexual assault.

According to a sworn affidavit by a former executive, Hockey Canada has maintained a reserve fund to pay for uninsured liabilities, including “potential claims for historical sexual abuse.”

Glen McCurdie, who served as Hockey Canada’s senior vice-president of insurance and risk management from July 2018 to December 2021, filed an affidavit in an Ontario court case in July 2021 that included details about the governing body’s methods of dealing with abuse claims.

“Hockey Canada maintains a reserve in a segregated account to pay for any such uninsured liabilities as they arise,” the affidavit said. McCurdie specified “historical sexual abuse” as one example of a potential uninsured liability.

The Canadian Press reported the information about McCurdie’s affidavit in an article distributed on Monday afternoon.

Hockey Canada has lost its federal funding and numerous sponsors in recent weeks after it was revealed that the governing body settled a lawsuit alleging that eight unidentified players sexually assaulted a woman at an event in London, Ontario. The group of eight players allegedly includes members of Canada’s 2018 IIHF World Junior Championship team.

Last week, Hockey Canada published what it described as an “open letter to Canadians,” detailing changes it has promised to make to “address the behaviours, on and off the ice, that conflict with what Canadians want hockey to be.”

“Changes to policies and procedures can occur with the stroke of a pen,” the letter said. “Those changes are meaningless, however, without an equal commitment to addressing the toxic behavior that exists in many corners of the game. We know this change will not occur overnight, but we are committed to learning, and working with our partners to do better.”

Hockey Canada also pledged to ban all of its members who do not co-operate with its reopened investigation into the 2018 events in London.