CHLPA: Who is Glenn Gumbley? (WITH UPDATES)

Mr Gumbley, we presume?

Yahoo Sports’ Sunaya Sapurji revealed on Thursday a couple more interesting tidbits on the craziness that has become the CHLPA:

In a new twist, apparently Derek isn’t the only Clarke working for the CHLPA.

A consultant who has been working with the CHLPA said he has been in contact with a man at the proposed union named Glen Clarke.

The phone number he provided to Yahoo! Sports for Glen Clarke, is the same Montreal-area phone number Derek Clarke has been giving out as his contact to members of the media. The consultant said he had no contact with Derek Clarke and had never met either man in person.

At the time, he assumed both Clarkes were relatives.

All contact Yahoo! Sports had with the CHLPA came via email with a person identifying himself as Derek Clarke. Both Glen Clarke and Derek Clarke used the same generic email account belonging to the CHLPA – Glen for union business and Derek for correspondence with the media.

But the story doesn’t end there. “Glen” is an interesting name for the second Clarke, it turns out. It just so happens that Randy Gumbley – the fraudster that some suspect might be behind the CHLPA and the Derek Clarke moniker – has a brother named Glenn. Georges Laraque has admitted to Suparji that Randy’s Gumbley’s ‘brother’ has been working with the CHLPA, but insists that Randy has nothing to do with the union.

When asked if there was a Glen Clarke working for the CHLPA, Laraque said there must have been a mistake because the only “Glen” working for the proposed union is Glenn Gumbley.

On Wednesday night, various media reports alleged that a person identifying himself as Derek Clarke was Randy Gumbley, who was convicted of defrauding young hockey players out of more than $100,000 in 2009.

During reports broadcast on both TVA Sports and TSN various people – including Laraque — were shown photos of Randy Gumbley, who they identified as Derek Clarke. Later in his interview with TVA Sports Laraque backtracked and said he had never met or spoken with Randy Gumbley.

On Thursday, Laraque said he had a completely valid explanation for all the confusion.

“Glenn works for the CHLPA and that’s Randy’s brother,” said Laraque, who noted that there is a strong resemblance between the two. “Randy has nothing to do with the CHLPA. Glenn was there (at the CHLPA) before I was there. I only got there this past August. Glenn has no criminal record… and he helps out with the CHLPA.”

The picture posted above is from a simple google search. Does he look like the photo released yesterday? You tell me. The photo above is connected to a facebook profile that has had its photo changed and security settings cranked up. Furthermore, of his 93 friends that are visible, many are Montrealers – which is where the Clarkes/Gumbleys are said to be.

For the record, here is a photo of Randy Gumbley:

But the story, not surprisingly, gets weirder.

Here’s a twitter account tied to a Glenn Gumbley. He seems to have been singularly focused on a Hockey Canada lawsuit, sending a link to a now-removed youtube video to dozens of high-profile hockey media personalities.

Here’s the account’s profile photo:

The weird thing? It’s not even that he might look like one of the Gumbleys – it’s the file name. When I went to download the photo, the suggested name was ‘jamie_clark’.

It looks like Glenn Gumbley tried to set up some sort of soccer operation – something called Scona Sports, which has an ‘About’ page that focuses on amateur soccer players but on the front page has a picture of a hockey goalie.

Weird link number three is the minutes of the Port Alice village council meeting of last February 8th. There’s a simple note, saying that the council was going to decline Glenn Gumbley’s proposal that Port Alice feature a team in something called the Vancouver Island Hockey League. The VIHL is the league organized by the Vancouver Island Amateur Hockey Association.

Is he the guy that has been tied into the CHLPA? Could be. We certainly know there’s a guy named Glenn Gumbley who’s been involved in a few different hockey ventures across the country. Seems likely it’s him.

(Update 1:42 AM PDT Nov 2nd; it seems the photo above deals with this story, that suggests the Jamie Clarke in the photo was squatting at the house that the front door belongs to, apparently in Verdun, QC. Hat-tip to @CHLPAwatch for that one. Further, Glenn Gumbley’s Facebook friends list shows he has many friends in Verdun.)

(Update 9:02 AM PDT You may have already seen this, but reporters at the Toronto Star have tracked down Glenn Gumbley, Derek Clarke and Randy Gumbley. They are indeed three separate people. No word on how Jamie fits into all this, though, or who the supposed ‘Glen’ Clarke might be.)

Have you noticed the Vancouver Giants trumpeting their education program?

It’s become a regular in-game feature by the Vancouver Giants, taking time to talk about what they do for players’ education. Before the season, Giants owner Ron Toigo told me how proud they are of what the team does for its players’ schooling; what else could he say? CHL teams have an educational program in place, and the Giants do emphasize at every opportunity that if players aren’t getting the job done in the classroom, they aren’t going to be playing for the team. But that’s not really what the CHLPA is going after. The CHL’s scholarship program is the target.

So, if you were thinking junior teams aren’t feeling pressure from the CHLPA, think again. Stories like this are clearly being taken seriously:

After a lengthy discussion with Halifax labour lawyer Ron Pink, the former chairman of the NHLPA advisory committee who is now working with the CHLPA, I’m convinced this effort to estab­lish a union for junior hockey players is sincere.

According to Pink, successful inroads are being made with clubs across the CHL.

“This isn’t a nuisance, this is serious,” Pink said of the union effort. “It’s for real.”

(That’s Chris Cochrane of the Halifax Chronicle-Herald.)

The story’s not going away. Will the CHLPA find enough support to certify? We’ll see. But it doesn’t look to be going away anytime soon.