In a lawsuit filed to the Ontario Superior Court in April, a woman said she was sexually assaulted by eight Canadian Hockey League players in a hotel room in the province in 2018.

The claimant has opted to remain anonymous and has not named the players.

Hockey Canada relies on Government funding for six per cent of its annual budget, which amounts to approximately CAD7.8 million (£4.8 million/$6 million/€5.7 million).

The organisation has received criticism for its handling of the case, which led to President Scott Smith and outgoing chief executive Tom Renney facing questioning from members of Canada's Parliament earlier this week.

Hockey Canada's access to public funds was frozen after the officials were quizzed by politicians.

"We were all expecting answers to all the questions, the many questions, that we have regarding how they handled the whole situation when they testified," said Canadian Sports Minister Pascale St-Onge, as reported by CBC.

"Unfortunately, we did not receive many answers.

"But we did learn a few things."

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also weighed in, calling the way the allegations were handled "unacceptable" as he castigated the governing body and vowed to "get to the bottom of this". 

St-Onge said Hockey Canada will only have its funding restored once it discloses recommendations contained in a report that was used to investigate the incident made by law firm Henein Hutchison LLP, which was hired by Hockey Canada.

It must also become a signatory to the Office of the Integrity Commissioner, a Government agency which has the power to independently investigate abuse complaints and levy sanctions.

"With the story itself that's completely horrible, and the whole management of this situation that is totally inappropriate, I've decided to suspend any future public funding until they meet two very simple, but important, conditions," St-Onge said.

The House of Commons unanimously approved a motion to pursue an independent investigation to look into how Hockey Canada dealt with the allegations.

"[The aim is] to figure out if this was an isolated event or if there are shortcomings with the way Hockey Canada handles complaints of sexual assault, sexual harassment and other types of misconduct," Sebastian Lemire, who introduced the motion, said, as reported by CBC.

Hockey Canada settled the lawsuit, in which the claimant had been seeking CAD3.55 million (£2.2 million/$2.7 million/€2.6 million) in damages, last month.

St-Onge announced new measures to ensure organisations meet safe sport standards and athletes are given platforms to make their voices heard earlier this month amid a wave of safeguarding scandals in Canadian sport.

The Sports Minister also claimed to be aware of other complaints of sexual misconduct within Hockey Canada.