TSN journalist Rick Westhead, who had broken the story on the scandal involving Hockey Canada at the end of May, revealed the news that an internal probe had been launched by the Quebec police force on Thursday evening via his Twitter account.
The material that was given by Westhead was information that was reported to him by Sébastien Lemire, who is an MP for the Bloc Québécois.
In a statement that was submitted to the Journal at the end of the evening, the latter, on the other hand, presented a slightly different version of the story.
Lemire explains that during a committee in the House of Commons that was investigating the controversy at Hockey Canada, he questioned the commissioner of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (LHJMQ), Gilles Courteau, about this case of alleged gang rape. The committee was looking into Hockey Canada.
According to Mr. Lemire, Gilles Courteau responded by saying that an investigation had previously been conducted on this file, but that “if the Police Department shows interest in reopening this investigation, we will certainly collaborate in the investigation” if the investigation were to be reopened.
Mr. Lemire, a spokesperson for the Bloc Québécois, stated that “I then informed the SPVQ of this declaration and I received a notification of receipt verifying that the information had been transferred to the investigators in charge for analysis.” ports. As a result, there is no evidence to suggest that the investigation has in fact been restarted.
Nothing is confirmed by the SPVQ in any way.
After being contacted by Le Journal en soir, the SPVQ did not wish to confirm, for reasons of confidentially, whether or not it is reactivating this investigation.
David Pelletier, a spokesperson for the police department, stated that in general, the department makes it clear that it does not hesitate to restart investigations when new evidence comes to light.
In October of 2017, a sexual assault case review committee was established, and he guarantees that “every request for review in this area is processed with rigor and diligence.”
Alleged gang rape
A number of years ago, this occurrence generated a lot of buzz in the media. It is believed that the incident took place in January of 2014 at the Hilton Hotel in Quebec City, during the time that the Gatineau squad was traveling through the area. According to the reports, a young woman from Trois-Rivières was the target of a gang rape that took place in a bedroom.
After hearing the allegations of indecent actions targeting Olympiques players again and which reportedly took place in a restaurant, the alleged victim waited until a year later before deciding to submit a complaint with the Trois-Rivières police. The allegations in question involved the restaurant. Boston Pizza from Gatineau.
After that, the file was given to the police in Quebec, but the investigation did not result in any charges being brought against anyone. In the wake of this ruling, the complaint voiced their disapproval of the work done by the SPVQ investigators.
“The detectives from Quebec treated me in a very unprofessional manner. She lamented at the microphone of a radio station in the Old Capital that the listeners did not take her claims about them taking her very seriously.
The QMJHL is going to work together.
“We are aware that the police could renew the investigation, and we will offer our full cooperation throughout the process,” answered QMJHL chief operating officer Karl Jahnke in response to the question. “We will offer our full cooperation throughout the process.”
