The Future of Sport in Canada Commission will begin addressing the country’s safe sport crisis later this month with the first of nine hearings.
Federal Sports Minister Carla Qualtrough announced in late 2023 that the commission’s mandate will be to learn from Canadians, including victims and survivors of abuse and mistreatment, about their experience in and with sports.
The commission’s first stop, from October 31 to November 1, will be in Toronto and the last will be from December 10 to 13 in Halifax.
Other locations for hearings are: Regina, Nov. 12-15; Quebec City, November 18 and 19; Montreal, November 20-22; Winnipeg, November 25 and 26; Calgary, November 27-29; Victory, December 2 and 3; Vancouver, December 4-6.
Qualtrough stopped short of holding a public inquiry despite calls to do so from various quarters, including former sports minister Kirsty Duncan and the parliamentary standing committee on the status of women.
Bloc-Québécois MP Sébastien Lemire continued to call for a public inquiry in the House of Commons on Thursday.
“This voluntary commission is nothing more than an advisory body,” he said. “It has no real powers to bring about meaningful change.”
Olympic kayak champion Adam van Koeverden, who is now an MP and parliamentary secretary to the Sports Minister, responded that it would take too long to launch a public inquiry.
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“Given that sport is a shared jurisdiction between municipal and regional, territorial and provincial governments and jurisdictions, a public inquiry would have required months of negotiation with the provinces,” he said. “With the commission the work is already underway.”
The commission is chaired by Lise Maisonneuve, former president of the Ontario Court of Justice.
“As sport permeates much of our lives, the Future of Sport in Canada Commission looks forward to engaging directly with Canadians across the country, including at the grassroots level, to gather more knowledge and perspectives on their experience in and with sport,” Maisonneuve said. Thursday in a statement.
Canada’s high-performance sports system has undergone a reckoning since athletes walked out of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
Athletes spoke before parliamentary committees about current and historical cases of abuse (mental, verbal, physical and sexual) and the fear of retaliation for reporting it.
Members of Parliament heard that the welfare of athletes took a backseat to the pursuit of medals.
Hockey Canada became a lightning rod for what Qualtrough and her predecessor Pascale St-Onge called a safe sport crisis in the country after allegations of sexual assault by members of the men’s junior national hockey team at a 2018 gala.
Those allegations have not been proven in court. Five players, who played in the NHL, will face a jury trial next year.
Revelations that Hockey Canada had reached a settlement with the plaintiff and that the organization used a portion of registration fees to pay for those settlements amplified calls for a change in sporting culture.
The commission will operate for 18 months, producing two reports and holding a national summit.
Qualtrough has compared the sports commission’s work to that of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which between 2007 and 2015 investigated harm caused by residential schools and proposed solutions to that harm and the prevention of further abuses against children. indigenous peoples.
Athletes Empowered, formerly Gymnasts For Change, pushed for a public inquiry.
CEO Amelia Cline hopes the commission will conclude it’s necessary, but in the meantime, she says she’s already met with Maisonneuve.
“We’re very eager for this commission to not just produce a report that sits on the shelf, but actually needs to have meaningful recommendations,” Cline said.
The commission will not have the power to force people to talk to Maisonneuve, he said.
“There needs to be a safe space for survivors to share their stories, but there also needs to be a forum where the sporting organizations that have allowed this crisis to continue are held accountable and held to the fire, which That seems to be missing in this commission process,” Cline said.
“From our perspective, the commission is what we have now, and we will support our community of survivors to engage with it if they wish, but our concern is that it still won’t have the teeth it needs.”
The commission has a public online submission portal for athletes, parents, coaches, officials, administrators, academics, subject matter experts and sports-related organizations who want to participate.
There are options to conduct a survey, write to the commission, and speak to the commission.
The hearings will be held behind closed doors “to provide a safe forum for participants to freely share their experiences and opinions” and “to allow participants to meet with the commission without certain information being recorded in any way.”
© 2024 The Canadian Press
