A week after the Greater Toronto Hockey League (GTHL) launched a lawsuit accusing four member organizations of decades of fraud over the fees they charge for game ice, those clubs have responded with a public letter that reframes the case as a power struggle over who controls minor hockey in Canada’s largest city.

The Vaughan Rangers, Vaughan Panthers, Markham Majors and Markham Islanders, represented by Toronto lawyer Michael Mazzuca, have called the GTHL’s claim “entirely meritless” and “vindictive” and say it is designed to intimidate clubs that have begun challenging the league’s authority.

In the letter circulated on Monday to TSN, players’ families and other GTHL member organizations, Mazzuca accused the GTHL of using the courts as a “retaliatory measure and scare tactic” to preserve “unfettered and unchallenged control” over its members.

The GTHL’s statement of claim, filed Jan. 12 in Ontario Superior Court in Toronto, alleged that the four clubs secretly charged “premiums” on game ice over a period stretching back more than a decade.

The league alleged the clubs misrepresented their actual costs, concealed markups from both the GTHL and families, and pocketed the difference in violation of league rules. The GTHL is seeking $300,000 from the Rangers, $150,000 from the Panthers, and a combined $250,000 from the Majors and Islanders.

The clubs deny any wrongdoing and the GTHL’s allegations have not been proven in court. The four organizations filed a notice of intent to defend the GTHL’s lawsuit on Monday.

“One example of the false accusations in GTHL’s court claim is the assertion that ‘only the [Member Clubs] and the municipalities had access to ice rates,’” Mazzuca’s letter stated. “In fact, all fees charged by the city/municipalities to the Member Clubs are publicly available.”

The clubs say the roughly five per cent administrative fee they charged reflects operational costs associated with securing, managing, and regulating game ice. They argue that these charges were long known and accepted within the system, and that portraying them as secret “premiums” misrepresents both practice and history.

“This dispute raises broader issues affecting the hockey community at large, namely GTHL’s insistence on maintaining unfettered and unchallenged control over its members, to the detriment of transparency and accountability that families and clubs are entitled to expect,” Mazzuca wrote.

In a statement on Monday, GTHL spokesperson Stephanie Coratti wrote the GTHL has a responsibility to ensure funds paid by participants “are used appropriately, transparently, and for the benefit of the communities they belong to. The Review Committee believes that certain recently discovered, undisclosed ice overcharges by Markham Islanders, Markham Majors, Vaughan Rangers, and Vaughan Panthers appear to be inconsistent with these principles.”

Coratti wrote that the GTHL remains committed to resolving the matter constructively, either directly with the organizations involved or through the established hockey dispute resolution process.

“Litigation is not the GTHL’s preferred option, however, to preserve the league’s legal rights while those resolution efforts continue, the GTHL has filed a statement of claim broadly setting out its concerns,” Coratti wrote. “The claim has not been served, and the GTHL Board has up to six months to determine whether it will be served.”

The response of the four organizations casts the lawsuit as the culmination of a long-running conflict between the league and some of its largest organizations.

According to the clubs, they have been attempting since September 2024, to resolve disagreements over ice fees through internal GTHL processes. That effort, Mazzuca wrote, was “marred by institutional bias and procedural unfairness,” resulting in more than $250,000 in legal costs, “far exceeding the amounts in dispute.”

Only when the matter moved into open court, Mazzuca wrote, did a path to a “fair and impartial outcome” emerge.

Mazzuca wrote that while municipal ice costs have risen by about 30 per cent over the past decade, average GTHL player registration fees paid by families have increased by roughly 95 per cent over the same period. He also alleged that the league marks up insurance by about 40 per cent above the Hockey Canada rate, describing the fee markup as an “assessment fee,” and that significant portions of player registration revenue are now spent on salaries, legal costs and administration.

“In reality,” the letter states, “the GTHL’s regulation is heavy-handed, making it more difficult and costly for families to participate in the sport.”

The GTHL has framed its lawsuit as an effort to protect parents and restore integrity. In its court filing, the league alleged families were led to believe their fees reflected actual ice costs, when in fact the clubs were collecting undisclosed premiums. The practice, the league said, undermined fairness across the system.

Mazzuca wrote that the court filing itself has damaged public trust by accusing community-based organizations of fraud before any evidence has been tested.

“Such spurious claims carry significant legal and reputational consequences,” Mazzuca wrote, “which the member clubs intend to fully defend against.”

What happens next will be determined not by rhetoric, but by documents: contracts with municipalities, historical fee schedules, internal league policies and the paper trail of how ice was priced and disclosed. The court will be asked to decide whether the administrative charges constituted deception, or whether they were an accepted and transparent part of how large clubs operate.

The GTHL is the largest minor hockey league in the world, with more than 50 member organizations and tens of thousands of players. It sits at the apex of youth hockey in Canada’s most populous region.

“The timing and nature of this claim suggest it is being used as a retaliatory measure and scare tactic against the growing, good-faith efforts of clubs and families to ensure fair governance and restore balance to a system where the GTHL’s authority has become disproportionate,” Mazzuca wrote, adding that the league’s own financial practices and its resort to litigation are what truly burden parents.

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