OSIC urges Hockey Canada to push ban on fighting in OHL, WHL

In a sweeping set of recommendations aimed at overhauling the culture of hockey, a team of researchers commissioned by the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner (OSIC) is urging Hockey Canada to push for a ban on fighting across all junior leagues and implement a national sanctions registry to inform the public about people who have been banned or suspended for serious maltreatment.

The recommendations were included in a 234-page sport environment assessment report published by the OSIC on May 8. It has not been publicly reported on before now.

“Hockey Canada should invite partnership with national governing bodies from other countries and other stakeholders, to work toward a concerted effort to campaign and influence the CHL and other leagues to eliminate fighting…,” the report said. “The aim would be to ensure the celebration of violence is not a deterrent for grassroots enrollment, and to protect the safety and well-being of young athletes.”

The federally funded OSIC opened in 2022 to receive and investigate complaints of maltreatment mostly related to incidents involving national-team level athletes, coaches and staff. As part of its mandate, the federal government gave the OSIC the ability to investigate systemic issues within individual sports, make recommendations on how to improve them, and then follow up a year after the recommendations were made by publishing monitoring reports to determine whether any of the changes were made.

Sport Canada has the ability to withhold funding from organizations if it determines they have not done enough to make their sport safer for participants. During 2023-24, Hockey Canada received $5.5 million in funding from the federal government via Sport Canada.

The OSIC report was written by mediator Sarah Daitch, a former member of Canada’s national cross country ski team, and six other researchers who heard from more than 1,800 hockey players, parents, coaches, and officials who participated in surveys, one-on-one interviews, and a workshop.

Interview subjects included 45 hockey league administrators, board members, volunteers, former players and officials, as well as representatives from the International Ice Hockey Federation and the Canadian Hockey League.

The report recommended that Hockey Canada lead a national public awareness campaign “featuring champions, alumni, and players who are proponents of eliminating the celebration of violence in the game” to pressure the Ontario Hockey League and Western Hockey League to follow the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League’s decision to ban fighting.

The QMJHL, under pressure from the Quebec government, said in August 2023 that players who fight would be ejected from games and any player determined to instigate a fight would be suspended for a game.

The report also said Hockey Canada should use data collected from the QMJHL to track how its fighting ban has or has not affected other types of penalties as an unintended outcome of eliminating fighting. Canadian broadcasters, journalists and commentators who report on hockey should also reflect on “how they can be part of the solution to end the celebration of violence and fighting in the game,” the report said.

Hockey Canada spokesman Jeremy Knight wrote in a statement to TSN that many of the assessment’s recommendations are already complete or are in progress.

“Hockey Canada appreciates the efforts of those involved with the Sport Environmental Assessment, including the assessor, Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner and participating committee members,” Knight wrote. “Hockey Canada has undergone a significant transformation in the past three years and we will continue to work expeditiously towards improving the safety and culture of sanctioned hockey in Canada.”

Knight also wrote that Hockey Canada does not have any power to influence the major-junior hockey leagues.

“The Canadian Hockey League and its leagues are self-governed and do not fall within the jurisdiction or oversight of Hockey Canada, and we cannot comment on the assessment’s recommendations related to those leagues,” Knight wrote.

In 2024-25, there were 40 fights in regular-season games in the QMJHL, 285 in the OHL, and 319 in the WHL, according to the website hockeyfights.com. In 2022-23, before the QMJHL introduced its stricter sanctions for fighting, that league had 82 fights, compared to 234 in the OHL and 284 in the WHL.

OHL spokesman Josh Sweetland wrote in a statement to TSN that the league plans to review the OSIC report “in more detail and weigh its contents in the coming months.”

The OHL has introduced automatic suspensions to players who have more than three fights in a season and also assesses instigator and aggressor penalties, Sweetland wrote.

“The league has also instituted deterrents in an effort to prevent staged fights while also being mindful of player safety, with players being additionally penalized in the event that they remove an opponent’s helmet during a fight,” he wrote.

WHL spokesman Taylor Rocca told TSN that the league was aware of the OSIC report’s recommendations but had not yet “consumed the report in its entirety” to comment on it.

“Having said that, we are not currently considering material changes to our playing rules,” Rocca wrote in an email.

The OSIC’s report also recommends that all hockey participants, including players and coaches, be subject to consistent screening and sanctions, that grassroots volunteers and coaches receive training, and that the discipline for off-ice misconduct be made more transparent.

Besides hockey, other sports that have undergone environment assessments include gymnastics, wrestling, and cycling. No monitoring reports have been published to date.

In May 2024, the federal government announced that the OSIC’s responsibilities would be taken over by another federally funded agency called the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES), which tests elite national-team level and university athletes for performance-enhancing drugs. The OSIC is currently negotiating with Sport Canada for funding to complete monitoring reports.

Besides encouraging the elimination of fighting in junior hockey, the OSIC report also suggested “Safe Sport” policies in Canada should be streamlined.

Currently, most national, provincial and local sports organizations typically have distinct policies regarding what behaviour is considered inappropriate, how misconduct complaints are managed, what discipline should be handed out, and what the public should be told about sanctions.

The Abuse-Free Sport Registry, which has been maintained by the OSIC and is transitioning to the CCES, is a national public searchable database of people who are either suspended or banned for misconduct. That registry, however, is primarily made up of people who have been sanctioned in connection with incidents related to national-team level competitors, not provincial or club teams.

A modest but growing number of national and provincial sport organizations across Canada either currently have a public sanctions registry or have committed to one.

Athletics Canada, Swim Canada, and Skate Canada all maintain public registries. Basketball Canada and Canada Soccer have said they are in the process of setting up registries.

The Ontario Volleyball Association, Athletics Ontario, Gymnastics Ontario, Field Hockey Ontario, and Swim Ontario are among the provincial associations that maintain public sanction lists.

“While there are numerous legal obstacles (including the division of power between (national sport organizations) and (provincial/territorial sport organizations) to the creation of a national public registry, there should be consideration of how this could be established in Canada for individuals who have made egregious or severe violations of Safe Sport policies,” the report said.

The OSIC report's researchers were advised by a “guidance group” which included Jocelyn Thibault, a former NHL goalie and former executive director of Hockey Quebec; Brock McGillis, a now-retired Ontario Hockey League player who is the first openly gay men’s professional player; Chante Eastmond, a co-founder of the Toronto-based Hockey Equality advocacy group; Darren Cossar, former executive director of Nova Scotia Hockey who is now senior vice-president of member engagement at Hockey Canada; Haleigh Callison, a former University of British Columbia hockey player who is now on the board of B.C. Hockey; Michael Bruni, who chaired Hockey Canada’s board from 2011-13; Natasha Johnston, Hockey Canada’s vice-president of sport safety; Rico Phillips, the OHL’s director of cultural diversity and inclusion; former NHL player Sheldon Kennedy, a survivor of sexual abuse and prominent advocate for other survivors.