Justin Trudeau calls Hockey Canada scandal “absolutely unacceptable”

Hot on the heels of some shocking developments in the ongoing sexual assault scandal that has rocked Hockey Canada, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had some harsh words for the nation's hockey development powerhouse.

"I think right now, it's hard for anyone to have faith or trust in anyone at Hockey Canada," Trudeau said when asked about the scandal while conducting a press conference in BC earlier today. "What we're learning today is absolutely unacceptable."

Without going off on a tangent, I find it ridiculously ironic that Trudeau would comment on anything having to do with earning faith or trust, but I digress...

Earlier in the day Hockey Canada lawyers and investigators released text messages and videos to The Globe and Mail which seem to contradict, but nevertheless shed more light onto what exactly happened that evening. It's presumed that Trudeau is commenting on the allegations at hand without knowing the full extent of today's developments. Then again... he does say, "what we're learning today," so who knows? Frankly, I don't put much faith in much of anything Trudeau has to say but that's another conversation for another day.

Regarding the findings from the Globe though, they claim that they acquired videos which showed the alleged victim stating that the acts that evening were consensual.

From the Globe:

The first video clip shown to The Globe is six seconds long and was recorded at 3:25 a.m. on June 19, 2018, the lawyers said. It shows a woman from the neck up. A male voice can be heard saying “You’re ok with this?”

“I’m ok with this,” the woman says.

The second clip is 12 seconds long and taken about an hour later at 4:26 a.m. The same woman appears to be covering herself with a towel in a hotel room, with a closed door to the hallway visible in the background.

“Are you recording me?” she asks. “Ok, good. It was all consensual. You are so paranoid, holy. I enjoyed it, it was fine. It was all consensual. I am so sober, that’s why I can’t do this right now.”

Now, it should be noted that these statements could be made under duress. After all, the young woman was presumably still in the hotel room with 8 young men at the time of the recordings. And I mean... who films acknowledgement of sexual consent? Seems odd to me, but then again I've been off the free agent market for awhile now so what do I know? In any case, the woman's claims in a text message the next day with one of those young men seem to point to the fact that she wasn't in fact "ok with it." After her and her mother filed a report with police, this text interaction happened between herself and an unnamed player.

More from the Globe:

“You said you were having fun,” the player wrote.

“I was really drunk, didn’t feel good about it at all after. But I’m not trying to get anyone in trouble,” she replied.

“I was ok with going home with you, it was everyone else afterwards that I wasn’t expecting. I just felt like I was being made fun of and taken advantage of.”

In her statement to police the woman claims alleges "she felt an imminent fear of physical harm and at times was crying and tried to leave the room" but was “directed, manipulated and intimidated into remaining, after which she was subjected to further sexual assaults.”

Despite this, it appears from her text messages that she did try to walk back her statements police.

Again, more from the Globe:

“You need to talk to your mother right now and straighten things out with the police before this goes to far. This is a serious matter that she is misrepresenting and could have significant implications for a lot of people including you,” the player wrote.

The woman apologized for any trouble it might have already caused.

“Can you please figure out how to make this go away and contact the police,” the player asked. He texted a few times over the next few hours to check whether anything had been done.

“I appreciate that your going to put an end to this I know this must not be easy for you to have to call the police and say this was a mistake,” he wrote.

Finally that evening the woman said, “Told them I’m not going to pursue it any further and that it was a mistake. You should be good now so hopefully nothing more comes of it,” she wrote.

Suffice it to say that there's some very conflicting information here and we can only hope that the truth ultimately comes out and plays out in court.