“What are they gonna do to me?”

Canada skip Brad Gushue tore a strip off the World Curling Federation on Tuesday night, over the event execution of the Pan Continental Curling Championships.

And he had more to say the next day.

“I spoke what I saw,” Gushue said Wednesday after his Canadian squad defeated Chinese Taipei to move to 4-1, good for a tie for second place at the midway point of the tournament.

The Canadians were later confirmed to have clinched a playoff berth.

“And I know there were some players that were afraid to say anything; I’m not afraid,” Gushue continued. “What are they gonna do to me at this point? I’ve been in the game for quite some time… but I didn’t make anything up, it is what it is, it’s the truth.

“I’ve had a number of people from the organizing committee, and curlers come up to me and thank me for what I said.

“Now the conversation has started, and folks like you (media) guys are paying attention to it, and maybe we’ll get some change going forward.”

On Tuesday, Gushue let it rip.

“This is an embarrassment,” he told CBC. “There’s a level of incompetence there that needs to be corrected.”

The two-time Olympic medallist was referring to numerous issues surrounding the championship, largely geared around the decision to host the event in a curling club as opposed to an arena. Gushue told CBC he feels the curling and competitors are secondary to the rest of the show.

“I’m a little angry,” Gushue said. “It’s absolute silliness, the stuff that's happening here this week. There is more care about everyone else than the players. Not being able to have any area to warm up. We were told to go outside. We’re sharing change rooms with the women. We’re not allowed to view practices. We’re now allowed to have one player there.

"We got reprimanded for wearing thermals under our uniforms,” Gushue continued. “It’s so cold in the rink so we went out yesterday and bought thermal, Merino wool underneath our stuff.

“We were told by the WCF it’s not part of our uniform and we can’t wear it anymore. I’m sick and tired of coming to WCF events and the players being an afterthought. We’re not getting paid to be here. We’re doing this for our country and it kind of pisses me off.” 

Gushue has ripped the WCF in the past. At last year’s inaugural Pan Continental event in Calgary, Gushue was chatting with the U.S. team just before their round-robin practice session and was caught on the athlete microphone saying “Smarten up… this WCF stuff is ****ing stupid.”

On Wednesday Gushue was more polite, but still firm in his beliefs.

“You know, it’s things that are not player-centric,” he said. “It’s not the first time I’ve seen it at a WCF event, and basically the argument they made, or the blame, went to TV. It’s not even on TV anymore. They cheaped out on the production part of it, and obviously TSN didn’t want to cover it.

“So, the frustration from our level is pretty high.”

The veteran skip then struck an optimistic tone.

“I’m hopeful they’re going to get some things straightened out and make it a little bit more athlete-centric,” Gushue said.