Hockey Canada's CEO Scott Smith and the entire executive board resigns in shame

This just in, Hockey Canada's executive staff finally, mercifully has resigned. 

Hockey Canada CEO Scott Smith and the entire board of governors have officially resigned.

From Hockey Canada:

CALGARY, Alta. – The Hockey Canada Board of Directors has announced important changes to Hockey Canada’s leadership team. Effective immediately, it announced the departure of chief executive officer Scott Smith. The entire Board has also agreed to step down to make room for a new slate of directors.

An interim management committee will be put in place, which will guide the organization until no later than a newly constituted Board appoints a new CEO to lead the organization.

Recognizing the urgent need for new leadership and perspectives, the entire Board of Directors announced it will step aside and pursuant to Hockey Canada’s By-Laws, the Board will ask its Members to select a new slate of directors by no later than the forthcoming virtual election scheduled for December 17, 2022. The Board will not seek re-election and will fulfil its fiduciary duties until such time as a new Board is elected.

- Hockey Canada

This news comes after more than a dozen sponsors including the likes of Tim Hortons, Esso, Canadian Tire, Scotiabank and Bauer have all pulled their funding from Hockey Canada in protest of its inaction and tone deaf statements of late.

If you're not up to date on all of the drama surrounding Hockey Canada and its executive board... buckle up...

In short, the organization was found to have been using a "slush fund" of money taken from player registration costs to pay out millions of dollars to victims of alleged sexual abuse. In effect, Hockey Canada was using "Hush Money" to keep victims silent. In other words, they were covering up abuse for their players. When confronted with these allegations Hockey Canada, mostly through former spokesperson and interim Board Chair Andrea Skinner, played the "Fake News" card and mist-categorized the criticism as a media blitz against Hockey Canada. To

Skinner proved herself to be woefully out of touch with the concerns of MPs and, by extension, the general public. She broadcasted an air of hubris and entitlement that many felt only proved how and why Hockey Canada has gotten itself into so much trouble. In my eyes, it was a desperate attempt to shift the narrative away from Hockey Canada's executive staff and to place blame for their failings elsewhere. The thing is... no one fell for it. Still, the executive board and CEO Scott Smith refused to resign... until today.

One by one major sponsors pulled out, leaving Hockey Canada as a shell of what it once was. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau even posited the idea of replacing the organization entirely with a new one simply called 'Canada Hockey'.

Today Bauer Hockey announced that they will no longer partner with Hockey Canada and then just hours later Smith and the board resign. Are the two announcements related? Was Bauer simply the straw that broke the camel's back? We may never know, but at least Hockey Canada can move forward and begin to mend its relationships with sponsors and build back the trust of the Canadian public.

A new Hockey Canada Board of Directors will be elected on December 17th, 2022.