TSN’s Rick Westhead discusses Canada’s troubled hockey culture

TSN’s Rick Westhead joins Ian White to discuss his book, ‘We Breed Lions,’ which looks at Canada’s hockey culture.

The trial and acquittal last summer of five former members of Canada’s 2018 World Junior hockey team was just one example of the troubled culture in hockey, according to author Rick Westhead.

Westhead chronicles a series of unseemly, abusive and occasionally criminal incidents in his new book, We Breed Lions: Confronting Canada’s Troubled Hockey Culture.

“If I was the parent of one of these players, I’d be deeply ashamed,” Westhead told CTV News.

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And he’s not just referring to those who went on trial.

There were as many as 11 players in a hotel room in London, Ont., with a young woman that night in 2018.

Westhead got an anonymous tip about the incident in 2022 and broke the story for TSN.

He says he’s taken pains to demonstrate that the accusations of sexual assault weren’t an isolated incident.

“I wound up interviewing 58 junior hockey players who either player tier-two junior or major junior hockey in the last ten years,” Westhead said.

Those players told him of similar incidents of abuse, assault, hazing and 16-year-olds drinking to excess.