Canadian Heritage Committee on July 26th, 2022

[Michel Ruest]

Sport organizations in Canada have long been required to have a policy on safety in sport. It's been required since the 1990s, I think, but after Ms. Duncan came in, we tightened up the requirements. Since that time, we have also implemented a number of initiatives related to safety in sport. It's been pretty much a crescendo since 2018. It's very clear that this is a priority for the government.

[Chris Bittle, Liberal, St. Catharines, ON]

Could you please discuss some of the priorities that Minister Duncan undertook and the changes that were made under her mandate as Minister of Sport?

[Michel Ruest]

The requirement for incident disclosure, training and third‑party access was of major importance in the announcement she made during her first year as minister.

We then worked to implement these requirements and incorporate them into our contribution agreements. That is now an essential part of what we do with organizations.

[Isabelle Mondou, Deputy Minister, Department of Canadian Heritage]

If I may, Madam Chair, can I add just a few elements to the answer to complete it?

After 2018, the work did not stop there. There were other measures that the minister took. One of those was to support financially the national sport coaching association to develop a code of conduct that has become the universal code of conduct, and it's now part of the requirement of our contribution agreement that every organization has to adopt that code. What that code does is state clearly for each organization what the expectations are in terms of safe sport. So, that was something else that the minister supported financially.

I also want to point out that at the time she had a national conversation with the sport sector, and there was another element that was felt necessary and that the minister started to initiate, which was to have another independent third party. My colleague talked about every organization's having the ability to have a third party, but what the minister initiated at the time was to add another body that would act as an independent third party from the organization, because we heard from athletes that they didn't always trust the internal third party.

This body was established and announced in the summer of 2021 by then minister Guilbeault, and it started operating as of June of this year as a body where every organization can now refer that third party case. The current minister has indicated that she wants to make that mandatory for all the organizations. That's part of this continuum of increased measures.

I also want to mention, maybe, that Minister St-Onge—and she will talk about that, too—in June announced that she is going to look at the contribution agreement and see what else we can add in order to increase the reporting. That will include governance, accountability and better follow-up for safe sport.

Thank you.

[Chris Bittle, Liberal, St. Catharines, ON]

Thank you.

In terms of these sports organizations or private organizations, what legislative structures exist in Canada to regulate these organizations?

[Michel Ruest]

The Canada Not‑for‑profit Corporations Act, which is administered by Industry Canada, is the legislative framework that defines standards for not‑for‑profit organizations.

[Chris Bittle, Liberal, St. Catharines, ON]

Is there nothing specifically related to Sport Canada and its ability to regulate, direct and control these organizations except for funding arrangements?

[Michel Ruest]

The relationship we have with these organizations is as a funder. It's the federal government's spending power. That relationship is framed by the requirements included in the contribution agreements we have with organizations.

With respect to the minister's authority, the minister may conduct financial audits with respect to the funding that is provided and the requirements that are included in the contribution agreements. It is limited to that.

[Chris Bittle, Liberal, St. Catharines, ON]

In terms of—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have 30 seconds.

[Chris Bittle, Liberal, St. Catharines, ON]

With regard to the current minister's actions and a request for or an ordering of an audit, was that the scope of her power to act in this particular instance?

[Michel Ruest]

Yes, it was, and we acted quickly to ensure that no public funding was involved in the settlement of this affair, and this verification is ongoing right now.

[Chris Bittle, Liberal, St. Catharines, ON]

Thank you so much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much.

Now I'm going to go to the third six-minute question round, and that's going to be Monsieur Lemire for six minutes, please, from the Bloc.

[Justin Vaive]

Madam Chair, it will be Madame Larouche who will be speaking on behalf of the Bloc.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

Go ahead, Madame Larouche.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Mr. Ruest and Ms. Mondou, thank you for being here today.

I listened carefully to what you said in your opening remarks and when you answered questions in the first two rounds of questions.

What struck me last June when Hockey Canada appeared before the committee was their lack of compassion. They were talking about rape as something that is commonplace, like it is elsewhere in society, and that really struck me.

