MONTREAL — Canadian Press Published on Friday, Dec. 22, 2006 7:44PM EST Last updated on Tuesday, Apr. 07, 2009 3:49AM EDT
Despite a league ban on team initiations, the chairman of the scandal-wracked Joliette Action junior hockey team insists they are a legitimate bonding experience.
Initiations are a good way of integrating rookies — as long as whatever happens is consensual, Sylvain Frechette said Friday.
But Frechette said he agrees with the Quebec Junior AAA Hockey League that once "all necessary information" is known about the team's controversial initiation in September, unspecified disciplinary action will be taken.
The furor concerns a videotape that appears to show excessive drinking and obscene acts during an initiation involving players age 17 to 20.
The tape was uncovered after the girlfriend of a team member heard she had been filmed, without her knowledge or consent, in a sexual encounter with her then-boyfriend, an Action player.
The girl's father then confronted the player, who turned over three tapes. At that point, another woman complained she had been sexually assaulted by another Action player.
Quebec provincial police arrested four players and issued summonses to three of them to appear in Quebec court — one for sexual assault and two others for voyeurism in the videotaping of the sexual encounter.
The fourth player was released without being charged.
Frechette, a lawyer, said he has spoken to the player named in the sexual assault charge and to a witness, and both say the sex was consensual.
When it comes to the surreptitious filming of a player having sex with his girlfriend without her knowledge, Frechette said, "If a criminal act was committed, evidently we will act."
Frechette pointed out the league has banned initiations "where players are forced to do things they don't want to do."
"The term we use is a 'meeting' between veterans and rookies where things happen to bring the team together and foster team spirit."
Team management has no control over the consumption of alcohol because it happens "outside regular team hours or practice."
"Don't forget, these are young men aged 17 to 20 and I am not their father. We are not behind them every minute."
If team management gets to see the cassette, however, "it is obvious we'll proceed with sanctions, as the league said," Frechette said.
No penalties have been imposed.
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