The Hockey Canada Scandal Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg
Why the federal government needs to act forcefully to create a safe sports environment.
By Alison Clement and Sandrine Desforges
SAFE AND INCLUSIVE SPORTS SHOULD always be the primary goal ahead of winning medals, gaining sponsorships or spotlighting brands - especially when it comes to protecting young people. But the blatant mishandling of sexual misconduct within sports organizations across Canada has proved that winning and protecting reputations matters most — regardless of the human cost. Empty words and promises are simply not enough. It is time for a more forceful response from the federal government to reform sports culture across Canada.
Abusive sports culture has long been silenced with poor excuses from ‘locker room talk’ to ‘boys will be boys’; cultures which have been institutionalized at all levels of athletics. Last spring, news of Hockey Canada using $8 million dollars from a slush fund of player registration fees to cover sexual assault claims and other lawsuit expenses sent shockwaves across the country. Despite mounting public pressure from parliamentarians and corporate sponsors—along with calls for action from Prime Minister Trudeau—Hockey Canada continued to resist change in senior leadership and defensively argued that the organization was being used to scapegoat “Hockey as a centerpiece for toxic culture.”
Canadian Sport Minister Pascale St-Onge suspended federal funding for Hockey Canada this summer when the abuse allegations surfaced. But Hockey Canada’s board of directors’ slow resignation and subsequent organizational changes felt more like a desperate and reluctant attempt to save face, rather than a meaningful way to take responsibility for their actions. Even with subsequent media frenzied weeks after the initial discovery—alongside weeklong parliamentary hearings where Hockey Canada was summoned to testify in front of House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage—it took months for a second incident of a slush fund used to cover sexual assault claims to come to light. This raises the question if the government conducted a proper investigation in the first place.
Hockey Canada’s toxic culture is not isolated in the sports world. Allegations of psychological, physical and sexual abuse have come to light in multiple sports across the country, including rowing, boxing, rugby, skiing and soccer. In 2018, a lawsuit was filed against Alpine Canada by former skiers who said the organization covered up sexual abuse by a coach, in part, to prevent a loss of sponsorships. In May, more than 100 Canadian boxers sent letters calling for the resignation of Boxing Canada's high-performance director, citing that the organization has cultivated a toxic culture of abuse and silence. Both instances suggest athletes were afraid to speak up earlier for fear of being punished and left off national and Olympic teams. Hence, it’s evident that this is not just a hockey issue, it’s a sports cultural issue.
Despite athletes’ push for government action in recent years, response has been minimal. At the end of October, 500 gymnasts signed a second letter criticizing the federal government’s inaction. Bobsleigh and skeleton athletes similarly sent a second request to the government, citing that the ongoing lack of acknowledgement and inaction to address any of their concerns is continuing to create long-term, detrimental harm to athletes across Canada.
After years of complaints, in 2021, Steven Guilbeault, then Minister of Canadian Heritage, announced the creation of a “new independent safe sport mechanism”, the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner (OSIC). The office is tasked to oversee the implementation of the newly established “Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Maltreatment in Sport.” In June 2022, Minister St-Onge also announced that all federally funded sport organizations will be mandated to register to the OSIC, and sign and comply with the code of conduct before April 1st, 2023. To date, only three national federations have signed on: Volleyball Canada, Hockey Canada and Weightlifting Canada. Some others, such as Gymnastics Canada, and Rugby Canada, have announced they will register to OSIC following an organizational ‘transition period’.
A transition period of 10 months to sign-on to the OSIC seems excessively lenient as it leaves room for organizations to ‘clean up’ or hide any misconduct that might have not been dealt with properly in the past. Also, the code of conduct lists a series of possible sanctions in case of violation of its provision, ranging from an apology to probation, suspension and even permanent ineligibility. Yet, those sanctions are still dependent on the signatory organizations’ internal policies which leaves a lot of loopholes to continue to foster and overlook bad behaviour.
Even though these measures are a step in the right direction, it is not enough to drive the cultural change that is desperately needed across all sporting bodies in Canada. It is time for bolder and more innovative policy approaches to address this systemic issue.
First, the federal government must exert more pressure on organizations to register to the OSIC and comply with the code immediately. It also needs to stipulate clear consequences for non-compliance, and forbid businesses from using their own internal policies as “emergency exits”.
Secondly, it also necessary to conduct an independent inquiry into the Canadian sport system, commissioned by the OSIC. The leaders of the inquiry should be impartial and charged with providing real, tangible and transformative recommendations to the government. It should also include experts in the fields of sexual prevention, as well as physical, psychological and emotional abuse should be present. These recommendations must address the needs of survivors while providing clear repercussions for offenders.
Additionally, transparent monitoring and evaluation of an organization’s progress and response to misconduct also needs to be an established function of the OSIC. Mechanisms for financial transparency on the settlement of sexual abuse claims and mandatory reporting of sexual violence allegations must be implemented so that an organization’s ability to address misconduct can be monitored and evaluated by an impartial body.
Furthermore, the OSIC needs to develop guidance on a range of related topics, from developing effective protective measures against sexual exploitation to setting up anonymous whistleblowing mechanisms, as well as options for modernized preventative training for athletes and coaches.
Clear instruction on how to develop fair and equitable complaint processes must also be established, including the removal of nondisclosure and one-sided confidentiality agreements which have traditionally been used to silence survivors.
We need to move beyond the paradigm that safe sports policies and processes are only geared to protect and benefit athletes. Proper support from the federal government will better equip national sports organizations with the tools they need to develop safer and more inclusive environments.
It is no longer enough to hold hearings, make statements of disapproval and implement codes without consequences. For the sake of the current and next generation of young athletes, as well as the future of sports in Canada, the government needs to step up and act now to protect Canadians while also holding accountable the perpetrators who prey on them.
Alison Clement is a Master’s of Public Policy Candidate at the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University. She has an interest in social policy, specifically in the areas of advancing the social and economic rights of women.
Sandrine Desforges is a Master’s of Public Policy Candidate at the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University. She is interested in educational policies, as well as policy-making in the fields of mental health and prevention of gender-based violence.