We sat on this CBC story for a while to see if Rogers would pick it up.

Nada.

Source:  Thursday.A former lead instructor with the Toronto Blue Jays’ academy for young players faces two charges involving sexual offences against children.

John Douglas Hashimoto, 56, of Hamilton is charged with luring a child under 16 and an invitation to sexual touching, Halton Regional Police said in a release Thursday.

The release said Hashimoto is with the Toronto Blue Jays Baseball Academy, but the MLB team later said in a statement to CBC Hamilton that he’s a former employee.

The statement said the organization is “deeply disturbed to learn of the charges against a former seasonal employee, but as this is an ongoing legal matter, we cannot comment further at this time.”

The Blue Jays said Hashimoto was a seasonal employee with the youth academy from 2006 until early 2020. Spokesperson Jessica Beard said the organization terminated his contract during the pandemic.

As part of his work, the Blue Jays said, he underwent a criminal record check every other year, and was last cleared in November 2019. The team also said annual mandatory training for its baseball instructors requires staff to not be alone with children and youth participants.

Const. Steve Elms, a spokesperson for Halton police, wants anyone who’s had contact with the accused in the past several years to contact them.

“We want to be able to provide support for those victims if they choose to come forward, and obviously we would like to be able to pursue more charges,” he said.

“As a parent myself, you hate seeing this sort of thing any time anybody is in a position of authority over a youth, to see that position of authority being abused. It’s a tragic thing.”

It’s unclear when the investigation started and the allegations first emerged.

Anyone with information should call Det. Todd Martin at 905-825-4747 ext. 8983 or Det. Const. Andrew Hulbert at 905-825-4747 ext. 8974. Both are with the Halton Regional Police Service internet child exploitation unit.

Nothing from the Blue Jays.

Nothing from their parent company, Rogers.  Nothing from CityTV or any of their news outlets.  Nothing.   What we got instead is the team’s spokesperson Jessica Beard’s assertion that they did their part in training him not to do what he’s alleged to have done.  Lure children.

I get the Blue Jays and Rogers probably don’t want a story about one of their head youth baseball instructors luring kids for sex to get out, but pretending the story doesn’t exist by ignoring it as news is an ethical joke.

The Blue Jays have a responsibility to help investigators and Rogers has a responsibility to report the news ESPECIALLY when it has something to do with one of their employees being charged with being a predator of underage kids.

But not reporting on it means they are complicit in his behavior.

Would Rogers go after a Bell employee accused of the same thing?  You’re fucking right they would.

Bell properties reported on it the day the news broke.  CTV, CP24, etc but try to find any news about John Hashimoto on a Rogers platform.  I dare you.

I’m sure the rest of John’s victims appreciate the protectionism Rogers is displaying by burying news about one of their employees having a penchant for pedophilia.  Legally, it’s called obstruction.

Dean