Coalition Against Abuse In Sport Statement Following the Canadian Minister of Sport’s Press Conference
New safe sport measures in Canada fail to address the human rights crisis occurring in Canadian sport
11 May 2023: Today's press conference and roundtable hosted by the Canadian Minister of Sport were indignant to the thousands of survivors and supporters who have come forward calling for a national judicial inquiry into the toxic culture of abuse across Canadian sport. The measures put forward by the Minister are not the foundations upon which safe sport in Canada can be built. Without understanding the depths of the human rights issue at hand, the injection of funding will not adequately address the problems.
The systemic issues of abuse in Canadian sport have prevailed for decades specifically because of the self-governing system. Today’s announcements offer nothing to alter or investigate this outdated governance model. Instead, they reinforce it by establishing a Compliance Unit and an Athlete Advisory Committee within Sport Canada, an entity that has contributed to this crisis and has yet to be held accountable for those failings. The establishment of more bureaucratic arms attached to sporting bodies allows self-regulation to continue and keeps at a distance what is needed – oversight, transparency, and independence.
The lack of engagement with athletes and athlete groups in forming these new measures is indicative of how the system will continue to operate. While the announcement suggests improved athlete representation, rights, and welfare, as well as athletes being ‘at the heart of decision-making structures’, the exclusion of the athlete voice in the formation of these measures suggests otherwise. Placing one or two athletes on an internal board does not provide athletes with an equal voice, nor does it fulfil the fundamental human right to organise. Instead, it serves to make them complicit in a broken system responsible for the abuse of their fellow athletes. Equal, collective, and independent athlete representation through a Canadian Athlete Union would truly ensure Sport Canada’s work is informed by the athlete perspective.
The utilization of the Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Maltreatment in Sport (UCCMS) to incentivize compliance for National Sporting Organisations (NSOs), is a futile carrot-and-stick approach. Cuts to funding as the only consequence will not change the culture of abuse. The measures are absent of notions of accountability for abusers and enablers and of remedy for athletes. While we acknowledge the importance of removing non-disclosure agreements (NDA), this measure should be extended to demand all past NDAs, that have forced people into silence, be abolished to allow the truth to come forward.
Exposing the truth and getting to the root of the problem, which can only be done by the breadth and transparency offered by a national inquiry, is a daring move – we acknowledge this as whistle-blowers who often place our vulnerability above our discomfort. To look at what is rotten and broken will require world-class leadership and an understanding that this is not a sport issue needing to be solved by sport people – it is a human rights issue occurring in the context of sport and therefore, it requires a human rights response. If the Minister is serious about changing the culture of Canadian sport, the only way to begin this cultural shift will be through a national judicial inquiry – one which has the potential to set Canada as a world leader of safe sport.
We call on every Canadian who cares about the safety of child, youth, and elite athletes to demand a national inquiry be immediately launched.
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