Opinion: Hockey Has A Culture Problem

An unsurprising end to the Hockey Canada scandal in court is just one of many...many...many issues hockey needs to reckon with.

Jul 27, 2025

*I will start this article off by saying this won’t be for everyone. This article will touch on extremely sensitive topics, such as S.A., misogyny, and related systemic issues in hockey culture.

If you’re triggered or uncomfortable reading about content discussing S.A. (s*xual assault) or topics surrounding it, please use discretion in determining whether or not to continue reading.

From Left to Right: Michael McLeod, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart, Dillon Dube, and Cal Foote. Courtesy of Reuters.

On Thursday, Canadian court Justice Maria Carroccia handed down her ruling on the s*xual assault case involving several professional hockey players, acquitting Michael McLeod, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart, Dillon Dube, and Cal Foote of all charges levied against them.

I won’t be discussing whether or not I agree with the actual verdict itself. Im not a Canadian legal scholar, and the Judge arrived at her conclusion based on Canadian laws and the evidence she saw.

While her comments concerned me (which I detailed below), more concerning to me is that this case is just one of many like it, and are indicative of a greater problem plaguing hockey culture as a whole.

“This is why women don’t come forward.”

I’ve rewritten this article several times now, never being happy with the result.

As I researched and retyped this article again and again, I came to the realization that we’ve done this before. Earlier this year, in fact.

And in 2022. Twice.

And in 2021.

And in 2015. Involving a player who played for a team at that it in 2010.

In fact, there’s a whole wiki about this topic.

If your first inclination when you read this is to say something like “I’m sure this happens in other sports"…you’re further proving my point.

Without dumpster diving into the topic more than I already am, I’m sure it is a problem in other sports. Because it’s a problem everywhere. But I’m a hockey writer, and I will be focusing on the issue as it relates to hockey.

I, personally, have known far too many women in my life who are survivors of some kind of misogynistic cruelty and/or S.A.

Partners. Close friends. Family members. These are all people I have (or still do) care deeply for, and many who have stories that made my skin crawl.

This happens far too often in hockey (more than zero is too many). And while it’s a disease that plagues society, it is far too prevalent in hockey culture, and that needs to change.

This year’s incident.

Justice Maria Carroccia handed down her verdict on Thursday, exonerating all five involved players.

"I do not find the evidence of E.M. credible or reliable,” Carrocia told the court. "Considering the evidence in this trial as a whole, I conclude that the Crown cannot meet its onus on any of the counts.” - Courtesy of CBC.

The TL;DR of the case is the victim, E.M. (she legally cannot and has not been identified), engaged in s*xual activity with one player consensually, but did not consent to the engagement with the other involved players.

Despite the fact that this case was handled in a resoundingly poor fashion by Hockey Canada initially (and possibly by London Police; they initiated an internal review of how the investigation was handled), and reopened in 2022 after the incident and subsequent poor handling by Hockey Canada were made public, the case finally went to court earlier this year.

The timeline of the case events can be seen here.

Defense attorneys grilled E.M. on inconsistencies between statements made to London Police and Hockey Canada, questioned her level of intoxication (because that matters in how she can consent, apparently), and argued that E.M. had actually sought out the “wild night" that led to the incident.1

In the end, Justice Carroccia ruled that she could not rely on the testimony of E.M., believing it to be uncredible and unreliable. She further made comments doubting E.M.’s lack of consent to each of the s*xual encounters with the individual players, stating that E.M. was acting in a “s*xual manner” and asking men to have s*x with her. 2

Perhaps the most concerning things that I took away from these quotes is the fact that with these comments, Justice Carroccia seems to imply that a woman (or anyone) cannot consent to one s*xual act without consenting to others, cannot revoke consent, and also that a vague definition of acting in a “s*xual manner” means consent is implied.

This all also says nothing about whether or not a woman can even consent when intoxicated at any level, and the fact that these players should have known better.

Maybe I’m just reading too much into it. But I suspect I’m not the only one who thinks that.

Something has to change.

“For all these people who say she had ulterior motives, there’s nothing in it for her in any meaningful way in going through this criminal process.” - E.M.’s attorney in her civil lawsuit against Hockey Canada, Robert Talach.3

The problem with this incident is that it is part of a bigger problem plaguing the sport we love. A culture of hyper-sexuality and misogyny. A culture of toxic masculinity. A culture where bad actors feel they can do what they want without fear of consequence.

That quote by Robert Talach above is something I have seen personally, as my day job is one with some involvement in the justice system (albeit, the U.S. justice system, which is even less kind to survivors of S.A.).

There is little incentive for a victim to come forward. After being the victim of assault, a victim has to relive the incident repeatedly for days…weeks…months…years, while they go through the process of the investigation, giving statements to police, going to court and testifying, being aggressively cross-examined, and hoping for a verdict and sentence befitting of the trauma they’ve gone through.

A sentence that no matter how long it is (assuming they receive a guilty verdict anyway), will never give them the true restitution they deserve, which is not having experienced the trauma in the first place.

This is why so many women everywhere are passionate about the idea of believing a victim. Not only because so many of them are survivors themselves, but also because they understand the absolute courage it takes for a person to make the report.

Now imagine the pressure that came upon E.M. in making this report, knowing she was going up against Hockey Canada (an extremely powerful and influential organization), and taking on five well-known professional athletes and all the public scrutiny that would come from that.

No, I can’t imagine it either.

Carroccia said that, “in this case, I have found actual consent…” adding that she believes E.M.’s behavior during the incident was “not motivated by fear,” Associated Press reported.4

My point.

If you’re still reading, thank you for following along through this insanely difficult topic and all my scatterbrained writing. I did not really write this with any sort of plan on what to touch on. I wrote this one from the heart.

This is a topic I am insanely passionate about because I know too many survivors. Too many courageous women in my life who have lived through, and continue to live with, similar trauma. This says nothing about the ones I don’t know. Or the men who have been victimized, which is also a problem in hockey. Just ask Kyle Beach.

This is as big an issue as the documented cases of bullying, racism, and other forms of toxic masculinity across our sport.

This is an issue that is as systemic in hockey as it is anywhere else in society. Toxic masculinity is a real thing. It yields incidents like this, and the countless others we know about. Not to mention the ones we don’t.

If all you do is follow the scores and stats, these aren’t things you’ll likely even notice. But underneath the glory of Stanley Cup runs and record-setting scores is a culture with far too many bad people. And even more men who have said nothing when they knew it was occurring.

I am not saying every hockey player is guilty of these things. But one bad actor is one too many, and any player who has not spoken up doesn’t help.

For every incident of a woman who has “made it up,” there are countless more incidents of people like Brock Turner, who receive a slap on the wrist while his victim will carry that trauma forever.

Justice Carroccia wasn’t convinced by the evidence, and it’s still unknown if the Canadian government will appeal the decision.

But that doesn’t mean E.M. was lying. It means the system is set up to fail our victims. It also doesn’t mean anything when this is a repeated problem in hockey.

To any young man who may be involved in hockey and reading this someday, speak up. Be better than this. Be an ally to the women in your life.

Be better than this. The women in your life will thank you for it.

And thank you for all of the women around me who have given me the perspective on life that I have.