Welcome back to the podcast, bribes, swindle, or steel. I'm Alexandra Ragi. We're returning to the theme of sports governance today and Hockey Canada in particular with my guest and retired Supreme Court Justice Thomas Cromwell.

Tom was commissioned by Hockey Canada to review

the organization's structure after a sexual assault scandal shook confidence in the organization

in 2018. Briefly, five members of the 2018 Junior Canadian men's hockey team were ultimately

criminally charged in the alleged assault. They deny any wrongdoing and a trial has been set for 2025.

For our purposes today, however, we want to discuss the governance crisis that unfolded in the wake of earlier events,

including concerns about a confidential settlement with the accuser and Hockey Canada using funds accumulated from hockey fees paid by

players to settle that lawsuit. In 2022, retired Justice Cromwell's review began against a backdrop

of negative news stories, scattering sponsors, a board on which all members were nearing the

end of their terms, and a loss of public confidence more generally.

Tom, thank you for joining me. My pleasure, Alexandra. Turning to the governance issues, against this

backdrop, which is not known to many people outside of Canada, what was your mandate? I think you

summed it up well in your intro saying it was really a talk-to-bott

on governance review, starting with everything from nominations to the board, the role of the board,

the relations between the board and members, the relationship between the board and senior

staff, committee structure, and of course a lot of attention to

the transparency and appropriateness of the fund that had given rise to the public controversy

in the first place. One thing to note is that I was specifically not commissioned to look into

the particular payment that really became the focus of the public

discussion, but rather to do a governance look much more generally and broadly.

I introduced you as a retired Supreme Court justice, and that's really only the only

introduction somebody needs when they've reached

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