McGill University, the Canadian university that is home to the hazing ritual known as Dr. Broom, has had the hammer dropped on them by the Quebec Student Sport Federation in the wake of the aforementioned Dr, Broom hazing scandal. To refresh your memory about the good doctor…
An 18-year-old rookie alleged he was sexually assaulted with a broomstick by a veteran player while others looked on and cheered. The rookie filed a complaint and left the university shortly afterwards.
Anyway, McGill has been fined $30,000, its team has been banned from having any home games televised in 2006 or 2007, they’ve been banned from hosting a Quebec conference playoff game in 2006, and the team will be on probation for a year.
I don’t know how McGill ranks within Canadian college football programs, but if this were to happen in the states the NCAA would probably not even bat an eyelash.
Earlier this week, I commended McGill University for canceling the remainder of its football season in the wake of the “Dr.Broom” hazing scandal. It turns out there were only two games left in their regular season.
Not only that, but it’s also wreaking havoc on the schedules of other universities in their league.
I realize that hindsight is 20/20 but looking back what they should have done was kicked the offenders off the team and let the rest of the players play out the remainder of the season.
Looking back, that would have been even more punishment for the offenders to watch their teammates play as they sit the rest of the season out. But at least McGill took some actions instead of none at all.
Just another article about McGill University canceling the remainder of their football season but check out some of these quotes from the players and coaches…
Mr. McMann, the head coach, acknowledged yesterday that his players’ hazing went too far, but he was disappointed with the university’s punishment.
“I feel very upset for the players,” he said when reached at his office. “I understand where the university is coming from. They need to make a strong statement. But I don’t like it. I think the players have been punished enough.”
Punished enough? Have the players had their asses probed with broomsticks? Well, actually they have…
Team quarterback Matt Connell also expressed anger over the findings, saying the hazing ritual dates back years, and all the rookies except the complainant went along with it.
“It happened to me. It’s a quick part of initiation,” he said, scoffing at the revelations of nudity.
“It’s football. You’re naked together 24-7 in the locker room,” Mr. Connell said. “Everyone’s naked together all day.”
Um….yeah. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything that sounded gayer. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. This guy sounds like he’s so far in the closet he’s finding Christmas presents.
Anyway, the “It happened to me” defense is so wrong. That’s like saying “Well I was raped so it’s ok for me to be a rapist”.
McGill University has canceled the remainder of its football season in the wake of a report that confirmed hazing had indeed occurred after a rookie player alleged that he was anally probed in a hazing ritual known as Dr. Broom…
The university said its investigation concluded that “serious hazing including threats and intimidation, by comments and actions and by the use of demeaning, stereotyped epithets” did occur during Rookie Night on Aug. 27.
Interim provost Anthony Masi said contrary to some reports, there was no evidence of sodomy. But the university said the investigation “shows that the event did involve nudity, degrading positions and behaviours, gagging, touching in inappropriate manners with a broomstick, as well as verbal and physical intimidation of rookies by a large portion of the team.”
“This behaviour of the football team has stained the reputation of the McGill Redmen, McGill Athletics, and the university,” the university said in a release Tuesday.
The University also said that they would be taking disciplinary actions against certain unnamed individuals.
I applaud the University for canceling the rest of the season but when the team has a 1-5 record it would almost be punishment enough to make them play out the rest of the season.
How’s this for timing? McGill University has been named the only Canadian University in Playboy Magazine’s Top 10 Party Schools.
In case you’ve forgotten, McGill University is in the middle of a hazing scandal where a rookie football player has accused veteran players of anally probing him with a broom handle in a ritual known as “Dr. Broom”.
I never knew that sexual sadism was one of Playboy’s requirements for a party school.
Members of the McGill University Redmen football team, including indefinitely suspended member James Poston and 20 team veterans, have sent a formal letter of apology to the unnamed victim of the “Dr. Broom” hazing ritual…
“It was never mine or the team’s intention to humiliate or ostracize any member of our team brotherhood,” the letter from Mr. Poston says. “The long-standing ritual is designed to be a team bonding experience which all members of the team underwent, it is not designed to be a hazing ritual driving new team members away.
There’s a long-standing ritual of anally probing someone with a broomstick? How is that designed to be a team bonding experience? I guess along the lines of “We all share this horrible shame and let’s never speak of it again.” kind of bonding experience.
