Wrestlers appeal to Ottawa to help with harrassment and abuse in sports

TORONTO Erica Wiebe knows how Olympic dreams can be threatened with a complaint to the wrong person.

The Olympic wrestling gold medallist said is lucky to have had “amazing coaches and amazing experiences” in her sport, but has seen teammates struggle around safe sport issues.

Canadian wrestlers are appealing to Kirsty Duncan to establish a third-party body to handle cases of harassment and abuse, and on Monday sent an open letter to Canada’s Minister of Science, Sport and People with Disabilities claiming conflict of interest and inconsistency in the current system have created an environment of fear and mistrust.

“Sometimes when you have a problem with your boss, it’s really awkward to go to your boss and complain about it,” Wiebe said. “And so, if you’re having an issue with your coach, and your coach is employed by your CEO, we’ve seen it so many times where organizations are protecting the coaches, they’re protecting their employees rather than their athletes.

“So at times it doesn’t feel safe or comfortable for an athlete to come forward because we don’t want to put our goal, our lifelong dream of making an Olympic Games in jeopardy. Sometimes it’s this fear of keeping the status quo, rather than shifting the boat, because there’s been no independent body that we can go to and feel safe.”

Safe sport has been governed through the Sport Canada Accountability Framework since it was implemented in 1996. Sports must have a safe sport policy, and a designated individual to handle complaints, in place to receive government funding.

But critics complain policies aren’t adequately applied.

“We want the minister to know that athletes support an independent body to handle safe sport issues,” Jasmine Mian, a 2016 Olympian and chair of Wrestling Canada’s athlete council, said in a release.

The lack of a third party facilitator, Mian said, makes athletes fearful of reporting issues to their sport organizations.