OJLL reinstates Toronto Beaches after condition met
Photo: Ontario Lacrosse Association
The Ontario Junior Lacrosse League today confirmed that the Toronto Beaches Junior A Lacrosse Club has been reinstated after a condition outlined in the league’s previously published appeal decision had been met.
That condition required the OJLL to receive a formal notice of the resignation of Jason Shuttleworth from his role as director and officer of the club.
Shuttleworth recently purchased a Toronto-based franchise in the Tewaaraton Lacrosse League, a group that has been deemed a direct competitor of the OJLL. It was Shuttleworth’s connection to the two competing organizations that sparked last month’s suspension.
OJLL Commissioner, Mark Grimes, confirmed the following in today’s announcement, “The appeal decision was finalized on January 11, 2021 and the Toronto Beaches have now met all of the conditions of reinstatement, as set out by the appeal committee, composed of one Governor from each team.”
A few hours after the league’s announcement of reinstatement, the Beaches issued their own statement, which in part reads, “In light of today’s announcement, the Beaches are incredibly optimistic for what we believe will be a special 2022 season.
“While we’ve never stopped working towards our ultimate goal, our entire organization is extremely excited for the chance to compete for a Minto Cup and are looking forward to starting off 2022 on the right foot.”
Both the league and team announcement today mentioned the appointment of Carter Livingstone as the club’s new president. Livingstone had been previously named the club’s interim president on December 7th.
Earlier this week, a newly formed group, Toronto Beaches Alumni, published a petition pleading for public support to get the club reinstated just a handful of hours after the team was informed of the condition of their reinstatement. The petition, which remains online and continues to receive support, has received over 1,300 signatures.
The petition also includes a “Timeline of Events” that indicates on January 7th, “Voting commences. League votes in favour of having Beaches reinstated (7 - 3) Governor votes. Mimico says voting was out of order and ignores vote.”
As reported by The Lax Mag earlier this week, that vote, “…was tabled by email on January 7th to reinstate the Toronto Beaches outside of the agreed-upon appeals process and in advance of the official recorded vote that was scheduled to take place on January 9th.”
The Lax Mag has spoken to various team sources since. Those sources have confirmed that not all teams participated in the unrecorded and unofficial email vote, let alone the ten the petition claims voted 7-3 in favour of “having Beaches reinstated” with no conditions mentioned. Ten team governors took part in both the appeal hearing and the eventual official vote on January 9th, voting in favour of reinstatement with the condition of Shuttleworth’s formal resignation.
The Beaches had announced, less than 24 hours after their appeal hearing, that Shuttleworth was stepping down from both roles. In the announcement published on the team’s various social media, Shuttleworth stated, “With all this talent assembled under one roof, I have basically worked myself out of any jobs with the team and the league. I can now focus on being a fan, a really excited community member, and a sports Dad.
“I have a lot of work to do driving my son to his practices and now my daughter, who has picked up field lacrosse as a passion. I love the Beaches Jr A team and I will be right there with them on Queen St. hoisting the Minto Cup when that happens. We have assembled a really great organization from top to bottom and I believe we have all the right parts in place.”