Hedley Will Play in Mississauga Despite Sexual Misconduct Allegations
Published February 19, 2018 at 1:07 pm
Popular Canadian pop/punk rock group Hedley, who has enjoyed a pretty dedicated following, has recently been hit with a litany of sexual misconduct allegations.
Earlier this month, numerous women took to Twitter to, using the hashtag #outHedley2k18, confront the band with allegations of acts of sexual impropriety–sometimes against girls as young as 14.
“I’m sorry, do you need to physically see them groping a 14 year old or witness an 18 year old give them head before you think this is wrong??? he’s literally 19 YEARS OLDER THAN THESE GIRLS and abusing his power as a musician. this is why women don’t come forward. #outHedley2k18,” wrote Twitter user @diamondxo1712.
I'm sorry, do you need to physically see them groping a 14 year old or witness an 18 year old give them head before you think this is wrong??? he's literally 19 YEARS OLDER THAN THESE GIRLS and abusing his power as a musician. this is why women don't come forward. #outHedley2k18
— d (@diamondxo1712) February 14, 2018
On Feb. 15, an Exclaim article revealed that the band was allegedly investigated for drugging an underage concertgoer after a girl was reportedly found unconscious about a block away from the London, Ont.-based Embassy venue the group was playing at in 2005.
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The Vancouver based musical group includes Jacob Hoggard, Dave Rosin, Tommy Mac and Jay Benison.
Despite the controversy, the band–who withdrew their name from consideration for the upcoming Juno Awards–is continuing their Cageless tour.
Y r ppl are doubting the honesty behind these #outHedley2k18 tweets? when Heldley was in Timmins for stars & thunder half of the young girls in this town were invited to the after party where Jacob Hoggard offered them drugs and asked some of them many times to have sex with him
— Sarah (@sarpotvin) February 15, 2018
Hedley is scheduled to play a show at the Powerade Center in Brampton on March 1 and the Hershey Centre in Mississauga on March 3.
The tour will see the embattled band taking on 18 other dates from Quebec City to Kelowna, BC, before wrapping up on March 23.
In a statement posted to Facebook on Feb. 14, the band called the sexual misconduct allegations “unsubstantiated.”
In making the decision to go on with the tour–despite withdrawing from the Junos–Hedley also made the following statement:
“In the coming days – and throughout this current tour – we intend to take responsibility, and talk about how we have let some people down, and what we intend to do about it.
That starts right now. As a band, we have decided to withdraw our name from consideration for any awards at the Junos. We do not wish to be a distraction at Canadian music’s biggest night or to, in any way, take the focus away from the tremendous honour that is the Juno awards.
The easy thing to do would be to cancel the tour and hide. We don’t intend to do that. We intend to start making positive changes, starting right now.”
The allegations have not been proven in court.
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