Madam Chair and members of the committee, thank you for giving me the opportunity to share my observations pertaining to the critical issue of safe sport in Canada.
McLaren Global Sport Solutions, or MGSS as it is known, focuses on investigations and governance reviews of organizations in Canada and globally. Our work relates to a variety of integrity issues, including safe sport, the use of performance-enhancing drugs, competition manipulation, fraud, other forms of corruption and the overarching governance integrity issues arising therefrom.
I hold appointments as the independent integrity officer for the International Basketball Federation, FIBA, and the International Boxing Association, IBA, and as the chief anti-corruption officer for professional tennis worldwide. I also am the independent third party for Table Tennis Canada.
Over my career I have led complex investigations involving corruption in international boxing, weightlifting, and many other sports, including investigations for the World Anti-Doping Agency, which revealed state-sponsored doping of athletes by Russia at the Sochi Olympics and in a number of Russian sports, particularly athletics.
One recent example of my international work in safe sport involved a complex investigation of sexual allegations against basketball and state officials in Mali, following reports by Human Rights Watch that were published in the New York Times. My team conducted a comprehensive independent investigation focused on the systemic sexual abuse of young female basketball players. That report and all our other reports are public and are published on my company's website.
My international experience is important to share with you because, unfortunately, safe sport is an international issue, not simply a Canadian one. Consider, for example, that in the sport of gymnastics there have been no fewer than six major national reviews into the sport, including those in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, the Netherlands and, of course, the United States, with which most members of the committee, I'm sure, are familiar.
Let me turn to two examples of recent work in Canada by MGSS, namely our 2022 independent review of Canada Soccer, and our 2023 report on Gymnastics Canada. We also did a report in 2021 on how to establish a national independent safe sport agency in Canada.
With Canada Soccer we were tasked to review the institutional response to harassment allegations made in 2008 against former U-20 women's national team coach Bob Birarda. The members of this committee are familiar with this saga through the courageous testimony of Andrea Neil and others. We found that Canada Soccer had fairly robust policies and investigation procedures at the time. However, there was little attention paid to safe sport amongst the executive ranks and the CSA, which did not follow its own written policies.
The joint investigation of Birarda conducted in 2008 by Canada Soccer and Major League Soccer's Vancouver Whitecaps was severely flawed. For example, no written report was issued by the investigator and no minutes were created of any of the processes or decisions made by the CSA's board of directors. There was no transparency, a flaw we have found repeatedly in sport. Reasonable policies are not enforced.
On the recommendation of the investigator, the CSA executive committee voted to terminate Birarda in October 2008. However, rather than terminating him, there was a negotiated exit. Birarda was allowed to submit a resignation, which was characterized by the CSA as a mutual parting of ways. The real reasons for his sudden departure were couched as being personal in a press conference at which some of the female complainants were present and definitely knew otherwise. Exiting “for personal reasons” is a frequently used euphemism to hide improper conduct and to avoid follow-up actions.
Such an approach, regrettably, is common in sport. The record and the real reasons for termination are hidden, thanks to the negotiated exit by resignation. It also allows the perpetrator to inflict abuse in future positions.