Ottawa announcing process to review abuse in Canadian sports

The federal government is launching a three-person commission in the new year to investigate systemic abuse and human rights violations in Canadian sports.

Sport Minister Carla Qualtrough told CBC News she spent more than three months “obsessively” considering a process to address the problem.

“I absolutely think this is a systemic problem,” Qualtrough told CBC News in an interview. “I think it is a crisis.

“We’re dealing with a complex array of abuse, harassment, discrimination [and] normalized behaviour that is very inappropriate.”

During a press conference on Monday, Qualtrough offered an apology on behalf of the government to those who faced abuse and discrimination.

“I’m sorry this happened to you. The sport system did not protect you or hold to account those who hurt you,” she said.

The federal government has been under pressure for months to call a public inquiry into abuse in sports. Elite athletes, advocates and a parliamentary committee have all demanded an inquiry to address what they call a pattern of normalizing abuse, covering up misconduct and failing to hold perpetrators accountable.

Qualtrough said a public inquiry could have put victims in a vulnerable position by exposing them to “combative” cross-examinations to prove their claims.

“We don’t want people to have to prove they were traumatized,” she said.

Some athletes and advocates called the announcement disappointing. They said they wanted a national public inquiry because, unlike a commission, an inquiry would have the power to compel people and sport organizations to testify and hand over documents.

WATCH | 3-person commission to address abuse in sport, minister says:

Federal Sport Minister Carla Qualtrough says a new commission will look into systemic abuse in sport and issue a public report on ways to improve safe sport, including policy, funding, accountability and more.

Qualtrough said she selected instead a process modelled “very closely” on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, which was designed to provide a safe space for people to share their experiences.

The work of the planned three-person commission will be “trauma-informed, victim-centred [and] forward looking,” Qualtrough said. It will be based on the “understanding that a group of vulnerable people have been harmed. The system didn’t protect them and we want to make sure that doesn’t happen again,” she added.

The 18-month commission process is set to start sometime next year. Qualtrough said Ottawa is looking for a preliminary and final report with recommendations on governance, funding and policy aimed at changing the culture in sport.

The chief commissioner will be a legal expert, she said, while the other two commission members will be “special advisers” — one with lived experience, the other with expertise in the court system.

The commission members are expected to be selected and announced early next year, Qualtrough said. 

WATCH | Qualtrough says new safe sport mechanism is coming:

Federal Sport Minister Carla Qualtrough explains why the government will announce a new mechanism for safe sport next week.

Qualtrough told reporters on Monday she estimates the commission will cost between $10 million and $15 million, but could cost more.

The commission’s work could include public hearings, regional meetings, an online portal for submissions and an option for in-camera sessions, Qualtrough said.

Elite athletes have accused the federal government of failing to act to address abuse in sports. Opposition MPs have accused the government of dragging its heels in the face of repeated calls for an inquiry.

When asked if the government could have done more in the past, Qualtrough reflected on her previous time as minister for sport. She’s a a former athlete who won three Paralympic medals and four world championships in swimming, and previously served as the sport minister from 2015 to 2017.

“I’m sorry I didn’t dig in before in my first go around on this job,” she said. “It was not the issue that was top of mind. It was absolutely going on, looking back. But yeah, I probably should have dug deeper, but my focus at that time was concussions.”

Qualtrough’s announcement comes a day ahead of her appearance at the standing committee on Canadian heritage probing sports abuse, where she is expected to face more questions about her decision.

Athletes called for a different process

Qualtrough’s predecessor Pascale St-Onge called requests for a public inquiry “legitimate” in May and said she was working on one before she was shuffled to another cabinet position. St-Onge recently said she supports whatever process the government chooses.

Qualtrough said she concluded a public inquiry would have been more rigid and litigious and would have involved negotiations with provinces and territories over jurisdiction. 

“A public inquiry could have ended up resulting in a conclusion that a bad thing happened in sport, do something about it,” she told CBC News. “Instead, that’s where I want this process to start.”

