In the wake of a report saying five players have been told to turn themselves in to be charged in connection with the 2018 World Junior team sexual assault allegations, Minister of Sport Carla Qualtrough said abuse has "no place in our sport system."
In a statement to Sportsnet on Wednesday, Qualtrough, who inherited the portfolio from Pascal St-Onge, the sport minister when the investigation was initiated, said she was aware of the latest developments surrounding the investigation, which were first reported by The Globe and Mail.
"Abuse of any kind has no place in our sport system — not on our fields, in our rinks, in the locker room, anywhere," Qualtrough said through a spokesperson. "The reckoning that we are seeing in hockey and across the sport system is the result of brave survivors coming forward to share their lived experiences."
Qualtrough was re-appointed sports minister in 2023, eight years after she was first assigned the portfolio, in 2015.
Adding there was a "safe sport crisis in our country," she said her "main priority is to embed accountability, integrity and safety into everything we do across the sport system."
With that goal in mind, Qualtrough unveiled a suite of measures in late December, including a Future of Sport in Canada Commission that will hold a summit and produce two reports during its 18-month mandate.
--with files from The Canadian Press
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