Former NHL player Jordin Tootoo is calling for a full investigation into an alleged sexual assault from 2003 involving Canada’s men’s world junior hockey team. (File photo courtesy of the New Jersey Devils/Facebook)
Tootoo says he was unaware of alleged sex assault involving world junior players
Rankin Inlet-raised Jordin Tootoo played on Canada’s 2002-03 men’s world junior hockey team
Former National Hockey League player Jordin Tootoo is calling for a full investigation into an alleged sexual assault involving members of the 2002-03 Canadian men’s world junior hockey team — an incident he said he was shocked to learn about.
Tootoo, raised in Rankin Inlet, spent several NHL seasons with the Nashville Predators after he was drafted in 2001. He also played for the New Jersey Devils, Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks before retiring in 2018.
Tootoo, now 39, played on the 2002-03 Canadian men’s team that won silver at the world junior hockey championship in Halifax, N.S.
On July 22, TSN reported that the Halifax Regional Police has opened an investigation into an alleged group sexual assault that involved members of that team.
“My book chronicles many experiences from the tournament when I was age 19, as well as my journey with alcohol addiction, which started at age 14,” he wrote in a statement, published on Twitter July 23.
“If I am being totally honest with myself and you, I don’t recall knowing or hearing about the incident in question during or after the tournament.”
The book Tootoo references is his 2014 memoir, All the Way: My Life on Ice. In it, he recalls the team’s sexual activities during that tournament.
Hockey Canada, the governing body of the world junior team, said in a statement on that same day that it hired a third-party investigator two weeks ago after hearing about “something bad at the 2003 world juniors.”
That third-party investigator had not found anything out before TSN contacted Hockey Canada with details of the alleged sexual assault, the statement said.
The organization said it is “committed to bringing an end to the culture of silence in hockey” and called on anyone with knowledge of the incident to speak with police.
He mentioned it in his book and now he’s stating he has no knowledge of it?
Indeed, I was wondering the safe thing.
In this new age of accountability, his memory gaps are very convenient.
the book alludes to consensual activities, the book mentions nothing about the current allegations
This is a quote from the book:
The shit that we did. . . . We were horny young men. We were in Halifax and we had every goddamned girl hitting on us. What are you going to do? Let’s start slaying these broads. And it wasn’t just one-on one action. A few of the guys would get a couple of girls after practice and head into one of the rooms.
Pretty gross.
What in that passage implies that what took place was not consensual?
Gonna be interesting in the next 2-3 weeks how many players take a leave of absence while they deal with personal issues.
I cannot see the NHL, NHLPA, AHLPA, Sponsors they endorse and teams letting this overcast their training camps, especially as Media’s swarm looking for stories and this topic is Red Hot and not going away anytime soon.
Unless someone is lying, the 2018 team are down to those involved or why would the others who were interviewed be be all in denial.
Hockey Canada know exactly who they are looking for.
Hi,
does any one have Jordin’s email or phone number in Rankin?
I arranged a hockey tournament to bring the Ottawa Senators Alumni team 18 retired NHL players to raise funds for minor hockey in Iqaluit.
I also arranged a space contact for students in Rankin to talk to real live astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) All volunteers and sponsored by Pita Aatami with Makivik Corporation. Every dollar raised remained in the North.