OTTAWA — The new sports integrity commissioner must conduct a broader inquiry into a toxic culture of abuse at Canadian sports organizations, federal Sports Minister Pascale St-Onge said Wednesday.
With hundreds of athletes from various sports coming forward with allegations of physical, sexual and psychological abuse, St-Onge clearly says more needs to be done.
“I think there should be (a public inquiry) and it should be conducted by the Office of the Sports Integrity Commissioner,” St-Onge told reporters Wednesday after the weekly Liberal caucus meeting in Ottawa.
St-Onge’s office is currently under accusations of sexual abuse and assault in Hockey Canada, and both she and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have called for a complete change of leadership at Hockey Canada in terms of how the situation.
Trudeau said Wednesday he doesn’t think the board or the organization’s executives really understand the gravity of what’s going on after the board’s interim chairman defended the decision not to force the organization’s executives to resign.
“It’s mind-boggling that Hockey Canada is still digging in its heels,” Trudeau said Wednesday morning in Ottawa. “Parents across the country are losing faith or have lost faith in Hockey Canada. Certainly the politicians here in Ottawa have lost faith in Hockey Canada.”
He said he really hopes they figure it out “because hockey is a very important sport to a lot of Canadians and a lot of kids, and right now this mess isn’t doing kids all over the country any favors.”
St-Onge suspended federal funding for Hockey Canada in June and said he won’t consider restoring it until the organization signs on to work with the new Office of the Sports Integrity Commissioner.
The office began its work in June, established by the federal government as an independent agency to investigate allegations of abuse in sport.
But hockey is far from the only sport in trouble. St-Onge took on the role of sports minister last October, but within the first few months hundreds of athletes in at least eight sports had come forward with allegations of abuse, mistreatment and mishandling of funds.
Bobsleigh, skeleton, rowing, boxing, rugby, football and alpine skiing are just a few of the sports where athletes have appeared. In 2018, some former skiers filed a lawsuit against Alpine Canada alleging it covered up sexual abuse at the hands of a coach in part to avoid losing sponsorships.
That lawsuit was settled out of court in 2019. The coach, Bertrand Charest, was convicted in 2017 of multiple counts of assault and sexual exploitation of young athletes.
In March of this year, 70 current and former gymnasts wrote an open letter to Sport Canada calling for an independent investigation into a toxic culture in their sport. That number has grown to more than 500, and more and more gymnasts are speaking out publicly about the physical, mental and sexual abuse they often suffer at the hands of coaches.
As he did with Hockey Canada, St-Onge cut off federal funding to Gymnastics Canada until he signed on with the sports integrity commissioner.
It has given all sports organizations until April to sign on with that office, but so far, only five have done so, including Volleyball Canada, the Canada Games Council, Canadian Sport for Life, Canadian Sport Center Atlantic and Weightlifting Canada.
Liberal MP Kirsty Duncan, who was minister of sport in 2018 and 2019, said in a speech at the University of Saskatchewan last month that Canada held an inquiry in 1989 to investigate allegations of widespread doping in athletes after Ben Johnson was stripped of his gold medal. from the Seoul Olympics after testing positive for steroids.
He said Canada now needs “a commission of inquiry into abuse, harassment and sexual assault in sport. To allow people to be heard, to show the extent of the problem and to receive actionable recommendations for the government to implement them”.
She is not alone.
Liberal MP Chris Bittle, who sits on the House of Commons heritage committee currently trying to get to the bottom of what’s going on at Hockey Canada, said he’s not against the idea of a broader inquiry.
“We need to expand the study far beyond Hockey Canada and far beyond what we’re looking at,” he said. “And I think there’s a strong willingness on the committee to go ahead and keep asking the questions, because ultimately, it’s about protecting children.”
Families Minister Karina Gould said a public inquiry into abuse in sport was “not a bad idea”.
“There’s a question here of how do we ensure the protection and safety of the athletes, but also, of course, you know, what we saw with Hockey Canada and the conduct of the athletes, and I think that, you know, all of us as Canadians. want to make sure that this kind of behavior is (a) unacceptable and (b) doesn’t happen again.”
St-Onge said the sports integrity commissioner is the organization with “the power to do independent investigations into the culture and that’s really important to change what’s going on in Hockey Canada.”
He said that right now his office is also auditing all sports organizations to look for any misuse of public funds.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on October 5, 2022.