Rick Westhead delivers lecture at STU on culture of abuse in hockey

Rick Westhead's new book, We Breed Lions, examines the systemic failings in Canada's favourite sport. (Credit: Liam Carleton/AQ)

On Jan. 21, The Sports Network’s Senior Correspondent Rick Westhead delivered the St. Thomas University annual Endowed Chair in Criminology and Criminal Justice Lecture in the Kinsella Auditorium.

Titled “From Hockey Rinks to Courtrooms: Hockey and the Public Interest,” the speech covered the culture of silence that exists when dealing with abuse and hazing in hockey and the importance of reporting on it. 

“I think that there [are] a lot of people who've been waiting to have conversations like this for many years,” said Westhead. “We're at a point where there's an appetite, not just from the public, but from institutions like universities to host conversations like this.”

He explained his journalistic process throughout the lecture—how he builds trust with his sources, verifies and corroborates allegations, and prepares for future lawsuits.

His new book, We Breed Lions, looks into multiple court cases of sexual assault committed by hockey players and how the practice of hazing forces players to do degrading acts. 

In his speech, Westhead talked about the scandal of 2018, where five National Hockey League players were accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a London hotel room while they were on the Canadian World Junior team.

He also told the audience about how his friend’s son was forced into performing hazing rituals naked on his team bus.

First-year student Della Doucet was happy to see the packed hall and the large number of men in the audience.  

“I know that a lot of men can be very unaware of this culture that kind of permeates their entire lives, because they spend a lot of their lives being told that this is natural and expected for them,” said Doucet. “I am really happy to see men here willing to learn about this stuff.”

Westhead also talked about programs created to teach the importance of consent to players. A new initiative in Hamilton, called “Coaching Boys Into Men,” was recently launched and has shown positive results. 

Westhead believes that organizations, and specifically coaches, need to take a proactive approach, establishing the team’s standard and the locker room environment. 

He has been blacklisted from some hockey circles due to the release of his book and some former colleagues no longer wish to associate with him. He views this as a “badge of honour,” due to the hockey world needing to hear these stories.   

“I hear from people, kind of all over the place, in media, in hockey, leagues, teams and players who are grateful for the work, but maybe are not in the position where they can say too much publicly about it,” he said.

When asked if he thinks things are improving in hockey culture, Westhead said he is “an optimist by nature.”

“I think there are real efforts to try to make change now and I hope that that leads to a systemic change, but I don't know where it's going to go,” he said. “We'll have to see how things go.”