Except translation, this story has not been edited by achinews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.
The Quebec Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal to certify a class action alleging hazing in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League.
In Tuesday’s decision, Judge Sophie Lavallee said the appeal by the QMJHL, the league’s 18 teams and its umbrella organization – the Canadian Hockey League – did not meet the strict criteria needed to end the lawsuit.
The class-action lawsuit was filed last year by Carl Latuliffe, a former Quebec minor hockey star who publicized alleged abuse he suffered while playing for two teams in the mid-1990s.
The lawsuit approved by Quebec’s Supreme Court on April 10 seeks $650,000 for Latulip in damages, including pain, suffering and humiliation, as well as lost productivity and treatment costs, and asks for another $15 million to be shared among other alleged victims.
The league appealed on the grounds that the main applicant, Tulip, has no connection to “almost all” of the groups targeted in the lawsuit. The appeal said that the trial court judge erred in concluding that the case must be heard on its merits before it can be determined whether all the league teams are jointly liable.
However, Lavallee said Supreme Court Justice Jacques Bouchard made no errors of law and that the details of which parties are responsible for the damages will be discussed later.
Lavallee wrote in her ruling that “using the necessary caution, (Bouchard) uses his discretion not to immediately decide this issue.” The question of the joint responsibility of the league and the other teams is “not a pure legal question” and therefore “it is not a mistake at the authorization stage to decide that it will be settled on the merits of the matter”.
Those covered in the class action are “all hockey players who experienced abuse while they were minors and played in the Quebec Junior Hockey League,” since July 1, 1969. The league was renamed the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League last year.
Latulip first published the alleged abuse he faced in an interview with the newspaper “Le Presse” in Montreal last year.
A first-round pick of the Chicoutimi Sagueneens in the 1994 QMJHL draft, LaTulip claimed that during training camp he was forced by veteran players to strip and masturbate in front of teammates on the team bus, with full knowledge of the coaches. He also claims that veterans of the group attacked rookies with soap wrapped in towels.
LaTulip left the team briefly after the bus incident and later returned at the coach’s behest, but when he discussed the abuse, he was allegedly told by the coach that the hazing would only last a year and would help build character.
He played six regular-season games with the Sagunins before joining the Drummondville Voltigeurs, where he claims he faced more abuse.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on June 25, 2024.
(Except translation, this story has not been edited by achinews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
source link https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/appeal-rejected-hazing-abuse-class-action-lawsuit-against-qmjhl-to-go-ahead-1.6940678
