After a two-year study into abuse in sports, a parliamentary committee is calling for sweeping reforms to better protect athletes from sexual and physical abuse, including mandatory criminal background checks for all officials, coaches and volunteers, and a new database to search past complaints, arrests and convictions.
The Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage is also calling on the federal government to increase transparency among sports organizations across the country, including by requiring them to fully disclose top executives’ salaries, funding and board meeting minutes.
“Throughout its investigation, the committee has observed firsthand the systemic failings that have allowed these unacceptable conditions to occur,” the final report said, making more than 20 recommendations.
“I also witnessed first-hand some of the governance issues that are affecting many countries. [national sport organizations] Across Canada.”
The commission heard testimony from more than 100 witnesses, including current and former athletes, representatives of sports organizations and experts, during 24 conferences on abuse in Canadian sport.
The testimonies revealed what some described as a “toxic culture” in sport, where the focus on winning medals has fostered an atmosphere in which athletes are afraid to report abuse for fear of embarrassment or the threat of retaliation.
The commission began its investigation in 2022 after Hockey Canada quietly settled a gang sexual assault case out of court, with non-disclosure agreements limiting what the victim could say publicly.
Hockey Canada has been put on the defensive over allegations that some members of its gold medal-winning 2018 World Junior team participated in a gang sexual assault and the association has failed to do enough to hold players accountable. The Fifth Estate examines a national embarrassment in Canadian sport and the disturbing history that shows this was not an isolated incident.
Police later charged five former members of Canada’s world junior hockey team with sexual assault in connection to the incident, which allegedly took place in London, Ontario, after a Hockey Canada event.
The Canadian Hockey Association controversy exposed the fact that the association spent players’ registration fees without their knowledge and maintained multiple funds to pay millions of dollars in sexual abuse claims.
Retired Supreme Court Justice Hockey Canada had no rules about how it managed the funds, details about the withdrawals were largely confidential, and the sports organization also failed to notify members of payments of more than $500,000 on six occasions, violating its own disclosure rules.
The committee’s report recommended that all national sporting organizations disclose all funds at their disposal and state how they are used. They should also adopt guidelines for “the appropriate and transparent use of reserve funds, such as Hockey Canada’s National Equity Fund and the Participants’ Legacy Trust Fund,” it said.
The report added that information about the use of these funds must be “made publicly available online and free of charge.”
“Please indicate how much is being spent on bonuses, gifts, settlement payments and allocations of funds to each program, fund and initiative,” the report said.
As the committee carried out its work, Hockey Canada came under fire from NDP MP Peter Julien, who called on Hockey Canada to explain itself. The board dinner he said “Over $5,000, presidential suites for executives cost over $3,000 a night, and gold and diamond rings for executives cost over $3,000 each.”
The report also calls on sports organisations to publish statements on their websites detailing all contractors they employ, the value of their contracts and declaring that there were no conflicts of interest. Insurance policies should also be made public, the report said.
CBC News Network’s Hannah Thibedeau speaks with lawyer and victim advocate Rachel Denhollander.
The report said the amount of money sports organisations receive from government through grants, sponsorship, equity funds, registration fees, development funds and capital funds should also be made public. All contracts over $5,000, including travel expenses, should also be proactively made public to strengthen accountability, it said.
The government should also ban the use of non-disclosure agreements, which national sports bodies use to limit what athletes say after they receive compensation for abuse, the report said. All victims should be released from these agreements if they have already signed them, the committee said.
Many athletes who have been abused fear retaliation that could affect their careers, the committee wrote, adding that some current Olympians are too scared to speak about their experiences.
The law needs to be reformed to provide greater protection for whistleblowers, the report said.
The federal government has announced it will set up a commission to look into systemic abuse in sport from 2024, but some survivors of abuse say the government should instead launch a full public inquiry with the power to compel witnesses to testify.
The committee also recommended that the government establish a formal process for investigating sexual, physical and sexual abuse that takes trauma into account.
The report also called for more funding for sports safety and an independent public inquiry into abuse in sport, which the federal government has rejected, setting up instead a three-person commission of inquiry.
Players who testified at the committee also spoke about pay equity and the unequal treatment of the women’s national team, with players from the Canadian women’s national soccer team saying women’s soccer was being “put on the back burner” while funding was directed towards the men’s team.
Members of Canada’s gold medal-winning women’s soccer team told lawmakers they are being asked to do more with less and don’t receive the same pay or treatment as members of the men’s team.
The report calls on the government to work with national sports bodies to promote gender equality and diversity and encourage more women, Black, Indigenous and people of colour into leadership roles.
The committee also is calling on Canada’s Auditor General to audit all sports programs, including the nonprofit organization Own the Podium.
The government has five months to respond to the report.
