Evidence of meeting #68 for Canadian Heritage in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was soccer.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
Yes, and I found it to be highly inappropriate, in terms of the timing and the way it was done. I appreciate that.
I have one question, and again, yes or no is okay. Do you believe that the women's team and the men's team should have a representative, either a current player or a former player, who represents them on the board of Canada Soccer?
Player Representative, Canadian National Soccer Team Player, Canadian Soccer Player's Association
Yes.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
I would call on Canada Soccer to reopen the nominations to allow for a fair nomination process, allow for a change in the rules and allow for representatives of both the women's team and the men's team to be on the board, so that you're not wondering what is going on in the financials and what the transparency stuff is.
You mentioned to my colleague, Bonita, that you had not even seen the CSB agreement. Nobody has shown that to you. Were you consulted in 2017 and 2018, as the negotiations were going on, about whether negotiating by a third party and allowing a third party to take over sponsorship and television rights was a good idea?
Player Representative, Canadian National Soccer Team Player, Canadian Soccer Player's Association
No, we were not.
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
Has the board ever come to you and ask the women's team if you think this is a good idea?
Player Representative, Canadian National Soccer Team Player, Canadian Soccer Player's Association
Liberal
Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC
Okay. That is certainly problematic.
I'm just going to end there. I'll have another round after. I find it bizarre. A guarantee is normally supposed to be that you have this minimum amount guaranteed, and then you benefit from all the rest, such as going to the Olympics, winning the Olympics and having the World Cup. It's bizarre to me that anybody would agree to an agreement on the basis of what we've seen. I look forward to reading the agreement.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you, Anthony.
Now we go to the Bloc Québécois for two and a half minutes. Go ahead, Monsieur Lemire.
Bloc
Sébastien Lemire Bloc Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I have a question to follow up on what Mr. Housefather asked.
How confident are you in Canada Soccer's leadership?
Player Representative, Canadian National Soccer Team Player, Canadian Soccer Player's Association
As Christine mentioned earlier, I don't believe we have confidence in the new leadership of Canada Soccer. I don't want to belabour Christine's point, but Charmaine has been a member of the board since 2013, and through her time on the board, again, she has not shown her support for the women's program, as we've seen through all these issues that we're facing today. I believe that she is part of the old guard of Canada Soccer and the members of the board who have been in place for a long time now and continue to be in place on the board.
Bloc
Sébastien Lemire Bloc Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC
Ms. Crooks was appointed interim president. What are your expectations for the renewal of this position or the official mandate of the president of Canada Soccer?
Player Representative, Canadian National Soccer Team Player, Canadian Soccer Player's Association
Can you just rephrase your question?
Bloc
Sébastien Lemire Bloc Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC
Ms. Crooks was appointed interim president and there should be an official nomination process to elect a new president for Canada Soccer. What expectations do you have for this process with regard to transparency, openness, the process, and the profile required for the president of Canada Soccer?
Player Representative, Canadian National Soccer Team Player, Canadian Soccer Player's Association
It needs to be made clear what the requirements are for that position. I understand they're written in the Canada Soccer bylaws. It's also been reported that the Canada Soccer board is potentially trying to change those bylaws in order to open up the position for members who haven't served on the board to be president. That is a great opportunity for those who maybe didn't think they could before to put their names forward. I also think it is a dangerous place to go to open the position to someone who hasn't had time in Canada Soccer.
I would just emphasize what my teammates have said in the sense that the new leadership isn't new. It's the same people who have been there before. I think we sit here and expect lasting change and expect someone to come in who has the interests of both the men's and women's national teams, the youth teams, the paralympic team and the beach team all in mind as we continue to move forward as the soccer nation that we've turned into. We expect that process to be very intricate and very lengthy, in order to find the right person to lead the federation.
Liberal
NDP
Bonita Zarrillo NDP Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I just want to reiterate the inspiration of having you come today. With all the folks who are going to be watching this today, this is going to make change for not just the current but also future generations. I just want you to know it's so impactful.
I'm thinking about a conversation. The Minister of Sport came to the gender equity committee recently. We were talking about the word “excellence”. There is a mandate to have excellence in sports, and I was asking the minister what she defines as excellence.
Women have been excluded from this whole conversation about excellence in sport. It shows in the deal. They're thinking about the men and what they can do to advance the work of the men.
I just raise my hands to all of you who are here today fighting the good fight for equity, because it's ridiculous, the amount of pressure and the barriers you have to go through every day.
I'm just going to ask this, because we know attitudes will change. Even based on what happened in February when all the news came out about what was actually happening, Canadians' eyes were opened to what was happening.
I'm just wondering if there has been any change and if you've noticed any change in attitudes by Canada Soccer towards the treatment of your team as a whole or each of you individually, negative or positive. We want to protect you from that, so I'm interested to know if there have been repercussions from shining a light.
Player Representative, Canadian National Soccer Team Player, Canadian Soccer Player's Association
There haven't been repercussions. Unfortunately, not much has changed since earlier this year, which is surprising, because we had a list of asks for the CSA. As they addressed today in their statement, as Janine mentioned, some of those have not even been brought up to us before, and here they are, making it public.
No, no one has reached out to us. Obviously they have been in touch with our lawyers, but, like I said, no one has reached out to individual players at all.
Player Representative, Canadian National Soccer Team Player, Canadian Soccer Player's Association
Is it okay to just add on to that?
Player Representative, Canadian National Soccer Team Player, Canadian Soccer Player's Association
What's been made clear to us is that Canada Soccer will act when we go public with things, and its action has come on the back end of our taking action. In that respect they've moved a lot more quickly on some conversations than they have in the last six to 12 months.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you.
We'll go to Martin Shields from the Conservative Party for five minutes.
Martin.
Conservative
Martin Shields Conservative Bow River, AB
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you for being here today.
Ms. Sinclair, yours is a name I know. I don't have a clue about men's soccer, but you I know, because you've represented our country and I follow the international sports and what you do, so thank you.
The other thing I commend you for is for coming and sharing your presentation. It shows the teamwork you're about. You're representing a whole bunch of other people behind you, but you're representing here as a group and you address us as a group. That shows the strength of team. That's good. I really appreciate that.
When we're talking about people and what we can do and what we can't do, shedding light is what we're doing today, and you get media coverage.
We have the ability to call other people here in Canada. In the U.S. it is a little tougher, but I'm asking you this. Who would you like us to see sitting in those chairs to question about this? What names would you...? You may not have them right at this moment, but you can always give them to us later. If you have names or organizations that we should have appear here for accountability on what's occurring, we'd love to have them, because we have a very strong ability to ask people to sit in those chairs.
Player Representative, Canadian National Soccer Team Player, Canadian Soccer Player's Association
I personally would like to see anyone associated with the CSB deal who was part of Canada Soccer when that was signed, as well as the people from CSB. Those are my big ones. People who were on the board who agreed to it.... Is there anyone else? I think those are the big ones.