Canadian Heritage Committee on June 12th, 2023

[Debra Armstrong]

No, there's been no change since that time. We have what we believe to be a very robust and solid relationship with all of our athletes. Our policies and procedures are transparent. They are clearly posted, and we make ourselves available for any clarification any of our athletes need.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

The athletes stated that Skate Canada leadership had not adequately handled some complaints made in the past. Do you acknowledge some responsibility in terms of what is happening at Skate Canada?

[Debra Armstrong]

As noted earlier in my comments, we certainly recognize that in advance of our change to our national safe sport program in 2019, our procedures and processes were not as robust as they needed to be. To the extent there are complaints that relate to a time prior to the current system, we acknowledge there were gaps. We encourage anyone who has suffered any misconduct in advance of that time to please avail themselves of the current policies and procedures. They do apply retroactively as well. We will take every action we can to rectify matters that are brought to our attention today.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Thank you.

Mr. Bombrys, I'd like to hear your comments about some of the complaints. In 2020, a few weeks before the Tokyo Olympics, no fewer than 37 current and former players came out publicly on social media saying they had filed a complaint with Rugby Canada to condemn psychological violence, harassment and bullying, which took place within the organization's centralizing environment for far too long.

The subsequent internal investigation remained confidential. Why not make public the recommendations resulting from that investigation? Why did you decide to keep that information secret, knowing that, ultimately, it wouldn't be part of the solution?

[Nathan Bombrys]

I wasn't part of the organization at that time. My understanding is that there was an independent process and conclusions were drawn, and we took action to make changes at that point. That was made public at that time. That's what I can say about that.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Do you know whether confidentiality agreements were reached in connection with the internal investigation or complaints by rugby players? At that time, would there have been an attempt to force the victims to remain silent?

[Nathan Bombrys]

Not to my knowledge, no.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Excellent, and thank you. I'll stop here to ensure that Mr. Julian can exercise his right to speak and we can go vote.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

Peter Julian, you have six minutes.

Go ahead, please.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Thanks very much, Madam Chair.

Thank you to our witnesses for stepping forward. All three organizations have had serious allegations levied against them, so your testimony is really important to helping us move forward in terms of the recommendations we will be putting forward when we finish our report.

Ms. McNeil, I'd like to start with you.

You testified earlier that Sport Canada had applied conditions around funding for BCS. Can you share with us those conditions?

[Tara McNeil]

They haven't been provided to us in writing at the present time. We hope to have that shortly.

I can share—it's been shared with our athletes and our staff—that they have applied conditions to our receiving the funding, including having an executive director in place, making changes to our governance, adding board members—we're missing key members of our board of directors and we're on the hunt for a treasurer right now and for another board member—and making sure our bylaws are written and there's staff board training, which we're all undertaking currently. We're already in the process of rewriting our bylaws. Those are some of the examples they've given us.

There will be a significant reduction in some of our funding. We will be on a probationary period for one year, whereby we want to ensure that our organization is stable from an operational perspective, that we have our governance buttoned up with respect to the bylaws and that we have an educated and functioning board, which we are already working hard at.

They will reveal those specific guidelines to us. They've just communicated this to us personally. Dr. Norris and I had a meeting up front with them about what they were planning to do. We just met with our board on Friday, just days ago, and with the athlete group, to inform them that there is change on the horizon.

One of the changes I will share is that our core sport status for bobsleigh has been suspended temporarily, and we have to work hard to make sure we can get that back, as well as support for some of our development athletes. It's understandable. We actually asked for more accountability. It was one of the things I did right away. I told them to make us more accountable and to hold us more accountable. We want that. We need that. We want to establish that trust. Whatever it takes to be able to do so, that's something we asked for, personally, right out of the gate. We understand that.

It is difficult, certainly, for the athletes to understand. I can share that they worked very hard to bring in new administration, and they feel a little bit upset by potential funding cuts. It seems paradoxical to them right now that they asked for change, and then their funding is being challenged. That is something we need to work really hard to.... We've done a lot of work to build trust with the athletes—a lot of communication, a lot of time and open town halls where they could voice their concerns.

We understand, and we're going to work together to create the most positive environment. We trust our partners' handling of this completely. We know we can work together for the best possible outcome. This is going to help us ultimately be stronger.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

You actually approached Sport Canada with the idea of imposing conditions. You've testified to reaching out to the athletes. Have you had feedback from the athletes who signed the letter that attested to a toxic culture and to a culture of fear within BCS? Have you had athletes step forward who said “we think this is moving in the right direction”?

[Tara McNeil]

Yes, we have recent reports from all our athletes who have spoken to us directly or through our athlete reps. We have two active athlete reps on our board of directors, who have been instrumental in capturing the athletes' voices and in being a direct pipeline to the daily training environment. They reported that they're hopeful. They feel more confident than ever to speak their minds and to be heard, and they feel like they're being treated very sensitively and compassionately. That is no commentary on the past. It is what their experiences are right now. We feel very confident that we're building that trust. There's work to be done, and we're working as hard and as fast as we possibly can to do so.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

We have nine minutes left for the vote, Peter.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Yes, Madam Chair.

Ms. Armstrong, since 2016, you testified.... When Figure Skating for Change Canada came out raising their concerns at the end of April, the communication from Skate Canada was that they were unaware and that there had been no communication around the allegations. Is it the position of the organization, still, that these were not allegations that had been raised with the organization before? If so, what is the organization doing now to ensure that they're not blindsided by further allegations? How are you keeping your finger on the pulse of the athletes across the country?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

You have six seconds left to answer that question, Ms. Armstrong, so please be concise.

[Debra Armstrong]

Our national safe sport program encourages everyone to access our independent mechanism or Abuse-Free Sport, and we will continue to communicate that to our stakeholders across the country.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Julian. Your time is up.

I want to thank the witnesses for coming, presenting to us and having patience. I'm sorry. Votes have intervened and we cannot finish our meeting, but we got one round of questions coming through.

The meeting is adjourned.