Former Hockey Canada exec ‘sorry’ for lack of guidelines on sex assault claims

Nicholson apologized for not putting written guidelines in place on how Hockey Canada should handle sexual assault claims when he was at the helm from 1998 to 2014.

Bob Nicholson is proud of much of what he accomplished during his time leading Hockey Canada.

He pushed to improve on-ice safety and grow the national sports organization’s financial might.

Its former president and CEO also has regrets.

Nicholson apologized Tuesday during testimony in front of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage in Ottawa for not putting written guidelines in place on how Hockey Canada should handle sexual assault claims when he was at the helm from 1998 to 2014.

“I wish I could go back,” Nicholson told MPs via video link. “I wish I could have put more policies in. My job, as CEO, was to really run the operations. Policies came from the board, and I’m not deflecting that back to the board. I was the CEO, and I should have been encouraging more policies.

“That was something that I would have liked to have done — I didn’t — and I’m sorry about that.”

Nicholson added he’s satisfied with how the federation dealt with sexual assault and abuse claims throughout his tenure, which included settlements related to disgraced former junior coach Graham James, but those meetings shouldn’t have been held in camera without minutes being taken.

“We didn’t handle that correctly,” Nicholson said. “We had to focus more on the off-ice situations with players. I was dealing a lot with on-ice (safety).”