Bob Gainey has broken his silence after the death of his daughter Laura almost a year ago, recounting how his grief shifted to anger when an inquiry concluded she was simply an "unlucky victim" when she was swept off the tall ship Picton Castle.
The general manager of the Montreal Canadiens, in an emotional interview with The Canadian Press, said he can't accept that little could have been done to prevent Ms. Gainey's death during a North Atlantic gale.
"What happened at the end, it's ugly, it smells, it's not right, it's dishonest," Mr. Gainey said, referring to the work of a board of inquiry based in the Cook Islands, the South Pacific country where the ship is registered.
An interview with Mr. Gainey will be broadcast on CBC TV's the fifth estate tonight.
The source of Mr. Gainey's indignation is the stark contrast between the board's findings and the conclusions of an earlier probe conducted by retired U.S. navy officer Andy Scheer.
Mr. Gainey said he was stunned when he learned that virtually all of the serious safety concerns raised in Mr. Scheer's investigation, including evidence that his 25-year-old daughter had hardly slept during the 20 hours before the accident, were passed over or rejected by the Cook Islands inquiry.
Both documents were obtained by the Gainey family.
Mr. Scheer, a marine safety consultant living in Florida, was hired by the Cook Islands to investigate the incident, but five months after his work was submitted, a separate marine board of inquiry changed course.
Its report concluded Ms. Gainey's fatigue couldn't be proven as a factor in the accident; the crew worked "regular" shifts, staffing levels weren't an issue and the crew was "well trained" in man-overboard procedures.
The final report, dated July 13, offers no firm recommendations. A slightly revised version issued in August recommended that harnesses be used.
"No silver bullet was identified whereby if any one thing or things had been done differently it would have certainly saved Laura Gainey's life," concluded the July 13 report.
"Laura Gainey was an unlucky victim of the risk that she took by electing to go to sea."
Her father, speaking in his office at the Bell Centre in Montreal, left no doubt how he feels about the final report.
"Through our legal help, we were in touch with them and told them ... 'This isn't going to fly with us,' " said the burly, 53-year-old member of the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Garth Broadhead, who led the Cook Islands marine board inquiry, said the Picton Castle will receive a safety audit next year, but he stands by the final report. When asked why the two investigations produced drastically different findings, Mr. Broadhead would say only that the board received "a huge amount of information" after the Scheer report was published.
Daniel Moreland, captain and part-owner of the Picton Castle, declined to comment on the probes.