Minister of Sport hints at big changes for handling of sexual abuse cases
TORONTO There could be a major shift in the way sexual abuse and harassment cases are handled in Canadian amateur sport.
Kirsty Duncan, Canada’s Minister of Science and Sport, hinted Monday that an independent party might be implemented in the near future to investigate cases. Her comments come during a CBC investigation into abuse in amateur sport.
“We are working on a third party,” Duncan told The Canadian Press on Monday.
Safe sport has been governed through the Sport Canada Accountability Framework since it was implemented in 1996 in the wake of a sexual abuse scandal involving former junior hockey coach Graham James. National sport organizations must have a safe-sport policy — and a designated individual to handle complaints — in place to receive government funding.
But in recent months, and in light of a handful of high-profile cases in Canada, athletes and administrators — Olympic wrestling champion Erica Wiebe and Sheldon Kennedy, a retired NHL player and sex abuse victim among them — have publicly called for an independent party to handle cases.
Abuse, discrimination and harassment were among the topics of Duncan’s working group on gender equity, which was assembled shortly after she was appointed sport minister in January of 2018.
“The report has come forward, I will be addressing it, and you will see actions coming of their recommendations,” Duncan said.
The minister said a meeting is scheduled for this week in Red Deer, Alta., with representatives at the federal, provincial and territorial levels ahead of the 2019 Canada Winter Games, and that ending abuse and harassment in sport had already been a top priority.
A CBC investigation, published Sunday as the first of a threepart series, reported “at least 222 coaches” were convicted of sexual offences from 1998-2018. The report also said 34 other cases of accused coaches are before the courts.
“My heart goes out to all those who have been affected, and I have one goal: it’s to close the gap, to do
the hard systemic cultural change and make this right going forward, to do everything we can to protect our athletes and kids,” said Duncan, a former gymnast and longtime coach.
“I can’t say it enough, this is my top priority. One athlete, one child is too many.”
Wiebe, who won gold at the 2018 Rio Olympics, was among a group of Canada wrestlers who appealed to Duncan in writing in December to establish an independent body to investigate harassment and abuse, claiming a conflict of interest and inconsistency in the current system had created an environment of fear and mistrust.
Ashley LaBrie, the executive director of AthletesCAN, an athletes rights group, said there’s a concern that even with a third party, cases will slip through the cracks.