An Ontario Court of Appeal judge has rejected former NHL player Daniel Carcillo’s bid to establish a class-action lawsuit against the Canadian Hockey League, its three major junior leagues, and their teams concerning troubling allegations of sexual assault and abuse involving teenage players. The lawsuit, originally filed in 2020 with Carcillo, Garrett Taylor, and Stephen Quirk as the key plaintiffs, encompasses incidents in the Ontario Hockey League, Western Hockey League, and Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League dating back to 1975.
Chief Justice Michael H. Tulloch, in his decision on Monday, commended the plaintiffs’ goals but deemed the proposed case as having an “unprecedented scale and complexity.” Tulloch upheld a previous ruling by Ontario Superior Court Justice Paul Perell, who in February 2023 determined that the courts would be confronted with an “unmanageable” legal process involving 78 defendants across 13 jurisdictions, numerous potential third-party claims, and a wide array of allegations spanning nearly five decades.
Perell’s 103-page judgment referenced sworn testimonies from unnamed players detailing their experiences when some were as young as 15. One player, referred to as FF, disclosed being subjected to sodomy with a hockey stick as part of a rookie initiation — an incident corroborated by at least one other player. The player bravely shared, “I have endured the abuse I faced… [I am] recounting it to prevent any other child from enduring what I did.”
Perell outlined in his ruling that the evidence demonstrated players were subjected to various forms of mistreatment, including torture, confinement, hazing, drugging, assault, rape, and coercion to engage in harmful behaviors. While he acknowledged the credibility of the former players’ accounts and hailed them as “true heroes,” Perell concluded that they had not presented a viable strategy for pursuing the case as a class action.
In the appeal, Tulloch emphasized that as the plaintiffs did not propose a more focused class action during the certification phase, they could not now overhaul their case fundamentally. He further stated in the 35-page decision that the ruling did not preclude the potential certification of more specific class actions in the future, concentrating on individual teams, leagues, or smaller cohorts.
