Canadian Heritage Committee on June 1st, 2023

[Yann Bernard]

I apologize. I had the list of federation people who had been invited to appear. I called him to ensure that he would be here. I didn't want to communicate anything in his stead, given his independent status. He told me that, after he had contacted Mr. MacPherson, the clerk, I assume, the decision was made not to invite him. I have no control over that. If that's the gist of your question, I can assure you that doesn't come from us.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

I appreciate that.

What is the status of a certain coach by the name of Kyle Foster?

[Yann Bernard]

He's a currently active Ontario coach. Are you asking me what his status is?

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Yes, his status is that he's still a certified coach who is coaching currently.

[Yann Bernard]

As far as I know, yes.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Has your organization ever imposed an NDA on individuals reporting abuse?

[Yann Bernard]

No.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

There are no NDAs out there.

[Yann Bernard]

People who are victims of abuse or who have complained about abuse to our federation are free to discuss it.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

How many cases of alleged abuse is your organization dealing with?

[Yann Bernard]

Pardon me, but would you please repeat the question?

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

How many cases of abuse is your organization dealing with?

[Yann Bernard]

It's impossible for me to answer you fully and correctly because people complain directly to the independent third party. We encourage them to do that so that we have no control or influence over the potential result.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

The results of those investigations are reported to you.

[Yann Bernard]

I've known of 10 or 12 situations since Mr. Howes and I have been in our positions. They may concern an altercation between two referees or a parent raising his or her voice to a referee, but also much more serious allegations, all of which have obviously been investigated. Penalties have of course been imposed where necessary.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Do you keep a record of the results for your organization that have gone to the third party? The report comes back to you. Do you keep a complete record of those reports that come back to you?

[Yann Bernard]

Yes, we keep that information.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

Would you submit those records to us?

[Yann Bernard]

We definitely won't do it publicly. If we're required by law to do so, we'll be pleased to provide them to you, but those records obviously contain highly confidential information.

We imposed a public sanction in 2020 for the first time in our history. It had never been done before. I don't know if that's done in many organizations, but, in 2020, we decided to publicize the sanction, and I believe we'll continue that practice in future. This raises essential and major right-to-privacy issues, but sometimes in a functioning disciplinary system you have to be able to access certain information. These exceptions should be provided for under the law to avoid raising civil liability issues.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

I understand that. Would you submit the redacted reports to us—whatever you can?

[Yann Bernard]

We'll submit what we can submit. I don't have the records with me, but we would have to look at them first.

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

I understand that.

[Yann Bernard]

Personally—

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

You understand that we're dealing with witness statements that have alleged things in person. We need transparency from your organization.

If we're going to make recommendations and you're not transparent with respect to the witness statements we heard, then we have a problem.

[Yann Bernard]

We definitely don't intend to lack transparency. I can assure you of that. We simply have to consider the legal aspects of the answers we provide.