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The university launched an internal review, which wrapped up earlier this month.

The review determined, Rock said, that head coach Réal Paiement learned of the alleged incident within hours and took his own disciplinary action, but he didn’t inform university authorities. That led “in great part” to his dismissal, Rock said.

Paiement did not respond to a request for comment.

Several University of Ottawa hockey players have retained a lawyer and are threatening to sue. Lawyer Lawrence Greenspon said the university and its president have defamed, punished and even ended the careers of some “innocent” players who have done absolutely nothing wrong.

“You’ve got a team of 24 players. My information is that, at the absolute most, there were three that are alleged to have been involved in misconduct,” Greenspon said.

“There have been no charges laid by the police, the university has carried out an investigation for almost six months now, and there are, by my math, some 21 players who have not done anything wrong but have had their careers ended in some cases and their reputations seriously damaged as a result of this university’s policy or practice of punishing the many for the alleged sins of the few.”

Rock said he’s aware that this has been “an especially difficult time” for team members who didn’t take part in the alleged events.

“The shadow cast by the allegations of misconduct has affected all members of the team, some unfairly,” he said.