On 30 December 2022, a match official took to the ice for a hockey match in the British Columbia Hockey League. The match was overseen by BC Hockey, the provincial governing body for the sport. It wasn’t the only hockey game this particular official was on the ice for that week. There was another on 3 January 2023, and again on 6 January. On 7 January he took charge of a high school game in the local area.

Business as usual. What was unusual was that the official was under investigation by Hockey Canada’s investigatory “independent third party” (ITP) following a rape allegation and was under an interim suspension that should have prevented him from being anywhere near the ice.

Yet here he was. The match official had ignored suspension issued on behalf of the governing body for the sport in Canada because, according to correspondence seen by the Guardian, he believed the ban emailed by the ITP was a scam.

The match official faced no consequences for ignoring the suspension. In fact, the suspension would later be reduced so he could fulfil wider gameday commitments. The person who filed the rape complaint was bewildered by the inaction but things were about to get even worse.

The suspension fiasco was just one episode of an excruciating and harrowing process experienced by Jessica Gaertner, the woman who filed the rape allegation against the match official through Hockey Canada’s reporting system.

Gaertner’s eye-opening experience navigating the muddled path victims of assault and abuse must walk to seek justice through sports organizations has led to the extraordinary recommendation that victims avoid reporting abuse through sports organizations.

“I don’t know how this process can be considered acceptable,” Amelia Cline, a lawyer who also performs advocacy work with lobby group Gymnasts for Change, told the Guardian. “I have seen dozens of people go through these complaint processes who end up depressed, suicidal, and absolutely destroyed. It’s unconscionable and I don’t know how we are continuing this process. It’s just awful.”

Gaertner recalls one part of her process where she was asked to participate in a hearing where she would be cross-examined by her alleged rapist about the incident.

“I was dumbfounded,” Gaertner told the Guardian. “Had I known this would be part of the process, I would never have filed the complaint and I cannot encourage others to engage in reporting abuse either.”

Gaertner is one of many advocates and athletes in Canada calling for reform in how assault and abuse in sports is managed by sports organizations and ITPs. An ITP is an outside entity hired by a sports organization to manage claims of abuse or wrongdoing. ITPs are usually lawyers or legal firms and claim independence from the sports organizations even though they are paid by the body they are acting for. Gaertner has added her voice to a call – so far ignored – for the Canadian government to launch a national inquiry to investigate rampant sexual, physical and emotional abuse across many sports in the country.

In 2006, Gaertner, aged 18 and in her second year of university, was asleep at home in her bed when a man entered her room and raped her. As she wrote in an account of the assault seen by the Guardian (and published with Gaertner’s permission) she “froze” in the moments that followed and “will never stop questioning why I didn’t fight or scream”.

The Guardian has reviewed multiple documents related to the incident including reports, emails, and text messages from witnesses, police and private investigators. The Guardian has also seen correspondence between BC Hockey, Hockey Canada and lawyers representing different parties involved in the case and reviewed audio of interviews between a Hockey Canada ITP investigator and witnesses to the alleged assault.

The identity of the match official – referred to as “the respondent” by ITP investigators – is known by the Guardian. We are declining to publish his name and additional details of the alleged rape because the allegation is subject to an active investigation by police in Canada.

While Gaertner is not formally involved in the sport herself, her family is and some have participated in or attend events in which the match official was – and continues to be – present. The match official oversees games in multiple leagues, including competitive matches between high school girls’ teams.

Last year, during Gaertner’s testimony before a Canadian parliamentary hearing investigating abuse in sports, she described her experience reporting her rape through channels recommended by sports organizations. Gaertner ripped the lid off the often secretive and controversial process involved in reporting abuse and assault to sports organizations.

“My identity was not protected,” she said in her testimony. “My name and the allegation were simply emailed to the respondent with no safety or risk assessment carried out. I was left vulnerable and exposed. I was discouraged from reporting to the police until the investigation had finished, despite frequently stating I wished to do so.”

Hockey Canada’s Maltreatment Complaint Management Policy states “should the investigator find that there are possible instances of offence under the Criminal Code … the investigator shall advise the Complainant and the ITP that it must refer the matter to police.” Gaertner was also required to sign a confidentiality agreement prior to the launch of the ITP investigation which prohibited her from disclosing to anyone that the process was taking place.

“I was strictly forbidden from speaking about this while going through it,” Gaertner said in a statement provided to the Guardian. “I was told that I could not disclose any aspect of the complaint or the process to anyone, not even the fact that the complaint existed.”

Gaertner initially submitted her allegation to BC Hockey in September 2021. The report was forwarded to Sport Complaints – Hockey Canada’s ITP administrator – as one of multiple historical complaints forwarded by BC Hockey to the ITP at the time. Sport Complaints found that the allegation was within its jurisdiction and assigned a case manager to investigate the report.

What followed was a minefield of missteps with little or no regard for the well being of Gaertner or her family. In another example, documentation intended to be sent to the match official included Gaertner’s full name. Gaertner negotiated for her unmarried name to instead appear in any documentation. Subsequent correspondence used both initials and her unmarried name.

Almost three months after Gaertner made her report to BC Hockey, a Sport Complaints representative contacted her to say that no response had yet been received to emails sent to the match official that detailed the allegation. The seriousness of the case meant that the match official could not be suspended from any duties until a live conversation with an investigator had taken place.

A suspension was eventually imposed but the match official continued to officiate at local hockey games. The official was allowed to be on the ice for a match at a high school during his suspension because the game did not fall under Hockey Canada’s jurisdiction – even though the specific location was part of the suspension.

