OPEN LETTER: Call for Skate Canada and the Government of Canada to Address Abuse in Figure Skating
This open letter was originally published by Figure Skating for Change Canada.
With their permission, Global Athlete shares their letter below.
27 April 2023
To:
Karen Butcher, President of Skate Canada
The Honourable Pascale St-Onge, Minister of Sport
We write to both of your institutions today with a sense of urgency and concern about the ongoing issues of abuse in Canadian figure skating. The turmoil of the Canadian sport system has been an ongoing news story for over a year and sadly, we know our letter today will not be ‘new’ news. Instead, it will add to the growing army of Canadian athletes who have courageously spoken out against abuse and who have been loud in calling for national judicial inquiry.
Our letter has been directly triggered by recent allegations of abuse at Champs International Skating Centre of British Columbia (CISC), formerly known as the BC Centre of Excellence. Coaches at this club have been accused of physical, verbal, and emotional abuse against young athletes spanning the last fifteen years. Figure skaters who have come forward to us in confidence have described incidences such as being locked in change rooms as punishment, being pushed and shoved around the ice, public slandering of athletes, bribery, psychological manipulation and gaslighting, unsafe training conditions, body-shaming, and stonewalling. Many of these incidents have not been reported due to the shortcomings of the current system, one in which:
Athletes fear retribution when reporting, especially when the people whom athletes are required to report to have power over their careers,
Skate Canada has not adequately dealt with complaints in the past and subsequently, there is a lack of trust in the organisation’s leadership, and
The Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner (OSIC) does not answer the demands for remedy. There is a lack of trust and independence with the OSIC, as expressed by numerous athletes, and there are strong, well-informed doubts about its ability to meet the demands of athlete protection.
Without the ability to report safely, not only do perpetrators continue to loom without accountability but victims suffer consequential harm including trauma, depression, and anxiety.
Athletes are not just demanding effective remedy but, by way of human rights, are fundamentally entitled to it. We are concerned with the ability of the current system to effectively provide sufficient remedy, and while we call on Skate Canada to investigate the allegations of CISC, we know from the current landscape of Canadian sport that true accountability and remedy will only come from independent oversight which is why we are also calling on the Government of Canada to initiate a national judicial inquiry. This is not just one athlete or one gym or one sport – as we have seen for the last year, this is the landscape of Canadian sport where unequivocal power has been handed to coaches and administrators while athletes are rendered powerless and silent in environments where abusers hunt freely.
We hope that following an extensive national judicial inquiry, a wholesale restructuring of Canadian sport, including figure skating, will ensure that forthcoming generations of figure skaters will revel in safe and supportive training environments.
We encourage any skaters who have faced or are facing abuse to reach out to Figure Skating for Change Canada. For any skaters who would like to add their support to this letter, anonymously or named, please fill in this form.
Sincerely,
Figure Skating for Change Canada
* * We acknowledge that the contents of our letter may be overwhelming for some people and that speaking out about abuse can be triggering. If you need support, please contact us at figureskatingforchange@gmail.com * *