Women’s centres see crisis calls rise during high-profile Hockey Canada trial

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With significant public interest in the sexual assault trial of five former world junior hockey players, staff at women’s shelters are raising the alarm about a surge in crisis calls, disclosures and demand for services.

The men are accused of sexually assaulting a young woman known as E.M. in a London, Ont., hotel room in 2018. Throughout the high-profile case, front-line staff at shelters and crisis centres have seen more victims coming forward to formally report or seek support.

“We have been getting calls from people who are specifically telling us that they’re calling us because of watching E.M. on the stand,” said Jessie Rodger, executive director at London, Ont.-based Anova, which provides shelter, counselling and other resources to those facing gender-based violence.

“A few messages have been: ‘If she can do this, I can step forward and ask for counseling help. I’ve been avoiding it because I’ve been too scared to talk.’”

Many callers are coming forward about historical abuses.

“It didn’t happen last week or in the last few months. It happened years ago and they’ve been hanging on to it,” Ms. Rodger said.

“One of the trauma responses we’ve seen is, ‘Let me get through this and I’ll deal with it later.’ Then what ends up happening is the trauma is more complex, it’s heavier and it swipes people sideways.”

A timeline of key events in the Hockey Canada case before it went to trial

Staff at Anova are bracing for an even greater influx of calls following the verdict, which Ontario Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia is set to deliver on July 24.

“Events like this take a minute,” Ms. Rodger said. “People need to process. They watch, they engage, it hits them and then in a quiet moment they realize, ‘Oh. That also includes me.’”

Front-line workers saw similar outreach for help following the 2016 verdict in the Jian Ghomeshi trial, as well as throughout the #MeToo movement, when there was “a broader awakening around what sexual violence looks like and how it can be institutionalized” – be it in workplaces, or sports culture, according to Candice Shaw, executive director of Ending Sexual Violence Association of Canada, an Ottawa non-profit focused on research, education, public policy and national coordination of the sexual violence sector.

Throughout the trial, Ms. Shaw has been speaking with staff at sexual assault centres across the country. “We’re looking at this as both a culture of abuse within sports and the criminal justice system – how they work with survivors and how it can be a very unsafe place.”

At the same time, local organizations are receiving donations in E.M.’s name from Canadians following the high-profile trial.

At Anova, the donations will help fund counselling and a court accompaniment program, including services such as transportation to and from court, so sexual assault complainants don’t have to drive in traffic after a potentially grueling cross-examination.

At the London Abused Women’s Centre, some people have walked in with donations in E.M.’s name, while others have sent money from as far as Alberta.

“There are people out there who are listening and paying attention,” said Jennifer Dunn, executive director at the centre.

Here, donations will go toward getting one-on-one counselling or court support for women subjected to violence, as well as helping them to navigate the medical system, or find affordable housing or shelter space.

“When you’ve suffered severe violence and abuse, all of this can be that much more difficult. We can help with those types of things,” Ms. Dunn said. “Women have expressed to us that it’s very helpful when there’s an organization willing to walk beside you, to show you the steps of the way.”

Ms. Dunn said her staff have also gotten a spike in calls from women mentioning the trial. Explicit testimony and the seven-day cross examination of the complainant have distressed some victims.

“It’s stress-inducing and can bring up a lot of feelings for women who’ve been through similar situations – feeling like they’re right back in where they were before.”

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The trial is weighing particularly heavily on survivors in sports communities, athletes who grew up in locker rooms and experienced abuse in a similar sports culture, according to Dina Haddish, members’ coordinator of the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres.

With this trial so explicitly in the public eye, “There’s an additional layer of fear added: ‘If I disclose, if I decide to go through this process, am I going to be treated like this survivor?’” Ms. Haddish said.

She worries about organizations running on shoestring budgets struggling with the rise in crisis calls. “Survivors are reaching out. Centers are answering the call but they’re stretched thin. People are burned out and the wait lists are egregious” for services, she said.

Ms. Haddish has been heartened that Canadians following the trial have been donating to sexual-violence support organizations. She argued that many of these places go far beyond their original mandates – from offering food pantries alongside counselling appointments, to helming gender-based violence prevention education in communities, including programs like OHL Onside and other training sessions that focus on healthy relationships, consent and masculinity with young athletes.

“It’s great to donate to local organizations that are supporting survivors because there’s always more demand than they can meet. But a huge amount of how we respond to cases like this comes down to education,” said Kat Owens, interim legal director at Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund, which works to advance gender equality through case intervention, law reform and public education.

“How do we talk to the people in our lives about consent, about healthy sexual relationships? For parents, it’s talking to your kids. For people in friend groups, it’s calling in your friends when they’re doing things that are harmful to those around them. It’s on all of us to move the conversation in the direction we want it to go. This trial is an education opportunity.”