They say it’s not designed to be hazing. Right. And Jack the Ripper’s knife was designed to cut the crust off of bread. The letter continues…
“However, we fully [accept] that the emotional and psychological stress it induces may not be the best way to forge relationships with new team members.”
No real news out of McGill University in Canada. Just that the administration is saying that no further disciplinary action will be taken until their internal investigation is completed. What I found interesting was this quote from team captain Matt Connell…
The captain of the McGill Redmen, quarterback Matt Connell, called the player’s allegation a “complete lie,” although he did say rookies were taken to the squash courts.
Connell told the Montreal Gazette he feels it’s unfair to scapegoat one player.
“(The initiation) was a team event, 98 per cent of the team was there and everyone was partaking. What we’ve been reading in the media has been one-sided, allegations from one individual, guarantee we’ve learned a hard lesson and have paid a big enough price already.”
Connell said the headlines have taken a toll on the team.
“Personally, I’ve been one of the people targeted and I haven’t been able to make one class this week,” he said.
“I’ve been dealing with the press non-stop. It’s been difficult, but at least with football, it’s a few hours to clear our minds.”
Saying that the rookies were taken to the squash court and nothing happened is kind of like Jeffrey Dahmer saying “I lured those men back to my house, but I have no idea how they ended up in my fridge.”
And the allegations may be from one individual, but how many more over the years have been too afraid to come forward. I mean, we’ve already heard previously how the victim was even warned about “Dr. Broom”. And boo freakin’ hoo that you haven’t been able to make it to class. The poor rookie has dropped out of McGill because of what your team allegedly did.
You know, I wonder if Mr. Connell had to endure any probing from Dr. Broom when he was a rookie.
It seems that forced sodomy disguised as boys being boys isn’t limited to American high schools.
Now it seems Canadian Colleges have been doing it for years. It turns out that McGill University in Montreal has a nasty little “tradition” known as “Dr. Broom”.
An 18-year-old player states that he was assaulted by veteran players of the McGill Redmen football team. Rather than give you a breakdown of the situation, I’ll just repost quotes from this article from The Globe and Mail…
On Aug. 27, the last day of training camp, he said all the newcomers were told they had to go to the campus dining hall. Veterans announced they’d be subjected to their “examination” that night.
Toward the end of the meal, he said, one of the veterans entered the room clutching a broom. “The veterans were shouting ‘broom, broom, broom,’” he recalled. Meanwhile, two rookies were singled out to simulate oral sex on one another in their boxer shorts, he said.
After being ordered to take off their shirts, he said, everyone was ordered outside, told to hold hands, and sing as they skipped down to the gym.
“They [the veterans] were taunting us, saying, ‘Look at the fairies. Look at the gays,’” the rookie recalled.
He added that all the rookies were ordered toward the campus’s darkened squash courts and told to hold a penny on the wall with their nose.
“They said, “Drop the penny, and it’s another inch with Dr. Broom,’” the teenager recalled. “Then one by one, they took us out of the room. I was taken out to another room.”
In the second squash court, six football veterans were present while another group was in the stands, pelting him with large exercise balls and jeering. The rookie was told to take off his pants. Three times, he said he refused. Finally, he was threatened.
“One of them said, ‘Do it or we’ll do it for you.’ I said ‘No, I wasn’t raised that way.’ They said it doesn’t matter.”
The rookie said he relented, dropping his pants but keeping on his boxer shorts. He said he was put on his hands and knees and told to bite down on a dog chew toy made of rope. Then they began counting down as they held a broom handle.
“They were poking me on either side of my buttocks cheeks,” he said. “Then, they made contact with my rectum with it. They were kind of pushing back and forth and applying pressure.”
He was not penetrated with the broomstick, but it did hurt, he said.
Could that whole ritual be any more homoerotic? Actually, I take that back because these “rituals” are an insult to homosexuals. But seriously, what is with athlete’s obsession to humiliate their younger teammates with these prison rape fantasy rituals?
And of course, the team captain is denying such allegations…
The captain of the McGill Redmen football team has said although rookies were taken to the squash courts, the allegation is a “complete lie.”
“We would never do anything like that, ever — no alcohol, no one was completely naked, no one ever complained until now,” said Matt Connell.
“Anal probing of any sort happened to absolutely nobody,” Connell told CBC Radio in Montreal on Thursday.
And what did the school do?
Redmen coach Chuck McMann suspended five players for one game and one player indefinitely for breaking team rules.
Do schools actually expel anybody anymore?
At the time that the article was printed no charges had been filed yet.
