The McGill Sailing Team is suspended for the next two years.
The team was already under scrutiny by the administration and recent events pushed McGill Athletics to action.
On October 23, three team members—Leif MacDonald, Justin Cruanes, and another student—were detained by police for stealing a parking sign after a regatta in Maryland.
The bail for MacDonald and Cruanes was initially set at $175,000 U.S. for each due to concerns that they were “flight risks,” while the third’s was set at $1,000. All three students were released after a bail hearing, though Cruanes, who is not a Canadian citizen, was unable to return to Canada for two weeks due to the ongoing investigation.
All charges were eventually dropped.
MacDonald explained that he and his friends who were involved felt bad for their roles in the incident but that the sailing team shouldn’t be punished for something involving only a few members
“We feel like it was something that four people did away from the team and it was something we shouldn’t have done but it doesn’t reflect [on the team as a whole]… it’s not like we had team meetings where we’d report back all the things we stole from the States this weekend,” MacDonald said. “We haven’t had a team meeting yet, but I do plan to apologize.”
The team was already on probation due to activities that took place during “rookie night” last year.
“We’ve investigated [the charges in Baltimore] and a number of other administrative situations that we had throughout the year, and we’ve informed the sailing team that they’ve been suspended and that the suspension is the result of a number of infractions, including that event,” said Executive Director of Athletics and Recreation at McGill, Drew Love. “When we looked at the difficulties that we were seeing and experiencing throughout this year [the suspension] was really done under the understanding that they were on probation,” he added.
The suspension means that “[The sailing team is] suspended for two years from all varsity activity, [from] participating in any varsity-related events, and [from] using the name McGill in any competition,” Love said.
