Horrible details revealed about 2003 gang rape allegations related to 2003 World Junior team

I prefer to offer a warning about this text. This is from Rick Westhead’s brilliant investigation on the sexual assault allegations related to Canada’s 2003 World Junior team.

Earlier on Friday, Hockey Canada made a statement about the information they received from Westhead, learning of an alleged group sexual assault from 2003 involving members of the 2002-03 National Junior Team. Before finding out about the incident, Hockey Canada staff had “heard a rumour about ‘something bad at the 2003 World Juniors’” but did not have details.

In Westhead’s article, the reporter reveals how the allegations claim that more than a half-dozen players on the 2003 World Junior team were recorded during the tournament having sex with a woman who was naked and non-responsive.

The source that contacted Conservative MP John Nater, a member of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage about the 2003 allegations was interviewed by TSN, and corroborated their account with two additional sources, including the owner of the video camera used to film the alleged incident. The three sources independently described the six- or seven-minute video.

From Westhead:

“The player told the camera operator that viewers were about to see “a f—ing lamb roast,” the three sources said. After the hallway interview, the camera was then carried into a room with a pool table, the source said.

The video shows roughly a half-dozen players taking turns having sex with a woman who was non-responsive and lying face up on the pool table, the source said.

Two sources said they watched the video on a VHS tape in an apartment in the spring of 2003.

The third source said that one of the players on the 2003 World Juniors team borrowed their video camera during the tournament in Halifax. The recording was on the camera when it was returned to them. That person said they did not inform police about the recording and deleted the video from their camera after being pressured to do so by players. The source said they believe a copy of the video was made when the camera was not in their possession.”

“I didn’t want to get in trouble,” the owner of the video camera said in a phone interview. “I knew this could get them in trouble.”

Well, they should get in trouble. Enough is enough.

On Friday, Carlo Colaiacovo was the first member of the 2003 roster to comment on the investigation. The former round pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2001 made the following statement on his personal Twitter account.

Hockey Canada is already dealing with an investigation regarding the 2018 sexual assault allegations in an incident that featured eight members of the country’s 2018 world junior team, following a gala in London, Ontario.

It looks like now it was only the tip of the iceberg.