Request for class-action lawsuit against QMJHL after sexual hazing allegations
Posted May 24, 2023 10:55 am.
Last Updated May 24, 2023 6:57 pm.
A request for the authorization of a class-action lawsuit was filed against the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) in connection with sexual hazing allegations from the 1990s.
The proposed class-action lawsuit is against the Canadian Hockey League – the umbrella organization that contains the QMJHL – the QMJHL itself and all its 18 teams.
The request was filed by law firm Kugler Kandestin “on behalf of all players who, as minors, were abused while playing in the QMJHL.”
A Quebec Superior Court judge must authorize the case before it can proceed.
The sexual assault allegations were detailed by La Presse last month.
In the article, former player Carl Latulippe, who played in Quebec’s main junior league between 1994 and 1996, described his experience as a rookie who was hazed by veterans with the Chicoutimi Sagueneens during the 1994-95 season.
Latulippe recounted incidents of veterans using towels wrapped around soap bars to hit rookies, and of veterans allegedly demanding rookies to undress and masturbate on the team bus. Another Sagueneens player from that season who was not identified in the article corroborated Latulippe’s recounting of the events.
Latulippe, Chicoutimi’s first-round pick in the 1994 QMJHL draft, played six games with the Sagueneens before leaving the team.
His application for a class action says he was later traded to the Drummondville Voltigeurs and was also abused by members of that team during hazing rituals. Latulippe alleges that Voltigeurs rookies were required to cover themselves in shampoo to make it difficult for veterans to grab and assault them in the shower.
One Voltigeurs veteran allegedly tore the anus of a rookie by shoving a hanger inside him. Latulippe also describes being forced to binge drink at a team initiation event in Drumonndville, Que.
After the Voltigeurs, the plaintiff played for the Beauport Harfangs – who have since become the Quebec City Remparts. He said no abusive hazing incidents occurred while he was on that team.
Latulippe says he suffered from several psychological consequences as a result of the alleged abuse; he says he became addicted to drugs and gambling, which prevented him from maintaining his income. As well, he says he hasn’t been able to set foot in an arena since his time in the Quebec major juniors and refuses to allow his son to play hockey out of fear the child would suffer similar abuse.
“What I’m seeing is that the guy needs to have a safe space to be able have emotions without judgment,” said Catherine Laroche, who founded the organization Égaux sans ego – or equal without egos – as a way to process her own experience with sexual assault and educate elite hockey players and athletes on consent. “I think that this is a step for guys because it takes a lot of courage to be open to the vulnerability that’s behind what he lived.”
‘An impact on everyone’
“It’s upsetting to know that young men around 16 to 18, minors, are being faced with that,” said Melanie Lemay, the co-founder of a Quebec group fighting sexual abuse.
“We need to remember that before being key players or being in sports in general, those young boys are in schools, and it has an impact on everyone when those cases are happening.
“We can still have different kind of transition and initiations that don’t involve sexual violence.”
The proposed class action is seeking $650,000 in damages for Latulippe, as well as punitive and exemplary damages in the amount of $15 million to be shared among other alleged victims.
“If you were abused, as a minor, while playing in the QMJHL, we encourage you to contact the undersigned attorneys so that we can inform you of your rights,” Kugler Kandestin wrote.
The proposed lawsuit notes that both the CHL and QMJHL have codes of conduct in which teams have the obligation to supervise players. A bylaw for Quebec’s league states that players must evolve “in a safe and formative environment to prepare them for their life as an adult.”
Latulippe’s lawsuit says that the defendants, “when they had an obligation to protect the members of the class and to look after their well-being, witnessed the abuse, encouraged it, neglected, tolerated, covered up or ignored it.”
He filed his application after the Ontario Superior Court in February denied authorization for a class action in that province involving players in Canada’s three major junior hockey leagues – including the QMJHL – dating back to 1975.
MeToo movement for men
Lemay believes the proposed lawsuit can be seen as a MeToo movement for men in the province.
“I think this is something that’s needed,” said Lemay of Québec Contre les Violences Sexuelles. “Because when men’s stories are going to be wide open, we’ll be able to really go in deep and extend beyond the surface. Because I feel that in the last few years with the MeToo movement, we were only touching the surface.”
Lemay believes more training, awareness, protocols and even new laws may be needed to ensure things change.
“I feel that by being clear and loud on the how this needs to change, we’re going to start creating a climate in which this is not the norm anymore,” she said.
“I think that all organizations should have the well-being of the players at first, instead of having this silence culture,” said Laroche. “If they have emotions, if they live something, they need to have education and stuff that are available to them.”
QMJHL shakeup after allegations
Interim league commissioner Martin Lavallee told the Quebec legislature on March 21 that sexual allegations from the 1990s had come to his attention and that the league was investigating.
Longtime QMJHL commissioner Gilles Courteau announced his retirement in March after testifying on hazing rituals in hockey at provincial legislature hearings in February.
The league has since hired former Montreal Alouettes president Mario Cecchini as its incoming commissioner. He began his tenure on May 8.
—With files from The Canadian Press
