I mentioned on Friday that I didn't expect the Ottawa Senators to do anything with Randy Lee after his arrest, but I was hoping they would actually do the right thing:
“Considering things like this come up frequently in sports without any repercussions for the accused/convicted, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the Senators try to sweep this under the rug and pretend it never happened. Lee has been with the organization since 1995, and I bet they will do everything in their power to keep him.
On the other hand, I hope that they pleasantly surprise me and let him go. He should have been fired for his job performance already, but if you really want to set an example for zero tolerance, then this would be a good place to start. I know that many people won’t see this as a big issue, but it is. NHL teams always talk about getting the right “character” guys, and Lee is second in command for measuring their character? That makes no sense.”
My hunch was right, and even though I had low expectations, I was still extremely let down by the organization after seeing their announcement today:
Like I said on Friday, this was a predictable outcome, as players and off-ice staff in sports are rarely ever punished as harshly as a normal person would be. Of course nobody but the people who were there knows exactly what happened, but we do know that allegations similar to these are rarely a complete fabrication. And in fact, it’s dangerous to always disregard these allegations as false, because then it creates a culture where people (usually women) are afraid to say anything because they know that nobody will believe them.
If for some reason you want to put your trust in this man (who most of you do not know), then that is fine, you are allowed to do so. I’ll believe the young man who brought up these allegations, but that’s just me. What is not okay though is the Senators completely disregarding this situation as if it is nothing. While I was initially advocating for his firing a few days ago, I understand why the team would want to wait for due process and see what comes of the case.
However, the Senators are not even waiting to see what happens: they’re already assuming his innocence. Or worse, they don’t care even if he is guilty. And yes, he is not convicted yet and he still has some presumption of innocence, but that is what administrative leave is for. All they had to do today was say something like this:
He would still be able to get paid because they don’t want to punish him if he is actually innocent. However, by sweeping this under the rug, it is a massive slap in the face to the young man that had to endure this harassment, and a slap in the face to every person who has been harassed (sexually or not). The Senators statement just shows that they do not care about this situation whatsoever, and it’s an indictment on their character.
And the thing is, as Nate pointed out, it’s not that hard to handle this properly! Suspending Lee would have gotten the widespread approval of everyone, because it wouldn’t be too harsh but they’d be at least noting that they take this seriously.
Obviously Twitter is an imperfect way to assess how the hockey fans are reacting to news, but a quick search of “Randy Lee” shows that
there aren’t exactly many people supporting the Senators on this. Not everyone feels that way, but it’s not a good sign when any social media site is unanimous in its belief.
And as my former colleague Beata Elliott notes, supporting the Senators as a fan =/= casually disregarding allegations such as these:
Just because Lee is a part of the Senators does not mean you should support him no matter what, because the reality is we have no idea what kind of person he really is.
It is incredible that the organization will pretend like nothing happened, because Lee was actually arrested and charged, and this isn’t just some rumour. His court date is set for June 22nd, the day of the first round of the draft. It’s another awful day for the PR of the Senators organization, for which there have been far too many recently. And sadly, there may be more to come depending on how the summer shakes out.
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