Hockey Canada is "100 per cent behind" the naming of Shane Doan as captain of Team Canada, the organization's president told parliamentarians Thursday, amid allegations that the player had made an anti-French remark to a francophone linesman.

Although Bob Nicholson told the committee that the National Hockey League found no evidence Doan even made the remark, reported during an NHL game in Montreal in December 2005, Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe still wasn't satisfied.

Hockey Canada chief Bob Nicholson, shown on Parliament Hill on Thursday, told the committee that Shane Doan does not deserve the treatment he has received from federal politicians.
(Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)

Duceppe said Doan should not be captain while there are still two outstanding defamation suits related to the alleged anti-French slur.

"When someone robs a bank, he's presumed innocent until proven guilty — but I don't know many people who'd name them bank manager while the trial's still on," Duceppe said.

"They want to name him captain even before the verdict comes in. It makes no sense. It's an insult to Quebecers."

Earlier in the week, the Bloc Québécois demanded Doan's removal as captain of the team, now playing at the World Hockey Championship in Russia. All parties supported a motion to allow members of the official languages committee to ask about the appointment process.

'That's what you call racial profiling.' —BQ Leader Gilles Duceppe on Doan's latest comments

Officials working the game claimed the Alberta-born right-winger for the Phoenix Coyotes said to one of them, "f---ing Frenchmen did a good job."

Nicholson told the committee in Ottawa: "There's no question those words were said on the ice," but added: "According to all the information we've heard, [Doan] did not say that."

Nicholson also said: "We've done our research and feel very comfortable with the information we have today."

Duceppe down on Doan

Doan said on Wednesday he was trying to calm down goalie Curtis Joseph when linesman Michel Cormier thought he heard the Phoenix Coyotes captain utter a slur against francophones. Doan said that, as Joseph hovered around centre ice, he skated over and yelled: "Four French referees in Montreal, Cuje, figure it out."

But Duceppe said Thursday that comment is also unacceptable.  

"That's what you call racial profiling," Duceppe said.

Duceppe also defended the decision to bring the issue to Parliament.

 "It's our duty to ask those questions. If it pleases Hockey Canada or not, or some newspapers in Canada, I just don't mind.

 "We're doing our duty, and we'll do our duty because we're among those taxpayers and we don't want to be second-class citizens."

Stands by his player

Nicholson told the committee he has known Doan for 14 years, and that the player does not deserve the treatment he has received from federal politicians.

Doan, meanwhile, has launched a defamation suit against Liberal MP Denis Coderre for $250,000, and the former cabinet minister has counter-sued.

"When you start to criticize an individual who is a proud Canadian that goes over there, represents every youngster in this game of hockey in our country, and we put him through what we put him through, just before the Olympics, and now … I get very emotional," said Nicholson.

He told the committee that Hockey Canada wanted to "protect Shane Doan" amid a controversy that has taken a toll on the player, his wife and their four children.

René Marcil, chair of the board at Hockey Canada, said the controversy is "upsetting the concentration of our team" as it plays in Russia.

He also said French Canada is well represented in the organization.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who was in British Columbia on Thursday, suggested enough has been said about the Doan captaincy issue and it's time to move on.

"Whatever's been needed to be aired has been aired. I think common sense now has prevailed and what Canadians want is to get on with supporting Team Canada."

 

With files from the Canadian Press