Hockey Canada has nominated eight people to its board of directors, which will be put forward to a vote at a meeting next week, Sportsnet's Jeff Marek reported on the 32 Thoughts segment on Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday.
Marek said the nominating committee submitted, on Friday, a full slate for an all-new board and a new chair for consideration by the 13 provincial members. Voting will take place Dec. 17, but it's believed the list of nominees will be made public on Monday.
"Now, it sounds like one of the new criteria for board positions (is) not only diversity, but also diversity of thought," Marek said. "I still think that they'll put together some type of secondary board subcommittee, a shadow board, in order to assist this brand new board. The new board will serve only one term — normal board positions are two — so a shadow board does make some sense here."
Hockey Canada has been without a board of directors since it resigned en masse in October after a contentious Parliamentary hearing — the third time officials had been called to Ottawa since June — and the unveiling of former Supreme Court Judge Thomas Cromwell’s interim report. The board’s resignation came on the same day president and CEO Scott Smith left the organization, and days after the resignation of interim board chair Andrea Skinner.
The upcoming election will see a chair and eight directors elected to the board.
Hockey Canada’s leadership has been under scrutiny since news broke in May that the organization settled a lawsuit with a woman who said she was sexually assaulted by eight CHL players, including members of the 2018 Canadian world junior team. It was later revealed Hockey Canada used a National Equity Fund, made partially of player registration fees, to pay the settlement.
The World Junior Championship returns to Canada on Dec. 26, when it will be held in Halifax and Moncton, N.B.
