Former major junior hockey players who say they were abused, hazed, or bullied while playing in the Ontario Hockey League or Western Hockey League can now join a court-approved legal process seeking financial compensation from their former teams, their leagues and the Canadian Hockey League. Players have until April 6, 2027, to opt into the process, according to a notice published Monday by Koskie Minsky LLP, the Toronto law firm that has represented plaintiffs in the case. Eligible players include anyone who played for or participated in training or tryouts with an OHL or WHL team at any time since 1975 and says they experienced bullying, hazing or abuse. Players who join the process will have access to a mechanism designed to safeguard their identities from public disclosure. The development opens a new chapter in litigation that began six years ago when former junior players Daniel Carcillo and Garrett Taylor filed a proposed class action against the CHL, major junior leagues and dozens of teams. Their lawsuit alleged that young players for decades been subjected to ritualized hazing, racism, homophobia, sexual abuse and physical violence for decades, and that hockey organizations failed to adequately prevent or respond to that conduct. None of the allegations has been proven at trial. The lawsuit initially sought to proceed on behalf of roughly 15,000 players who had participated in major junior hockey since 1975. Ontario Superior Court Justice Paul Perell declined in February 2023 to certify the lawsuit as a class action, concluding that a single case involving dozens of teams across multiple provinces and decades of alleged misconduct would be too unwieldy. But Perell also found there was evidence that a culture of “bullying, harassment, hazing, and criminal conduct” had been pervasive in major junior hockey for decades. His decision cited evidence of alleged mistreatment including physical and sexual assault, forcible confinement and emotional abuse. Rather than simply ending the Carcillo case after refusing to certify it as a class action, Perell directed lawyers to develop an alternative route for players to pursue claims. Under the new court-approved process, players who opt in will be grouped with other claimants who played for the same junior team. Koskie Minsky wrote in its notice it would then file what is known as a “joinder action” on behalf of that group. Each lawsuit would name the player’s former team, its regional league, and the CHL as defendants and would be heard in Ontario Superior Court. “If successful, you will receive money to compensate you for the harms that you suffered because of that abuse,” the court-approved notice says. Unlike a certified class action, where eligible people generally become class members unless they opt out, former players must affirmatively contact Koskie Minsky and join the new process. Players who do not participate retain the right to launch their own lawsuits. The notice warns, however, that limitation periods may affect those claims. Perell’s conclusions about the culture of junior hockey were supported in part by the work of an independent review panel commissioned by the CHL shortly after the Carcillo lawsuit was filed in 2020. The three-person panel, former New Brunswick premier Camille Thériault, former NHL player and abuse survivor Sheldon Kennedy and former Canadian women’s national team coach and police officer Danièle Sauvageau, concluded that off-ice misconduct existed across the CHL and that a systemic culture had allowed maltreatment to become an “embedded norm.” The panel also found that an entrenched code of silence discouraged players from reporting misconduct. The panel reviewed league policies and complaints, interviewed current and former players and others in hockey, and consulted experts on sexual violence, trauma and athlete maltreatment. It also commissioned a survey of 665 players, coaches, general managers, staff and players’ families. The survey found 45 per cent of players and players’ families had heard about bullying or harassment cases in the CHL during the previous four years that had not been reported in the media. Twelve per cent of those surveyed said they had personally experienced bullying or harassment while playing in the leagues. While players, families, coaches and staff reported cases of bullying, harassment or hazing, none of the general managers surveyed said they had received such reports. Kennedy later testified in a deposition that the CHL had restricted the scope of the panel’s work. The panel wanted to examine misconduct farther back in time, but Kennedy said the league limited its review primarily to the preceding four years. He also testified that the CHL would not allow the survey to ask players and families specifically about physical or sexual abuse. Former Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League players are not included in the opt-in process because a separate abuse class action involving the QMJHL is moving forward. However, QMJHL players who have opted out of that class action are eligible to join this court-approved process.
