As a reporter started to ask a question during Monday's press conference regarding the 2018 World Junior sexual assault case, London police chief Thai Truong stepped to the podium and said he wanted to address some previous queries.
Truong went on to give his thoughts about his concerns about sexualization of women in a wide variety of outlets contributing to violence.
"There's a widespread prevalence of violence towards women worldwide," he said. "One contributing factor and one complex thing we need to address is us as a society and a community because the sexualization of young women and girls in today's society is contributing to the violence against women.
"Part of it, and I'm not blaming the media, but I do want to highlight how we portray young women and girls on TV, in music videos, how we write about them, magazine shoots, all that contributes to sexual violence and the normalization of what we're seeing."
Another reporter at the press conference later challenged Truong on his comments and the police force's investigation.
"You mentioned just now things in media contributing to problems with the way in which women and girls are perceived and the way sexual violence is perceived," the reporter said. "Would it be fair to say that taking nearly six years to lay a sexual assault charge in a high-profile case would also contribute to sexual violence against women?"
"That's a fair question," said Truong, who became London police chief last June. "It's not something as chief of police that I am happy about that it took six years. I truly am not happy about that whatsoever. ... That is why I apologized to the victim and to her family."
Dillon Dube, Cal Foote and Carter Hart, all 25, and Alex Formenton, 24, have been charged with one count of each of sexual assault. Michael McLeod, 26, has been charged with two counts of sexual assault, including one relating to aiding someone else in the offence. All five individuals, who represented Canada during the 2018 World Junior tournament, surrendered separately to the London Police Service within the last 10 days and were released following charges.
Host Jeff Marek and Sportsnet reporter Paul D. Grant, who was in London for the press conference, discussed Truong's statement on the Jeff Marek Show after the media event concluded.
Marek said while he understood the chief faced a difficult task during the press conference in the midst of a lengthy legal process, he didn't think it was the right time to make that kind of statement.
"I found that really tasteless that in front of assembled media, the chief took a shot at media and somehow made media culpable even in a vague passing form," Marek said.
Added Grant: "I think (the press conference) was very highly scripted, a lot of statements being read, there were messages being stuck to, etcetera. I think at that point he went off the script, it just seemed to me, judging by his body language and the way he approached the podium and interrupted the question being asked. It just felt like he went off script and I think he got a little hot."
Mark Lazerus, a senior NHL writer for The Athletic, who has written about the investigation, also was critical of Truong.
