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Canadian Press
Published on June 26, 2024 • Last updated 12 minutes ago • 2 minutes reading
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MONTREAL — Quebec’s Court of Appeal has dismissed an challenge to the authorization of a class action lawsuit alleging bullying abuse in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League.
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In a ruling Tuesday, Judge Sophie Lavallee said the appeal by the QMJHL, the league’s 18 teams and its umbrella organization — the Canadian Hockey League — did not meet the strict criteria needed to end the lawsuit.
The class action was filed last year by Carl Latulippe, a former minor hockey star from Quebec who went public with alleged abuse while playing for two teams in the mid-1990s.
The lawsuit, which was approved by the Quebec Supreme Court on April 10, seeks $650,000 for Latulippe in damages, including pain, suffering and humiliation, as well as lost productivity and therapy costs, and demands that another $15 million be distributed to other alleged victims.
The league had appealed because the lead applicant, Latulippe, had no connection to “almost all” of the teams affected by the lawsuit. The appeal said the lower court judge erred in concluding that the case must be heard on the merits before determining whether all the league’s teams are jointly liable.
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However, Lavallee said that Supreme Court Justice Jacques Bouchard made no errors in the law and that details about which party may be responsible for the damage would be discussed later.
Lavallee wrote in her opinion that (Bouchard) by “exercising due caution, uses his judgment not to immediately decide this issue.” The issue of joint liability of the league and the other teams is “not a pure question of law,” therefore “it is not an error at the authorization stage to decide that it will be resolved on the merits.”
Those covered by the class action are “all hockey players who experienced abuse while underage and playing in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League since July 1, 1969.” The league was renamed the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League last year.
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Latulippe first made public the alleged abuse he faced in an interview with Montreal’s La Presse last year.
Latulippe, a first-round pick by the Chicoutimi Sagueneens in the 1994 QMJHL draft, has alleged that he was forced by veteran players to undress and masturbate in front of teammates on a team bus during training camp, with the full knowledge of the coaches. He also alleges that team veterans attacked rookies with soap wrapped in towels.
Latulippe left the team shortly after the bus incident and later returned at the coach’s behest, but when discussing the abuse he was told by the coach that the hazing would only last a year and would help build character.
He played six regular season games with the Sagueneens before joining the Drummondville Voltigeurs, where he claims he faced more abuse.
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