Athletes Call for the Immediate Resignation of Boxing Canada’s High-Performance Director

Global Athlete has been asked to publish this open letter

Athletes and Coaches Call for the Immediate Resignation of Boxing Canada’s High-Performance Director

To: Vicki Walker, Director General, Sport Canada

4 May 2022: This letter incorporates the views expressed by 121 current and former athletes, coaches, officials and PSO’s of Boxing Canada.

Boxing Canada has cultivated a toxic culture of fear and silence. There has been a consistent trend for over a decade where Boxing Canada athletes and coaches who spoke out against wrongdoing or advocated for what is right end up outside of the organization. Many athletes feel they have suffered physical abuse, psychological abuse, and neglect by the organization because of their failure to address these issues. Repeated attempts have been made to bring these issues to light, and they have been ignored or dismissed. For example, last year, a comprehensive collection of the experiences of Boxing Canada’s athletes was submitted to the Board of Directors in the form of a confidential memorandum. No formal investigation was launched to look into allegations.

Though each athlete and coach have their own respective experience with Boxing Canada, the following are four themes that are evident to all athletes who have authorized this letter:

1. GOVERNANCE AND TRANSPARENCY: Boxing Canada has shown a significant lack of transparency and impartiality in its governance of the organization. First, competition and training-related funding has been dispersed in an arbitrary manner. On paper, important decisions were made to look like they were decided properly by an “impartial panel”. However, these decisions were made by the High-Performance Director, and the team is a direct reflection of his bias. Secondly, Boxing Canada has often made vague and unsubstantiated financial requests of the athletes, and a known consequence is removal from the team if they fail to pay these financial requests. As a result of these factors, athletes have a significant distrust in the management of Boxing Canada.

2. SAFETY: Boxing Canada has shown a blatant disregard for the mental and physical health of athletes. Boxing Canada’s safe sport policy and independent investigation process is inadequate. Many allegations of misconduct, including sexual misconduct, have been ignored and not reported to the Board of Directors as they should have been. In addition, the High-Performance Director has forced athletes to train or compete in unsafe environments. Athletes have been forced to spar with clear signs of concussions or against teammates with significant weight class disparities, both of which were extremely unsafe. Athletes were forced to put up with the status quo if they wished to remain in the sport.

3. TOXIC CULTURE AND HARASSMENT: Athletes believe Boxing Canada, through its High Performance Director, has cultivated an authoritarian leadership style that retaliates against the careers of those who speak out against the organization and silences others who have genuine concerns but are instilled by fear. The toxic culture at Boxing Canada has led to athletes and staff who have experienced and witnessed a constant stream of harassment in the form of homophobic, misogynistic, sexist, and other disrespectful comments by Boxing Canada’s top program management. Boxing Canada has been made aware of these concerns but has failed to take action. These issues have perpetuated the athletes’ fear of speaking out.

4. RESTRICTING OPPORTUNITIES: Boxing Canada’s actions have effectively restricted opportunities for their athletes. It is apparent that decisions regarding team selection are predominantly based on subjective discretion and NOT competition, and the rules have been implemented to ensure these biases are supported. As a result, only certain athletes were frequently invited to camps and competitions. Team members outside of the High-Performance Director’s “favourites” often received information on training and competition opportunities at the last minute, or not at all. This greatly impacted selection decisions because the criteria were often created in a way that put greater emphasis on certain competitions that only the favoured athletes were privy to. Several past high performance athletes have decided to leave amateur boxing to turn professional earlier than anticipated, while other national team athletes have decided to represent other countries internationally to gain the experience and opportunities they were not afforded here in Canada as a part of the national team.

Athletes have repeatedly attempted to raise their concerns in a respectful and constructive manner internally with Boxing Canada, and through external avenues in the Canadian sport system. Perhaps what is most concerning is that Boxing Canada has shown a total inability or unwillingness to meaningfully address many of these issues and work towards real positive change.

At this time, the athletes and coaches call for the immediate resignation of Boxing Canada’s High-Performance Director. We also call for Sport Canada to conduct a comprehensive investigation into Boxing Canada’s culture and safe sport process. These measures are necessary to eliminate the toxic culture that is evident within Boxing Canada and move toward a safe, fair and transparent athlete-centric model aimed at building future Olympic champions. Despite some recent superficial changes in the governance structure, there is no indication that any of the athletes and coaches past concerns have been addressed or that there has been any concrete and meaningful changes in 2022.

Sincerely,

121 Boxing Canada Athletes, Coaches, Officials and PSO’s Past & Present (2008– 2022)

cc:

The Honourable Pascale St-Onge, Minister of Sport

Anne Merklinger, CEO, Own the Podium

Trisha Smith, President, Canadian Olympic Committee

Boxing Canada Board of Directors

AthletesCAN

Media inquires or to lend you support: timeforchangeboxing@gmail.com

Show your support by signing the letter: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfsQYxEDhsvlAm4l9ptF4mKBXQEPW5bl7v5GsQkuTM0ibbAQA/viewform

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