The Way forward for Sport in Canada Commission starts tackling the country’s safe-sport crisis later this month with the primary of nine hearings.
Federal sports minister Carla Qualtrough announced in late 2023 that the commission’s mandate can be to learn from Canadians, including victims and survivors of abuse and maltreatment, about their experience in and with sports.
The commission’s first stop Oct. 31 to Nov. 1 is in Toronto and the last is Dec. 10-13 in Halifax.
Other hearing locations are: Regina, Nov. 12-15; Quebec City, Nov. 18-19; Montreal, Nov. 20-22; Winnipeg, Nov. 25-26; Calgary, Nov. 27-29; Victoria, Dec. 2-3; Vancouver, Dec. 4-6.
Qualtrough stopped wanting a public inquiry despite calls to achieve this from several quarters, including former sports minister Kirsty Duncan and the parliamentary standing committee on the status of girls.
Bloc-Québécois MP Sebastien Lemire continued to induce for a public inquiry Thursday within the House of Commons.
“This voluntary commission is not more than an advisory body,” he said. “It has no real powers to bring about significant change.”
Olympic kayak champion Adam van Koeverden, who’s now an MP and the parliamentary secretary to the sports minister, countered that a public inquiry would take too long to institute.
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“On condition that sport is a shared jurisdiction between municipal and regional, territorial, provincial governments and jurisdictions, a public inquiry would have required months of negotiating with provinces,” he said. “With the commission, the work is already underway.”
The commission is led by Lise Maisonneuve, who’s a former chief justice of the Ontario Court of Justice.
“As sport permeates most of our lives, the Way forward for Sport in Canada Commission looks forward to engaging directly with Canadians across the country, including on the grassroot level, to assemble more insights and perspectives regarding their experience in and with sport,” Maisonneuve said Thursday in a press release.
Canada’s high-performance sport system has undergone a reckoning since athletes exited Beijing’s Winter Olympics in 2022.
Athletes spoke to parliamentary committees of current and historical instances of abuse — mental, verbal, physical and sexual — and fear of retribution for reporting it.
Members of Parliament heard athlete welfare took a back seat to the pursuit of medals.
Hockey Canada became a lightning rod for what Qualtrough and her predecessor Pascale St-Onge called a protected sport crisis within the country after allegations of sexual assault by members of the national junior men’s hockey team at a 2018 gala.
Those allegations haven’t been proven in court. Five players, who all went on to play within the NHL, go before a jury trial next yr.
Revelations that Hockey Canada had reached a settlement with the complainant and that the organization used a portion of registration fees to pay out such settlements, amplified calls for sport culture change.
The commission will operate for 18 months, produce two reports and can hold a national summit.
Qualtrough has compared the game commission’s work to that of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which between 2007 and 2015 investigated harm brought on by residential schools, and proposed each solutions to that harm and prevention of further abuse of Indigenous Peoples.
Athletes Empowered, formerly Gymnasts For Change, lobbied for a public inquiry.
Managing director Amelia Cline hopes the commission will conclude one is required, but within the meantime, she says she’s already met with Maisonneuve.
“We’re very wanting to see this commission not only produce a report that sits on the shelf, that it actually must have meaningful recommendations,” Cline said.
The commission won’t have the facility to compel people to talk to Maisonneuve, she said.
“There must be a protected space for survivors to share their stories, but there also must be a forum wherein the game organizations which have allowed this crisis to proceed are literally held accountable, and their feet are held to the fireplace, which appears to be lacking on this commission process,” Cline said.
“From our perspective, the commission is what we now have without delay, and we are going to support our survivor community to interact with it in the event that they want to, but our concern is that it’s still not going to have the teeth that it must.”
The commission has a public online submission portal for athletes, parents, coaches, officials, administrators, academics, subject-matter experts and sports-related organizations who need to participate.
There are alternatives to take a survey, write to the commission and speak to the commission.
Hearings can be held in-camera “to supply a protected forum for participants to freely share their experiences and opinions” and “allow participants to fulfill with the commission without certain information being recorded in any form.”
© 2024 The Canadian Press
