Sponsors drop, funding pulled as Hockey Canada botches crisis management efforts

They say money talks.

And Hockey Canada’s sponsors have been doing a lot of talking this week.

Scotiabank, Telus, and Canadian Tire have all paused or redirected funds, in light of recent horrific sexual assault allegations by several players on one of Team Canada’s junior hockey teams.

Canada’s highest level of government, led by Federal Minister of Sport Pascale St-Onge, also took a decisive stand by pulling their funding and enforcing strict new protocols.

The subsequent discovery that Hockey Canada failed to properly conduct an investigation into the assault, covered it up and paid off the victim, sounded an alarm that set off a domino-effect on a sport that’s been long overdue for a reckoning.

This news comes on the heels of an already dwindling viewership, and drastically declining registration numbers, across Canada.

Hockey is a sport grappling with its identity. Struggling to define its values. Failing, in so many ways, to connect with its communities and inspire the next generation.

Racism, sexism, homophobia, discrimination, misogyny, systemic abuse and now, criminal behaviour, run rampant. It’s been our nation’s “dirty secret”, of sorts. Widely acknowledged from minor leagues to the pros, and somehow just quietly accepted.

Knowing all of this, it’s difficult to try and comprehend why Hockey Canada would try to resolve its issues by double-downing on its antiquated attitude.

Hockey Canada may be demonstrating the most botched crisis management effort in recent sports history.

Swiftly aligning themselves with the likes of Larry Nassar, and the sex abuse scandal that rocked USA Gymnastics.

There are the obvious moral and ethical failings, and then there is the crisis management campaign. Rather, the lack thereof.

The appearance of CEO Tom Renney and other Hockey Canada executives at the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage meeting, crystallized for the public the beliefs of those in positions of power.

The utter lack of accountability, the lack of transparency, the lack of diversity among leadership. It was a public relations and communications disaster, and a national embarrassment.

Two fundamental principles of issues management are transparency and accountability.

We’ve seen neither.

Statements such as “we notified Sport Canada as is our obligation” and “we settled the claim quickly because we felt a moral obligation” beg the question — who approved this messaging? Who supports this messaging?

A problem cannot be resolved if those leading the charge all look, think and act the same. You need people of differing backgrounds, with varying experiences and points of view to adequately address issues outside of your purview. And you need outside counsel to identify your blind spots.

Long gone are the days of public relations teams deploying “cover up jobs” as a primary resolution strategy.

Today’s modern PR professional understands the fundamental need to prioritize and integrate social justice into their work — and let me be crystal clear on the matter, profits and ethics are not mutually exclusive.

You don’t need to trade in one for the other. In fact, quite the opposite is true, as we’ve seen companies invested in social justice issues outperforming those who are not. Side note: this doesn’t require performative marketing/advertising efforts.

I cannot help but wonder how differently this situation with Hockey Canada could have gone, if it was managed by competent, principled professionals.

Not only could they have simply done the right thing, but they could have proactively managed the incident to prevent it from escalating and causing further damages to the organization.

Crisis management is critical for business continuity, employee morale and revenues.

For shareholders, sponsors and consumers, the message to Hockey Canada is clear: you are not managing this crisis properly.

Hockey culture — and Hockey Canada — need a major overhaul… and they need a better crisis management team, too.