A months-long investigation – including interviews with Gaertner, the official, and multiple witnesses around the 2006 event – led to the ITP investigator concluding that Gaertner’s rape allegation was uncontested and there was no reason to doubt her story. The catch was the investigator believed there was insufficient evidence to confirm that the official was the man who raped Gaertner. The match official denied the allegation and, according to the investigator, the incident was a case of “she said-he said”.

The ITP investigation was then passed on to an adjudicator who requested a hearing for May 2023. Gaertner was expected to face her alleged assailant and answer questions from him about her complaint. “The parties will be provided with an opportunity to ask questions of one another to supplement their written submissions,” correspondence related to the hearing detailed. “The parties will be able to see each other on the screen – they will each see the other party, any legal counsel present and the adjudicator.”

“Their intent was to have an alleged rapist sit down in front of a victim and allow the victim to be cross-examined by him,” Gaertner told the Guardian.

In March, Gaertner had contacted local police, who launched their own investigation. Fearing evidence to be used by police would be compromised if disclosed to the match official during the ITP investigation, Gaertner wrote to the ITP requesting her original complaint be suspended pending the police investigation. She also requested the ITP not inform the match official of the police investigation until law enforcement had spoken to him. The ITP adjudicator denied the request, claiming that delaying the case would cause trauma for the match official and “exacerbate his pain and suffering”.

As part of the process, ITP informed the official that the reason for the request to suspend the complaint was because of a police investigation – the first time this was made known to him. The adjudicator claimed it would be “unfair” to not disclose the police investigation and that delaying the proceedings would be “unjust”.

In July 2023, the ITP lifted the match official’s suspension – before the adjudication process was complete. Coincidentally, at the same time, he was listed on the BC Hockey League match official roster for the upcoming season. The previous month, the BC Hockey league had split from the Hockey Canada system and is now considered a non-sanctioned league by the governing body.

“The ITP [lifted the suspension] while knowing that he was still under investigation by police for sexual assault,” Gaertner told the Guardian. “The respondent knew he was under investigation. I cannot rationalize how they could make such an egregious decision.”

In August, police referred the case to the British Columbia Crown prosecution service. An assessment of criminal charges is pending. With no trust in Hockey Canada or the ITP’s process, Gaertner decided to officially withdraw her original complaint and rely on the legal system.

“I was not going to put the criminal matter at risk while Hockey Canada’s ITP had clearly shown the result would be much the same as the status quo – no sanctions, no record, no accountability, nothing,” Gaertner said. “We notified Hockey Canada and [new Minister of Sport and Physical Activity] Carla Qualtrough of the withdrawal, as well as the new Hockey Canada CEO Katherine Henderson. [Hockey Canada chairman at the time] Hugh Fraser responded with a ‘Sorry you had a bad experience but it’s the ITP’s issue’”.

A Sport Complaints website has no public-facing contact details. At the time of publication, a lawyer associated with Sport Complaints had not responded to a request for comment. Hockey Canada did not respond to requests for Sport Complaints contact details nor respond to requests for comment on the case.

Hockey Canada has a troubled history with abuse within the sport it governs. In 2022, the Canadian government froze funding to the organization over how it handled a 2018 incident where a woman claimed she was assaulted by members of the country’s gold medal-winning world junior hockey team at a gala and golf function.

Many sponsors jumped ship and it was revealed the organization had paid a public relations company over USD$1m to manage the crisis. The woman eventually won a financial settlement from the organization. A 2022 Canadian government parliamentary committee hearing learned Hockey Canada had paid over USD$6m in 21 sex abuse settlements since 1989. The entire Hockey Canada board of directors resigned in 2022.

Almost every organized sport in Canada has been hit with allegations of abuse. The Guardian has previously reported on scandals across many sports that exposed abusive coaches and institutional mismanagement of abuse by national sporting organizations. “Abuse is a dirty hidden secret in sports and what people are seeing is the tip of the iceberg,” Kirsty Duncan, the former deputy leader of government in Canada’s House of Commons, told the Guardian at the time.

Canada is set to be a co-host of the 2026 Fifa World Cup where soccer’s governing body in the country has been embroiled in its own scandal over its handling of abuse complaints. The 2022 McLaren Independent Canada Soccer Review found Canada Soccer leadership in 2008 ended the relationship with the Under-20 women’s team coach by “mutual agreement”, did not disclose the full reasons for the coach’s exit, and kept no written record of an investigation into his conduct after allegations of sexual harassment of players. That leadership included current Concacaf president Victor Montagliani and former General Secretary Peter Montopoli, now a 2026 World Cup executive. In 2022, the coach was jailed for 18 months after pleading guilty to three counts of sexual assault and one count of touching a young person for a sexual purpose.

The issues are not just in Canada. The US Center for SafeSport, tasked with protecting athletes in the United States from abuse, has also been criticized for failing to meet its purpose. Last year, over 100 professional soccer players – including the entire US women’s national team – wrote to US Congress highlighting concerns with the organization’s effectiveness. “We believe that as it stands today, SafeSport is failing in what it was meant to achieve,” the players’ letter said.

Amelia Cline, who took up Gaertner’s case last year after hearing her present evidence to one of the Canadian parliamentary hearings on abuse in sports, said she struggles to recommend victims of abuse report their experiences to sports organizations with the current system in place.

“I will tell them that reporting to a sports organization is an option but they need to be very well informed that it is going to be a hellish process that is probably going to retraumatize them and probably not going to end with anything satisfactory,” she said.

“I absolutely can’t recommend it in its current iteration. These ITPs are making a ton of money on the back of survivors. They don’t [result in] abusers and perpetrators being kicked out of the sports system. In fact, it is the opposite as in this case where the complaint is withdrawn and there is no accountability. The whole system needs to be overhauled.”