Sports organizations could lose funding for not reporting allegations

OTTAWA Sports Minister Kirsty Duncan says national sporting organizations will lose their federal funding if they don’t immediately disclose to her office any allegations of abuse or harassment that occur within their ranks.

Effective immediately, funding agreements also require sporting associations to establish an independent third party to investigate all allegations of abuse and have mandatory prevention training in place as soon as possible and no later than April 1, 2020.

“I am prepared to withhold funding,” Duncan said. “I’ve done it in science. I will do it in sport. Money talks.”

The new rules unveiled Tuesday apply to the 57 national sporting organizations, funded by Sport Canada, that govern all aspects of particular sports, including oversight of elite programs and national teams, professional development for coaches, and initiatives to promote and develop their sport. They do not apply to provincial sporting organizations.

The changes come as the sporting world reels from numerous cases of sexual abuse and harassment of athletes in a number of different sports both in Canada and elsewhere.

Earlier this month, several former members of Canada’s national ski team came forward to speak publicly about the abuse they suffered at the hands of their coach Bertrand Charest, in the 1990s. Charest was convicted a year ago of 37 offences.