Sport Minister announces federal commission to probe abuse and maltreatment

The federal government is launching a national commission to examine abuse and maltreatment in sport, after facing calls from a growing number of athletes across the country to confront the problem.

A commissioner with a legal or judicial background, independent of both government and the sport system, will be chosen to lead the process. That person will be joined by two advisers, yet to be named, Minister of Sport Carla Qualtrough said. One will be an expert in victims’ rights and child protection, while the other will have a background in sport.

The commission will spend 18 months examining problems of poor governance and oversight in Canadian sport, leading to recommendations on how to make the system safer for young children and elite athletes alike. It will also focus on ways to better protect athletes who disclose allegations of abuse and wrongdoing from retribution from their coaches or federations.

“Bottom line, we need to make fundamental changes to our sport system that will lead to long-overdue cultural change,” Ms. Qualtrough said. “We need to embed accountability, integrity and safe sport into everything we do.”

The process is not the national inquiry athletes’ groups have been demanding for more than a year, but Ms. Qualtrough said it is designed to take the same approach, without incurring delays and complications associated with having to navigate different federal and provincial jurisdictions that govern sport in Canada. She said the commission is based on the model used by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which examined the harms caused by residential schools.

Allegations of sexual, physical and mental abuse have been raised by athletes in at least 15 national sports organizations, known as NSOs, including gymnastics, hockey, track and field, artistic swimming, bobsleigh, rowing, boxing, fencing and others. Concerns have been raised at all levels, from grassroots local clubs to provincial organizations and the federations that oversee each sport nationally.

In dozens of cases, athletes have told the government their complaints were ignored or not investigated properly within their sport. In addition to those problems, Hockey Canada last year was accused by federal MPs of trying to cover up an alleged sexual assault involving members of the 2018 national junior team, prompting further calls for a probe into how NSOs conduct themselves in cases of alleged abuse and assault.

Ms. Qualtrough said the commission’s findings will be made public. Those will then be discussed at a national summit on safe sport, before final recommendations to reform the system are ultimately made.

The commission will have an estimated budget of between $10-million and $15-million. In making the announcement, Ms. Qualtrough apologized to athletes who testified at parliamentary hearings this year, detailing how their cases were mishandled, along with others who have gone public with similar complaints.

“Athletes and other sport participants who have been harmed, abused or mistreated in the Canadian sports system, particularly those who were maltreated as children, I’m sorry this happened to you. The sport system did not protect you or hold to account those who hurt you,” Ms. Qualtrough said.

“The starting point for the commission will be a recognition that bad things have happened and continue to happen in Canadian sport. Survivors will not need to prove they have experienced harm. We know you have, we believe you and support you, your experiences will inform recommendations for the future of sport, better and safer sport in Canada.”

Global Athlete, an advocacy group that represents athletes in multiple sports in calling for a national inquiry, is disappointed the government stopped short of one.

“Today’s announcement was a clear admission by the Canadian government that Canadian sport is broken and the toxic culture of abuse needs reform,” said Rob Koehler, director-general for Global Athlete.

“We are disappointed the minister did not support survivors’ and advocates’ calls for a national inquiry. Moving forward the devil will be in the details,” he said.

The selection of the two special advisers, and how independent they are, will be important, he said, given their influence over the recommendations. An inquiry would have also had the power to compel documents and subpoena witnesses.

However, Ms. Qualtrough said calling a national inquiry would have created unnecessary delays, given the complexities of the various federal and provincial jurisdictions that oversee sport.

“A public inquiry has its benefit in certain contexts. But the formality and legal rigidity of that type of process didn’t lend itself to the concerns that I have around making sure it’s a safe place for victims and survivors,” Ms. Qualtrough said. “Sport is primarily a provincial jurisdiction and we would have to spend a lot of time negotiating terms of references and process details with the provinces and territories. It could take a year before that negotiation concluded.”

She said the process does not need to start from scratch.

“We do not need to revisit, almost, the issue of whether there’s a safe sport crisis in this country. That’s the starting point for this. So a two-year process that could result in a finding that bad things happen in sport, I’ll stipulate: Bad things happen in sport.”

The commission process also avoids victims being forced to testify under cross-examination, Ms. Qualtrough said. “We do not want cross-examination of victims, we do not want people to have to prove they were traumatized. And quite frankly, the [Truth and Reconciliation Commission] model is a much safer approach in that context.”

Ms. Qualtrough, a lawyer and Paralympic swimmer who is visually impaired, was named Sport Minister in July, after previously holding the portfolio from 2015-17. She said she regrets not focusing more on abuse and oversight back then, at a time when concussions dominated the agenda.

In the case of Hockey Canada, the minister was asked whether she thought it was appropriate that former junior players allegedly involved in raping a woman in London, Ont., in 2018 were now permitted to play in the NHL, potentially earning million-dollar salaries while the matter is still under police investigation.

“That’s a tough question. I don’t know if it’s appropriate. But what I can tell you is that our system right now lets that happen,” she said. “And through the process of the commission, it’s something that we need to figure out as a country – if we want that to be able to happen. Because right now, the system permits this to happen. And we just have to decide if that’s the sport [system] we want.”

The hockey players have not been named publicly. The minister said she does not believe she has the authority to call on the NHL to suspend players under investigation.

“The research I’ve done on this is it’s a very complicated legal, employment law, criminal law, and contract law mismatch. I’m not sure I have the authority to do that – the teeth to do that. But also, we don’t know the final outcome yet.”

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