You're absolutely right. For some reason, we do kind of put racism in its own compartment away from safe sport. I'm not entirely certain why that happens, but in my gut I think it continues to come down to the power of white, predominantly male administrators within the sport system.
It's the exact thing that Akim Aliu was talking about, trying to find opportunities to make sure that there is room for diverse populations within ice hockey, for example, but also all sports in Canada. When he brought that forward to the GTHL, they said that it was impossible. They also said they weren't racist, and then they had to basically sanction one of their own for being racist in a meeting immediately after that decision was made.
I think it's something that people are still relatively uncomfortable talking about, but we see it all across the board. Despite the calls to action in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, we're not seeing the kind of commitment to indigenous kids that we need to see. Down by me, there are still reserves that don't have clean drinking water. If you don't have clean drinking water, how can you have a robust sport system? That's not possible.
I'm sorry; I'm kind of at a loss for words, because we've been talking about this in academia for years, for decades. It doesn't seem that people want to take these really meaningful actions, the kinds of things Akim Aliu suggested that can make a change and can ensure that change happens. They want policies. They want to talk about it, and they want to move on, but that doesn't create change.