WATCH | Elite athletes want government action against abuse in sport: 

Elite athletes from multiple sports testified about abuse and sexual misconduct at the hands of coaches before a parliamentary committee. They say Canada needs a national inquiry into abuse in sport to protect the next generation.

Two parliamentary committees probing abuse in sports over the past year have exposed the long-standing nature of the problem already, she said.

But Gymnasts for Change Canada, a group dedicated to eliminating abuse in gymnastics, said it’s disappointed in the minister’s decision not to call an inquiry.

“We are concerned that these are critical shortcomings in this review that may prevent robust and meaningful outcomes,” the organization said in a statement. 

Amelia Cline, one of the group’s co-founders, told CBC News that she’s concerned a commission might not be able to hold people accountable.

Cline said she personally experienced abuse as a child at the hands of her coaches until she quit gymnastics when she turned 13. That abuse, she said, included psychological maltreatment and extreme training that left her with a pelvic injury.

“I think that’s really where this commission is really going to succeed or fail, is whether it’s actually going to dig into the systems that we currently have and the people that are currently running those systems and really hold them responsible for what’s been going on,” Cline said.

Derek Silva, a sociology professor who researches sports culture at Western University, said the commission won’t have the same “teeth” an inquiry would through the power to compel evidence.

“If it was truly survivor-centered, then it would be listening to survivors who repeatedly called for a national inquiry,” he said.

Bloc Québécois MP Sébastien Lemire, who sat on one of the House committees probing abuse in sports, said Monday’s announcement was “not sufficient.”

“It will be a step but it’s not the step victims want,” Lemire said, arguing that the government should have called a public inquiry.

Abuse in sports went public in Canada last year when Hockey Canada reached a settlement with a young woman who alleged she was sexually assaulted in London, Ont., in 2017 by eight hockey players, including members of the World Junior team of that year.

Public outrage grew when reports emerged that Hockey Canada was using parents’ registration fees without their knowledge to pay millions of dollars in settlements over the years.

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Hockey Canada has announced its CEO and entire board of directors are stepping aside after mounting backlash over its handling of sexual assault allegations.

Qualtrough said she’s “watching Hockey Canada pretty closely.” She said the hockey organization’s change of leadership and early actions give her hope that Hockey Canada is on “the right path,” but “I don’t think we’re at a point where we can congratulate anyone.”

“I think it’s too soon to say that I don’t have concerns,” Qualtrough said of Hockey Canada.

She added that she has the ability to suspend a national sport organization’s funding and is “absolutely prepared to do that” if any of them fail to comply with Canada’s “abuse-free sport program.”

Immediate measures

The government also announced immediate actions Monday to improve the system for reporting abuse in sports without “compromising or undermining the commission’s work,” said Qualtrough.

The measures include addressing concerns about the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner, which was launched in June 2022 to oversee the complaint intake process, conduct preliminary assessments and maintain a database of sanctions imposed.

Qualtrough said there have been complaints about the office’s “perceived lack of independence” and “perceived conflict of interest” since it’s housed at the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada (SDRCC), which conducts the tribunal that resolves the disputes.

Qualtrough announced Ottawa will move the office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner out of the SDRCC and address a backlog of cases by streamlining the process.

The government also will be elevating an athlete advisory committee created earlier this year to the status of a “ministerial advisory committee.” The change means athletes will have direct access to Qualtrough to advise her on problems in the sports system and will meet with her regularly. Athletes will be able to apply to serve on the committee starting on January 10.

The federal government will also address the “fragmented” nature of sports policies in Canada, Qualtrough said. She said governance codes, a universal code of conduct for safe sport and harassment policies are “kind of all over the place.”

There are also policy gaps that must be filled in, Qualtrough said, citing the absence of a specific policy to safeguard children. The government is launching a “sport integrity framework” to pull everything together and create a systemic approach to sport, she said.

Qualtrough also said the government is launching an international working group on integrity in sport, which she called the “biggest crisis facing the international ecosystem as well.”