Lawyers have filed a request for authorization for a class-action lawsuit against the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), its 18 current teams and the Canadian Hockey League over alleged hazing incidents.
The document was filed Wednesday morning at the Quebec City Courthouse.
The $15-million lawsuit covers “all hockey players who suffered abuse while they were minors” playing in the QMJHL from 1969 to the present.
The term “abuse,” the court filing reads, “refers to any form of physical and/or psychological abuse; including being confined, shaved, forcibly stripped, drugged and/or intoxicated; forced or encouraged to physically and/or sexually assault others; forced to drink or eat urine, saliva, semen, blood, excrement and/or other abject substances; forced to inflict self-inflicted injury; or forced to commit acts of bestiality.”
Carl Latulippe, the lead plaintiff, described to La Presse in April physical and sexual abuse he said he experienced during his time in the league in the 1990s.
Latulippe, Chicoutimi’s first-round pick in the 1994 QMJHL draft, played six games with the Sagueneens before leaving the team.
In March, then-interim league commissioner Martin Lavallee told the Quebec legislature that the league was investigating sexual abuse allegations from the 1990s. Longtime QMJHL commissioner Gilles Courteau announced his retirement in March after testifying on hazing rituals in hockey at provincial legislature hearings in February.
Mario Cecchini took over as commissioner on May 8.
More details to come.
With files form The Canadian Press.
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