How did a healthy teen die at a minor hockey camp?
CTV
The parents of young Ontario hockey player Ben Teague have been searching for answers since he died while at a team retreat in 2019. The mystery about what happened and the code of silence in hockey culture is explored in CTV W5's 'What Happened to Ben,' on CTVNews.ca and W5's official YouTube channel.
Our story on the life and death of Ben Teague began with a tip.
In the summer of 2022, I received a phone call suggesting that I learn more about a lawsuit filed by a family who lived in Oakville. Greg and Susan Teague’s 17-year-old son Ben had died during a team bonding event in September 2019.
The Teagues had filed a $1-million wrongful death lawsuit against the Oakville Rangers Hockey Club, the team’s coaches, the Ontario Minor Hockey Association and the YMCA camp where Ben had died. No media had reported on their claim.
Over the past year, since reporting on a scandal about an alleged sexual assault involving Team Canada junior hockey players, a day doesn’t go by without someone emailing or sending me a direct message on Twitter that usually begins, “You should look into…”
There are so many suggestions, we have to carefully choose the stories in which we make an investment of time and resources.
I obtained the Teague’s 12-page statement of claim, filed on Jan. 26, 2022. It detailed how Ben and his teammates had allegedly been drinking alcohol at a team-supervised event and that Ben had died after going into medical distress during the middle of the night.
