Who is ‘Rick Jones’? Toronto hockey team accused of making up parent complaint to remove coach

A Toronto hockey coach is fighting back after he was fired from his position over complaints he alleges were invented. Jon Woodard reports.

A Toronto hockey coach whose grandfather was a celebrated Black hockey player is fighting back after he was fired from his position in a lawsuit that alleges his team invented a parent complaint and the parent as well.

Rane Carnegie, who coached the U15 AAA Toronto Titans team until late last year, said he was devastated to learn that he would be removed as coach but resolved to set things right when neither he nor many other team parents could identify the complaining parent named “Rick Jones.”

“I got blindsided by it,” Carnegie said in an interview. “I got my job taken away. I got my community taken away. And it’s been difficult to see the sun shine amidst the darkness of what has happened and ultimately, I don’t clearly understand why that happened.”

The complaint against Carnegie was ultimately found to be without merit in an investigation by an independent third party tasked by the Ontario Hockey Federation, the governing body of the sport.

The Toronto Titans didn’t respond to questions from CTV News about who “Rick Jones” is and didn’t address the question in their legal filing in defence.

The Titans said that their decision to remove Carnegie as coach was made in good faith in the operation of their hockey team and denied that their actions had anything to do with concerns raised about another coach’s behaviour to Carnegie’s 13-year-old son.

“The defendants specifically deny that any decisions made with regard to the Plaintiff were made as “retribution” as alleged in the Statement of Claim, or at all,” the statement of defence says.

Carnegie, who is a veteran of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League, has been coaching players in the Greater Toronto Hockey League since 2019.

His grandfather was Herb Carnegie, a Black player denied a chance to play in the NHL in the 1940s and 1950s, though he was inducted posthumously into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2022.

Rane Carnegie’s lawsuit says tensions started in August 2025 when one coach told Carnegie’s son that “he had dreamt of hitting him with a hockey stick until [he] was in tears.”

Carnegie complained to the Titans, which alerted the Ontario Hockey Federation (OHF), which then determined through a process with an independent third party that the comment was a violation of its rules, the lawsuit says.

‘Rick Jones’ complaint

A few months later, Carnegie was the subject of the complaint from “Rick Jones” that said he yelled at and swore at players, and the Titans suspended him from his position.

The OHF also started a process with an independent third party and interviewed Carnegie, team general manager Eric Cella, and four families, the lawsuit says.

“The OHF concluded, on the basis of a thorough investigation, that the complaint was entirely without merit. None of the allegations made against Mr. Carnegie had any foundation,” the suit says.

“The OHF also observed that despite the ‘entire matter originated from someone identified as Rick Jones… this person had never been identified even though he purports to have been speaking for all of the parent group associated with the team,’” the lawsuit says.

“The OHF was unable to identify or speak with “Rick Jones” because there is no such person associated with the Titans. The complaint was fabricated by Mr. Cella and delivered under the name “Rick Jones” to obscure Mr. Cella’s involvement in lodging a false complaint designed to disparage Mr. Carnegie and justify his removal from the Titans,” the lawsuit says.

One parent of a player on the team, Jasbir Manak, told CTV News the whole ordeal has been disruptive for the team and he supports Carnegie’s reinstatement.

“People were saying, ‘Here’s a complaint from a Rick Jones. We’re like, who is Rick Jones? There’s nobody on the team,” Manak said.

“[Carnegie] has a great way of teaching the kids and getting involved with them to motivate them. And he’s really concerned about developing their character and making sure they’re respectful on and off the ice as well,” he said.

Carnegie said he’s looking to his grandfather for strength to carry on in the face of what has happened. And he says he’s also interested in demonstrating that it’s important to stand up when something isn’t right.

“That’s the biggest thing for me as a father is, if I didn’t take this stance, what does that show my children?” he said.