Provinces suspend payment of registration fees to Hockey Canada

Early this morning four major Hockey Canada sponsors Essos, Canadian Tire, Telus and Tim Hortons all announced that they are pulling their sponsorship dollars from Hockey Canada in the wake of recent sexual assault allegations and, perhaps more accurately, the way in which Hockey Canada has handled these allegations.

TSN's Rick Westhead, the person at the forefront of reporting on this story, with more on Telus and Tim Hortons:

Telus, one of Hockey Canada's "premier" corporate partners, will not sponsor HC men's programs for the 2022-23 season, including World Juniors.
Telus told me it is "deeply disheartened by the lack of action and commitment from Hockey Canada to drive necessary cultural change."

- Rick Westhead

We've communicated to Hockey Canada on many occasions that the organization needs to take strong and definitive action before it can regain the faith and trust of Canadians. We're deeply disappointed in the lack of progress that Hockey Canada has made to date. We officially informed Hockey Canada this week that we have pulled out of all men's hockey programming for the 2022-23 season including the men's world junior championships. We continue to fund Canada's women's and para hockey teams, as well as youth hockey.

- Tim Hortons spokesperson

By my count that leaves just Nike, TSN, Chevrolet and a few smaller corporate sponsors left.

And if that weren't enough pressure on Hockey Canada, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau himself said today that Canadian government would consider effectively shutting down Hockey Canada and replacing it with a new organization, if the existing organization can't be trusted to make proper decisions.

From Trudeau:

"There needs to be wholesale change. They need to do it. They need to realize that if we have to create an organization, get rid of Hockey Canada, and create an organization called 'Canada Hockey' instead, people will look at doing that. There is a lack of understanding that they've lost the confidence of Canadians. And the sooner they get to that, the better it will be for everyone."

- Justin Trudeau

It remains to be seen what exactly Trudeau and the Liberal government do, but it's worth noting that several provincial hockey associations have come out with their own sanctions against Hockey Canada. Nova Scotia Hockey, Hockey Newfoundland, Hockey Manitoba and Hockey Quebec have all issued statements in condemnation against Hockey Canada, with Nova Scotia Hockey taking things a step further and withholding registration fees from Hockey Canada for 2022-23 player registrations.

It's all beginning to crumble around Hockey Canada. 

They're at real jeopardy of ruining the entire organization and yet they refuse to do the right thing. At this point, it's purely ego and/or financial greed that's keeping this executive board in place.