CHL officially responds in court to hazing lawsuit with accounts from former players

warning: this story contains graphic details included in the initial filing against the CHL

The Canadian Hockey League (CHL) - which is comprised of the Western Hockey League (WHL), Ontario Hockey League (OHL), and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) - has officially responded to a lawsuit that alleges widespread "hazing" involving disgusting and degrading acts. In doing so, the CHL included accounts from former players who said they never faced any of the allegations listed in the lawsuit.

"The veteran players drew funny things on us with magic marker in the dressing room, which washed off easily," wrote 58-year-old Eric Calder wrote in a Nov. 1 affidavit. "This happened once and was a good laugh. We also had our eyebrows shaved around this time In my experience, this 'initiation' was fun and never crossed any lines."

Kruise Reddick, a player with the Tri-City Americans from 2006-11, wrote in an Oct. 28 affidavit that because the drinking age in Washington state is 21, alcohol was hard to access and there was not much drinking and no hazing on the team.

Chad Taylor, the owner of the WHL's Moose Jaw Warriors, wrote that after 11 years in the CHL, the worst hazing case he had ever heard of involved a rookie player needing his stomach pumped after drinking too much alcohol. There are several other accounts from former players who say essentially the same thing: acts of hazing were relatively mild, or didn't happen at all.

The response from the CHL is in relation to a lawsuit filed in June 2020 by former NHL player Dan Carcillo and one-time Western Hockey League player Garrett Taylor. Both Carcillo and Taylor said the CHL created "a toxic environment which condones violent, discriminatory, racist, sexualized, and homophobic conduct, including physical and sexual assault, on the underage players that they are obligated to protect." Since their lawsuit was filed, 16 other players testified in affidavits about alleged horrible acts of "abuse."

One player talked about rookies being sodomized with hockey sticks covered in "liquid heat." Another talked about rookies being forced to masturbate and ejaculate on the same slice of bread, with the last to do so being forced to eat the bread.

"During showers, rookies were required to sit in the middle of the shower room naked while the older players urinated, spat saliva and tobacco chew on them," Carcillo said in his claim. "At least once, the head coach walked into the shower room while this was occurring, laughed and walked out."

Taylor claimed his head coach demanded that he fight teammates in practice, and provided a team credit card to one of the older players to buy alcohol for the team rookie party, where the rookies were required to dress up in women's clothing and forced to consume large amounts of alcohol, to the point of blacking out and vomiting.

There is currently no word on when the lawsuit might move to the next step.

Source: TSN.ca

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