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The view of a victims’ rights advocate

One aspect to keep in mind when watching this trial with us is how it’s brought more scrutiny to the game. The woman complainant in this case is known as E.M. in court, but we can’t give any other information about her due to a publication ban.

Julie Lalonde is a victims’ rights advocate based in Ottawa who’s interested in seeing the public conversation about this trial.

She points out how “Canada’s game” has become a metaphor in the federal election and the fight against U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff and sovereignty threats, and hopes Canadians can look past the heightened sense of loyalty and patriotism to the evidence presented in court.

Hockey “is absolutely something that people can enjoy that is really part of the sort of fabric of Canadian society, but it does have systemic issues of sexual violence, of misogyny, but also of homophobia, of racism,” Lalonde says.

“We know that it’s a sport like many others that is rife with issues. And there seems to be a real defensiveness from the average person to acknowledge that, because it seems sort of like unpatriotic in some way to be anti-hockey.”

“But it’s not about being anti-hockey, right?” says Lalonde. “It’s about being anti-violent, and it’s about recognizing that the world of sport can foster leadership skills and team-building skills, but it can also breed solidarity amongst people who are abusive, who are homophobic, who are awful towards women. And I really want to see Canadians in particular kind of separating their feelings about hockey from the reality of what we’re facing in front of us.”

National pride should not trump objectivity, fairness and justice, she adds.