“Allegations” have “come to the ears” of the QMJHL about events “of a sexual nature” that occurred in the 90s.
This was revealed by Martin Lavallée, interim commissioner of the QMJHL, adding that an “independent investigation” had been launched. He made the statement Tuesday morning before the National Assembly’s Committee on Culture and Education, which resumed its work to shed light on violence in junior hockey.
In recent weeks, Canadian hockey has been rocked by shocking revelations that, over the past 40 years, junior-aged players have been abused by their teammates, including during initiation activities. These include sexual assault, physical and psychological violence and kidnapping.
The parliamentarians wanted to shed light on practices in the province. In parliamentary committee, Gilles Courteau, commissioner of the QMJHL for more than three decades, gave testimony whose several faults were exposed by various media. He resigned from his post a few days ago.
Mario Cecchini will replace him at the beginning of May. In the meantime, Martin Lavallée is acting as interim.
The latter, before the Commission, said he was aware of “past” cases of initiations that went wrong. Invited to clarify his thoughts, he mentioned the slippages, already documented, that took place at the Sherbrooke Phoenix in 2016 and 2017. The integration activities organized by the club’s veterans included, in particular, the insertion of a broom in the anus.
Mr. Lavallée remained more evasive on the other file, which seems to have been reported to the league authorities in the past few days. “When we were made aware of the situation, we conducted a quest for information, which led us to set up an independent investigation to ensure we got to the bottom of it,” the acting commissioner said.
Out of respect for the ongoing investigation “and for the victim,” he did not identify the team involved or even the season(s) involved. The events he referred to took place “in the first half” of the 1990s.
