Former NHL player Daniel Carcillo and two co-plaintiffs filed the class-action lawsuit in 2020.Andy King/The Associated Press
The claims of elite junior hockey players who blame the Canadian Hockey League for enabling a widespread hazing culture of assault and abuse are too complex to proceed as a single class action lawsuit, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled on Monday.
However, Ontario’s highest court left the door open for the players to pursue compensation through a series of smaller class actions, and said “there is evidence that serious abuse has long plagued major junior hockey.”
The appeal court’s decision on Monday upheld a lower court’s decision not to certify a proposed class action lawsuit filed on behalf of elite junior hockey players across the country, who were allegedly subjected to hazing and abuse over the past half-century.
In 2023, Ontario Superior Court Justice Paul Perell declined to certify the class-action lawsuit filed in 2020 by former NHL player Daniel Carcillo and two co-plaintiffs against the CHL, the three leagues that the CHL comprises (the Western Hockey League, Ontario Hockey League, and Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League), and their 60 teams. Justice Perell wrote that the plaintiffs “have not produced a workable litigation plan because it is not conceivable that such a plan could be fashioned to deal in one class action” with the vast suit.
However, he found the plaintiffs had put forward evidence of abuse.
In the appeal court ruling on Monday, Chief Justice Michael Tulloch, writing for a unanimous three judge panel, said the sprawling claims could live on in other, more limited lawsuits. But he said Justice Perell was right to refuse to bundle together the cases dating back to 1975 into one sweeping class action claim against the Canadian Hockey League.
“Even though the appellants’ objectives may well be admirable, their proposed class action is of an unprecedented scale and complexity, far greater than that of other systemic negligence class actions previously recognized,” Justice Tulloch wrote in his ruling, released Monday.
“This decision should not be understood as ruling out the possibility that other class actions – narrower in scope and targeting individual teams, single leagues, or smaller groups of organizations – could be certified and managed effectively,” Justice Tulloch wrote. “Such cases must be assessed on their own merit.”
The appeal court also noted that in 2023, the lower-court judge had “recognized evidence that a toxic culture of ‘bullying, harassment, hazing, and criminal conduct…has been pervasive for decades and continues to this day.”
“This evidence suggests that players had been subjected to horrific mistreatment by older teammates, as well as by team and league staff, including torture, forcible confinement, sexual assault, gang rape, and emotional abuse,” Justice Tulloch wrote.
In an interview on Monday, James Sayce, a lawyer acting for Mr. Carcillo and his co-plaintiffs, said that it was too soon to say whether his clients will seek to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada.
But Mr. Sayce said the courts will continue to hear the claims of systemic abuse within the world of junior hockey.
“One way or another, abused major junior hockey players are going to have an avenue to access justice. The Court of Appeal reiterated that there is a serious abuse, a problem in Canadian major junior hockey going back decades,” he said.
The Canadian Hockey League did not immediately respond to a request for comment.