Hockey Canada has faced heavy criticism for its treatment of allegations of sexual assault since it became known earlier this year that it had settled a case for CAD3.55 million (£2.2 million/$2.7 million/€2.7 million) with a woman who claims she was abused by members of Canada's junior national team in 2018.

Hockey Canada has had its access to public funds frozen, senior officials have been grilled in Parliament and a police investigation into the incident has been reopened.

Other allegations of group sexual assault have also been made.

Hockey Canada has paid CAD8.9 million (£5.7 million/$6.9 million/€6.7 million) across 21 settlements over claims of sexual assault since 1989, the organisation told Parliament this week.

Sport Minister Pascale St-Onge has slammed how a "culture of silence and the trivialisation of sexual violence is well entrenched in the culture of this sport", while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there needed to be a "real reckoning" at Hockey Canada.

Now the IIHF has commented on the case for the first time, turning up the heat on Hockey Canada.

The IIHF said in a statement issued to The Athletic that it had "launched an inquiry to obtain additional information concerning the cases and Hockey Canada’s actions to address them", adding that it had been made aware of the CAD3.55 million settlement in May.

The IIHF did not respond to insidethegames' request for comment.

Ice hockey is Canada's national winter sport and Hockey Canada by extension one of the nation's most important sporting bodies.

It regularly hosts IIHF events and is due to stage the World Junior Championship next month in Edmonton.

Hockey Canada has already announced a governance review, committed to becoming a full signatory to the new Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner and published a six-pillar action plan to address "toxic behavior" and a "code of silence" it admits plagues the sport.

The action plan includes promises to set up an independent mechanism for reporting wrongdoing, a tracking system to monitor instances of maltreatment, abuse or harassment, enhanced training and a policy that would force individuals to take part in any investigation.

As well as the police investigation into the alleged sexual assault in Ontario in 2018 which sparked the current crisis, law enforcement in Halifax this month launched a criminal investigation into allegations of sex crimes relating to the men's junior national team from 2003.