Hockey Canada Revises Bylaws Based On Cromwell Report
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By Ava Tremblay
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Summary
- Hockey Canada revises and approves multiple bylaws on Oct 15
- These bylaws were passed based on recommendations from the Cromwell report
- The new bylaws will help Hockey Canada make changes to rebuild its reputation
Last week, Hockey Canada saw its CEO Scott Smith and its entire board of directors tend in their resignation after being subjected to on-going over the organization’s cover-up of a sexual assault complaint.
Hockey Canada Revises and Approves Multiple Bylaws
On Oct 15, Hockey Canada held a special meeting and then decided to revise and approve multiple bylaws. The revised bylaws are a step in the right direction as Hockey Canada looks to elect a new board and rebuild its reputation and regain trust across Canada.
The revised bylaws were made based on recommendations Thomas Cromwell, an ex-justice of the Supreme Court who put together a detailed report spanning 103 pages of what went wrong at Hockey Canada and their cover up of the sexual assault complaint. The key findings of the Cromwell report shows that Hockey Canada failed in their responsibilities due to a lack of proper leadership from the top down.
Key Recommendations Made By Cromwell
Some of the key recommendations made by Cromwell in his interim report includes electing an interim or a transition board initially and having members serve for a period of 12 months only. The key responsibilities of the transition board is to focus on urgent tasks which are yet to be outlined.
Cromwell has also recommended prepending the deadline for electing the transition board to Nov 10 and utilizing a longer timeframe for the approval process of the new transition board members. His report has also recommended that the board increase the number of directors from nine to thirteen, delaying the tenure of board members so that only 1/3rd of board member positions are up for re-election in a calendar year.
Cromwell has also recommended that the board be made up of not more than 60 percent of any gender. These recommendations did not face any major challenges from Hockey Canada and it now looks like the new board will meet all of these new requirements.
Hockey Canada Looking To Rebuild Trust
The big challenge for Hockey Canada and its new transition board will be to win back the trust of the Canadian hockey loving public. Hockey Canada will look to be more transparent with its handling of sexual misconduct complaints and allegations and make a lot of internal reports public in the coming months.
