Owners of seven Pacific Junior Hockey League teams have filed a petition in B.C. Supreme Court under the Societies Act, saying the league acted in "an oppressive and unfairly prejudicial manner" in relation to the recent cancellation of the expansion Cloverdale team's season.
The PJHL announced earlier this month that the Cloverdale club, which had been added to the league in May, is not eligible to play in the 2025-26 season.
However in court documents that were filed Sept. 3, the Abbotsford Pilots, Aldergrove Ironmen, Mission City Outlaws, North Vancouver Wolf Pack, Port Moody Panthers, Surrey Knights and White Rock Whalers say they believe the decision was not just and the team should be reinstated immediately.
The seven teams also believe the choice to rule Cloverdale out for this season will have negative consequences for the league.
The teams state they believe the cancellation is motivated by a failed motion that would have split the league into two tiers, which was originally announced in March.
The seven teams filing the petition – and Cloverdale – would have been designated Tier 2 while the other eight teams would hypothetically be Tier 1 (higher level) programs. However, the decision to split the league did not earn the required two-thirds of votes from the teams in the league.
The petitioners state in their petition that, before the implementation, the league needed to develop a better plan for how the league would function moving forward. According to the seven teams, the unsuccessful vote led to animosity among the petitioners, the league and the hopeful Tier 1 teams. They believe the removal of the Cloverdale franchise is a direct result of that failed vote.
"Representatives of the teams that were seeking to move into the higher junior hockey tier within the PJHL have made it clear by their subsequent actions that they will do anything to thwart the interest of the petitioners in improving the league as punishment for their voting against the other teams moving into the higher junior tier this season," the petition states.
They added that the league's board of governors already voted in the Cloverdale team in April and BC Hockey approved the team's inclusion after PJHL commissioner Trevor Alto created an application for the franchise.
They also revealed that Alto informed the league on Sept. 2 that the team would not be moving forward and several items were still outstanding with the team, including approved ownership structure, an arena licence agreement, financial arrangements and more.
The PJHL's application response shares that the league has a franchise fee of $750,000 – which would be distributed among all 15 teams – and points out that league bylaw 4.4 states that an existing governor or member cannot have any control or financial interest in a new team.
They state that White Rock Whalers owner Chris McNally helped Cloverdale secure ice time, hire staff and buy equipment.
The league also stated in their response that no motion was passed before the governors to approve the franchise. They added that proposed owner Ronald Paterson has not presented any plan or ownership structure for the team and did not attend any of the required meetings. They believe he does not want to be a part of the PJHL.
They stated that a vote occurred on Aug. 5, which saw the application for the Cloverdale team not earn the required two-thirds of all teams' approval to pass. The league believes the Cloverdale team is also ineligible due to a conflict of interest because of the Whalers' involvement.
The league also disagrees that the decision has done damage because Cloverdale has never officially been part of the league. They also raised concerns about the Cloverdale team apparently lacking proper insurance.
"There is no objective evidence that the Cloverdale hockey club meets the bylaws of the PJHL," the response stated. "This application is really about members of a society who were unsuccessful in achieving the result they wanted in a membership vote improperly bringing their grievance to court."
The league said that if Cloverdale qualifies to be a team, games for this season could be rescheduled.
A decision on the petition will be reached at a later date.
