Global Athlete has been asked to publish this letter on behalf of over 508 Canadian Gymnasts

Open Letter 

Another Canadian Child Gymnast has been sexually assaulted and the Canadian Government continues to Ignore Athletes’ Calls for an Independent Third-Party investigation into the Abuse in Canadian Gymnastics. 

To:  Pascale St-Onge, Minister of Sport

21 July 2022: We represent over 508 Canadian gymnasts, many of whom have suffered physical, psychological and sexual abuse in our sport. In the last four months, we have publicly bared our souls, sharing stories of devastating treatment we suffered at the hands of our sport. We have called for an independent third-party investigation to address the systemic culture of abuse that prevails in Canadian gymnastics. These calls have been ignored by GymCan, by Sport Canada, and now by your office, to the great detriment of child gymnasts across this country.

On 5 July 2022, a coach from Lethbridge was arrested and charged by Lethbridge Police following an investigation that found he sexually abused a 7-year-old gymnast in May and June 2022. In light of this, we note the following timeline:

• According to recently published documents, in August 2020, Vicki Walker, Dir. General Sport Canada, and Ian Moss, GymCan CEO, were aware of and discussed the potential for “a wave of historic [abuse] complaints” in Canadian gymnastics.

• In April 2021, the Board of Directors of GymCan was urged by survivors to initiate an independent, third-party investigation into the sport.

• On 22 December 2021, Vicki Walker and the GymCan Board of Directors were contacted by survivors again, urging them to move ahead with the independent investigation that had been proposed to the Board in April 2021.

• On March 28, 2022, our open letter to Sport Canada, calling for an independent, third-party investigation was published.

According to this timeline, GymCan and Sport Canada have had knowledge of, and the opportunity to act on, suspected systemic abuse in gymnastics for at least two years and have done nothing, allowing abuse to continue against Canadian child athletes without intervention.

We had hoped for a better, more urgent response from you. However, since our open letter was published in March 2022, you have not publicly responded to our request for an investigation. E-mails sent directly to you by survivors, informing you that abuse is ongoing within gyms across this country and urging you to move forward with the investigation that is so badly needed to prevent it, have gone unanswered. To date, your office has taken no steps to hold GymCan or Sport Canada accountable and all those who have presided over this abuse crisis remain in their positions of authority. There has been no accountability and no meaningful action. 

And in these critical intervening months of silence and apathy, a seven-year-old child was allegedly sexually abused by her coach. 

We will never know with certainty whether your initiation of the requested investigation would have prevented this latest devastating example of abuse. But your inaction sends a clear message to every young gymnast that abuse in their sport does not deserve your attention; your inaction sends a message to every perpetrator and predator that it is “open season” for abusers in gymnastics; your inaction sends a message to every enabler of this abuse that they will not be held to account for turning a blind eye; your lack of action leaves you increasingly complicit. 

Minister St-Onge, how many more children need to be abused before you act?

To be clear, we categorically reject the “culture review” recently announced by GymCan, through the engagement of another sport-based organization, McLaren Global Sport Solutions. A review bought and paid for by the very organization to be investigated, imposed on survivors without consultation, makes a mockery of the investigative process. GymCan cannot be allowed to investigate itself and this response cannot be established as an acceptable standard for national sport organizations that come under scrutiny for systemic abuse. We ask that you immediately suspend all funding for GymCan, as was done with Hockey Canada, to prevent taxpayer dollars from funding an ineffective and harmful review that we expect will whitewash the survivor experience.

We reiterate that only a fully independent, Canada-wide, third-party investigation, conducted by a qualified judicial authority and that is approved by survivors will be sufficient. Not only will this investigation provide critical information to help us stop abuse in gymnastics, but it will also send a message to all sport organizations that the government will hold them to account if they allow cultures of abuse to persist.

Our shared experiences of emotional, physical, psychological and sexual abuse hold valuable truths that are necessary to come to light if change is ever to be truly achieved. The stories of survivors must be investigated to understand how abuse has prevailed in the Canadian system for decades. To ignore the past is to risk repeating it. And right now, in gyms across Canada, the past is being repeated. Abuse is being repeated. And children are paying the price. 

We need urgent action now to stop the toxic abuse in the sport. We need the Minister of Sport to work with us to commence the long overdue independent third-party investigation. The safety of Canadian children hinges on your action and your courage.   

Sincerely, 

On behalf of the hundreds of survivors,

Gymnasts for Change Canada

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