The University of Ottawa (U of O) has suspended its varsity men’s hockey team following an incident of “serious misconduct,” according to a university press release.
The alleged incident involved some members of the men’s hockey team and occurred several weeks ago, the press release stated.
The university’s sports services received information from a third party Feb. 24, including allegations of the misconduct. U of O reported information to police Feb. 25.
“The University is deeply concerned that senior management was only informed about these allegations on February 24, and then by a third party. This will be among the matters examined in the review,” U of O stated in the release.
The Thunder Bay Police Service said in a March 3 press release it is investigating a third-party complaint of a sexual assault believed to have occurred the weekend of Feb. 1.
“This alleged incident occurred when the University of Ottawa hockey team was in Thunder Bay for a scheduled O.U.A. division game,” the press release stated. A police investigation is currently in its initial stages, according to the release.
“Thunder Bay Police are being assisted by the Ottawa Police Service in this ongoing investigation and are following up with involved parties,” it stated.
Patrick Charette, U of O’s director of corporate communications, said the university would not be commenting on whether the incident was a sexual assault or how many students were involved.
He said U of O is not making any statements that could interfere with the university’s internal review, privacy laws, or a police investigation.
“The University has high expectations of all our students and staff,” the release stated. “The alleged misconduct is not in keeping with the values that are at the heart of athletics and student life on campus.”
Nicole Desnoyers, vice-president (equity) of the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO), said the student union is concerned that U of O’s administration took so long to find out about the incident.
She said the student union found out about the incident through the university’s statement and is unaware of what happened, but will be speaking with U of O president Allan Rock to find out more.
Desnoyers said she is confident the university would “be looking into these issues and putting up structures to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
Desnoyers said negativity on campus, especially regarding sexually violent comments that were recently revealed made by elected students toward SFUO president Anne-Marie Roy, have garnered lots of attention.
“I think these issues, especially what’s come up the last week surrounding our president has garnered very good discussion regarding rape culture on campus,” she said. “We’ve received overwhelming support from students on this campus speaking out against those and we’re taking these issues seriously and we’re moving forward with engaging students on the issues of rape culture.”
Desnoyers said rape culture is often prevalent on university campuses.
“I think that sports teams can garner rape culture, but that is something that is widespread on campuses. It’s not isolated to sports teams,” she said. “We know that one out of three women will experience sexual assault in their lifetime and the vast majority of them will experience this while they are on campus, so this is an issue that we have been working on for years and that we will continue to work on.”
—with files from Kathleen Charlebois