In your testimony, what strikes me is the slowness to respond and the coincidences between the release of information, which was only done this year, and the actions that are starting to be taken when we've been made aware of certain things.

According to what you say, measures have been put in place since 2018. You say it's moving forward, but I'm struck by how slow the measures are.

Let's get back to societal aggression and trivialization. Can you tell me how many of these incidents were reported to Sport Canada in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and even this year?

In their remarks last June, Hockey Canada officials were talking about two incidents per year.

Is that accurate?

[Michel Ruest]

Are you talking about Hockey Canada?

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Yes, that's what Hockey Canada told us last June.

Does that number seem accurate?

Is this a number you've also heard about for 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, as well as for this year?

[Michel Ruest]

As I explained in my opening remarks, we enter this information in a confidential directory whenever it is disclosed to Sport Canada. We can currently see that there are eight cases in this directory since we started entering data.

If you do the math over four years, it comes out to about that.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

In 2018, in the days following the incident, Tom Renney of Hockey Canada said he notified Sport Canada of the allegations against players on the 2017‑18 National Junior Hockey Team.

For her part, the Minister of Sport, Pascale St‑Onge, stated that she was first informed on May 24, 2022 of sexual allegations against players in the 2017‑18 roster.

The allegations were made in 2017‑18. You say the department was made aware of this. However, the minister tells us that she was only informed on May 24, 2022. What does this tell us about the flow of information within your department and its response?

Earlier, Ms. Mondou, you talked about the code of ethics and the fact that it was not a requirement for funding. You say that you have tightened requirements and that you want more rules and safety in sport. However, despite what you knew, it took public disclosure of the incident last spring, in May or June, for the minister to finally act and decide to suspend funding.

What about parents' sense of security? In my riding, there is a hockey coach who is one of those who raised his voice to express the parents' concern after learning about the incident and the timeline of the event.

[Isabelle Mondou]

First, I'm going to pick up on a few things from your previous question.

You are quite right that the allegations are absolutely horrific. That's how we feel about them at Sport Canada, and that's why action was taken in 2018.

Next, I would like to come back to how quickly things are moving.

Of course, we would always like to see things move more quickly. It may not seem like it, but there have been major additions to the complaint mechanism, including the improved the code of conduct and the establishment of an independent complaint mechanism since 2018.

I come to your question about the facts. According to those revealed in 2018, a police investigation was under way. Sport Canada does not have the means to investigate the progress of the police investigation and that is not its role. We expect organizations to keep us informed of developments, which are supposed to be included in annual reports.

However, the minister recently became aware of a new development. Hockey Canada told Sport Canada on May 24 that there were other developments that we were not aware of. There was an out‑of‑court settlement and the termination of the police investigation. Hockey Canada didn't tell us until May 24. So it was new to Sport Canada.

Sport Canada was aware of an ongoing police investigation. Police investigations can sometimes take a few years, so it was not surprising to Sport Canada that the investigation was still ongoing. What surprised us, however, is that we have not heard anything since.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

You mentioned the fund apparently set aside for sexual assault lawsuits.

You said that you were not aware that this fund had specifics related to sexual assault. However, based on the financial statements, you did not note anything about this that clarified this point.

[Isabelle Mondou]

We will be happy to provide you with the exact text in the annual report. It does mention a compensation fund. There are sometimes injuries in hockey. The legislation in question refers to a compensation fund for hockey‑related injury lawsuits. In our view, this is entirely reasonable.

This is what we saw in the annual report. There was no mention of sexual allegations or anything else.

We will be happy to send you the text in question.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Hasn't there been any follow‑up over the years?

I'm trying to understand.

You are telling us that you are letting the investigation run its course. I would still like to come back to the type of follow‑up being done during the investigation. What type of follow‑up is there?

There are these instances of abuse, and you are aware of the allegations. What about the follow‑up you have done over the years? The investigation took four years to complete. Things can change over that length of time.