He won't have to say "Oops" because being found not guilty doesn't make them innocent. Legal innocent isn't the same as actual innocence. Westhead has done his homework. He knows damn well they're guilty in terms of what actually took place.
he doesn't know anymore than you as he wasn't there
she also said she consented iirc
She didn't consent to a gang bang.
a court will make that determination
And its determination will not be relevant to whether or not these players ever earn another NHL paycheck, nor should it be. The slippery slope is already there. It began with "It never happened" and has already morphed into "Well yeah, it happened, but she consented."
You are conflating two issues, guilt and employment. Employers are pussies now and are afraid of X.
Again you seem to think that legal technicalities matter. Everyone already knows that it's practically impossible to prove rape in court. That doesn't mean that everyone doesn't already know that the rape happened. A not guilty verdict will not save the career of any of the accused players because regardless of what happens in court everyone still knows they did it.
You know what else won't affect me in the least? The disbanding of Hockey Canada or, at minimum, a refusal on the part of the federal government to permanently cut off their funding of Hockey Canada. But heaven forfend that the "stick to sports" people don't have that Canada VS Belarus game to watch on Boxing Day.
Hockey Canada is not just international hockey, it is also all hockey down to little tykes, it is the overseer for all provinces, rules about transfers between provinces etc.
Do you honestly think that amateur hockey will cease to exist if HC is destroyed? How did literally every single amateur player in Canada who started playing organized hockey prior to 1968 when HC was founded manage to survive?
It is far different now, that is like saying, why do you need a car, people in 1920 didn't.
But you have no issue with the fact that a portion of the dues you paid to HC all those years went to a fund designed to sweep rapes under the carpet?
It also pays for insurance (and this was an insurance case) etc. I don't get to choose where my tax dollars are spent (like 10 million to Arar), how is that different?
Players as a mass group aren't the problem. The problem is the culture perpetuated by bodies like HC, who look the other way when players misbehave or give it a nudge and a wink. The players take their cues from the adults. This is why the entire rotten house needs to be bulldozed. The body rots from the head down.
when people yap about hockey culture, all are being thrown under the bus
Well perhaps if amateur hockey wasn't run by the dinosaurs at HC the culture would evolve and better reflect values like "don't be a rapist".
I wonder if Westhead will do an expose on this story https://www.nbcsports.com/nba/news/...nsion-after-plea-on-domestic-violence-charges and about domestic violence culture in the NBA (after all there is a team in Toronto so it does pertain to Canada).
