A summer that shattered the Canadian hockey myth

By The Big Story

In today’s Big Story podcast, the World Junior Championships begin Tuesday in Edmonton, and the summer date is not the only reason they’ll feel different this year. The tournament takes place amidst accusations of sexual assault against several members of the Canadian junior teams in 2003 and 2018. The revelations cast a pall over the competition, and sparked much public debate over the culture within Canada’s national game.

Michael Grange is a columnist for Sportsnet, he wrote about the myth of the World Juniors for Sportsnet.ca, and joined us to discuss how the Hockey Canada scandal has impacted his own feelings towards the game, as a fan, a journalist, and a parent.

“If one person, in either of those environments, had the conviction to recognize what was going on, why it was wrong — they can’t all have been comfortable with it — and speak up, so much of this could have been avoided, and the trajectory of the lives of a couple victims probably would have been very different today,” he said.

So how did we arrive at this point? What has gone so wrong in hockey’s culture to make this kind of behaviour seem acceptable? And assuming there is a fix here, what is the path back for Canada’s sport?

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You can also find it at thebigstorypodcast.ca.

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