Canadian Heritage Committee on June 12th, 2023

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I shall begin by quickly doing some housekeeping for everyone.

We have Tara McNeil and Stephen Norris, who are both here on behalf of Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton. Then we have Rugby Canada, with Nathan Bombrys and Ashley Lewis; and we have Skate Canada, with Debra Armstrong as the CEO.

For those of you attending virtually, there's a little globe at the bottom of your screen. That's your interpretation. You can press it to get your language of choice.

You have five minutes to present, and the five minutes are for the organization and not per person. You're going to have to share your time or have one of you be the only speaker. Then we have a question and answer session.

I shall begin with Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton.

Who is going to be speaking for you?

[Tara McNeil, President, Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton]

I will.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

All right.

Ms. McNeil, you have five minutes, please.

[Tara McNeil]

Thank you, Madam Chair, for the invitation to appear before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage to discuss the history of Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton and our path forward for the organization.

I'm Tara McNeil, and I'm the current president of the BCS board of directors. I'm joining you today with fellow board member and respected sport leader Stephen Norris.

I took over as president just a short while ago, in November 2022, after accepting the nomination from our athlete membership community to let my name stand after a difficult couple of years for the two sledding sports in Canada. I took on this volunteer responsibility because I truly care about the physical and psychological safety of all our athletes, coaches, staff, volunteer officials, and anyone and everyone who's remotely connected to the sport.

Please let me reinforce that one safe sport issue is one too many. I, along with the newly developed board of directors, lead by ensuring that everyone at BCS now operates in a culture of respect, fairness, and kindness. This is completely non-negotiable.

Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to create, nurture and support world and Olympic champions. In addition to our coaches, we have a lean organization with only two full-time staff members, one part-time staff member, and two consultants. Our small but mighty team takes great pride in our rich history over the years at the Olympic Winter Games, dating back to 1964.

A tradition of excellence was created with nearly six decades of sustained medal-winning performances. These high-profile women and men, representing Canadians from coast to coast, are integral members of their communities. They are role models for youth, inspiring all of us to be better at school, business, home, community, wherever we are. It is our belief that every athlete achieving their personal goals through a healthy and enjoyable journey is also a vehicle for developing a healthier population and a more united Canada.

Yes, we have succeeded on the field of play, but, as with any mission, there are many hurdles to overcome and struggles to endure. It's no secret that our organization has had its share of challenges over the last number of years, operating without a day-to-day chief executive officer, and we're now at a crossroads. Trust from partners has been broken, and relationships damaged. It's now time to shape our new vision for the future of our sport organization.

Rebranding with new values will come, but right now our focus is on restoring the basics: providing operational stability, implementing good governance practices, ensuring BCS is complying with the Canadian sport governance code, and creating a supportive culture that ensures wellness for all participants, including athletes, coaches, staff, board members, volunteers, and officials.

While working with our national sport partners, including Sport Canada, it has been our top priority at BCS to work together to rebuild trust and healthy relationships within and outside of our organization, and at the same time re-establish a strong foundation for the creation of a more promising and sustainable future on and off the track. The newly formed board of directors today is committed to this pursuit, and we will get this right.

In addition to delivering the critical resources our athletes and coaches need to train and compete safely on the field of play, we are equally committed to ensuring that our dedicated staff have the day-to-day operational leadership support they require to achieve our collective long-term operational and performance goals in a fun and enjoyable environment that is welcoming, supportive and inclusive.

Our path forward to re-establish trust, accountability and relationships was outlined on Friday in a meeting between our Sport Canada partners and the board of directors, followed by a subsequent meeting with our athletes. I come out of this meeting with a clear mandate from Sport Canada outlining what we need to deliver on to get us where we need to collectively go. Specific conditions have been established, rightly so, by Sport Canada to ensure there's appropriate oversight for public funding. We have work to do to get our operations and governance in order.

Our immediate priority is to rebuild the trust of our partners, to ensure the board's commitment to operational stability and participant wellness across our sports, and to immediately recruit an executive director. This work has already begun, and we're looking to finalize this search very quickly.

Equally important are good governance practices and ensuring that BCS is compliant with the Canadian sport governance code. Once we have our operations and board of directors fully in place, we will be working to fully adopt all governance principles in the Canadian sport governance code by 2025, as requested by Sport Canada. This will also require further review of all our bylaws.

In closing, Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton knows that participant wellness, both physical and psychological, is a prerequisite to everyone achieving their goals. We know our athletes want to achieve their performance goals on the international stage. For some, this means standing on the podium. For others, winning is equally important. The support of a welcoming high-performance space is the most critical piece.

The health and well-being of all our people in the community throughout the performance pathway are the most important.

Significant work remains ahead of us, but I assure you that change is happening. Creating a healthier, safer and more inclusive place for all is, and always will be, our top priority moving forward. We will hold everyone accountable for putting our people first and treating all with respect, fairness and kindness. This is not a choice, and we will never settle for good enough.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much, Ms. McNeil.

I now go to Rugby Canada.

Mr. Bombrys, you have five minutes, please.

[Nathan Bombrys, Chief Executive Officer, Rugby Canada]

Good afternoon, Madam Chair and members of the committee.

Thank you very much for inviting me today.

On behalf of Rugby Canada, I would like to thank the committee for its ongoing work to make sport in Canada better and safer for everyone.

Our mission at Rugby Canada is to provide lifelong rugby experiences to clubs and communities across the nation that will inspire participation by people of all ages, abilities, genders and ethnic backgrounds so that they may be healthy and active and contribute to their communities, whether that be through playing rugby, coaching, officiating, volunteering or supporting.

In rugby, we pride ourselves on being a sport for people of all physical shapes and sizes, as well as a sport with strong values of integrity, passion, solidarity, discipline and respect. We have over 38,000 registered people involved in our sport across Canada. We are also responsible for fielding our women's and men's national teams in both traditional 15-a-side rugby and the sevens rugby format that you see in the Olympic Games.

We desire that all people involved in rugby have healthy, enjoyable and rewarding experiences in our sport. We believe that for our elite players and teams to represent Canada to the best of their abilities, we must provide a safe and supportive environment for them to prepare, train and compete. We are committed to a never-ending journey of putting the safety and well-being of our players and participants at the centre of what we do each and every day. We are working to create a culture of continuous improvement, where we listen as well as educate, and where we care as well as perform.

In the past, our organization has encountered conduct that didn't align with our values. These experiences drove us to embark on a journey of significant change, designed to transform Rugby Canada into a better-governed, more transparent, better-resourced and more effective national sport organization. Some of these actions include an overhaul of our governance structure and transitioning to a skills-based board led by our chair Sally Dennis, who is the first woman to chair Rugby Canada. We have two athlete directors on our board—one male, one female—elected by the Canadian Rugby Players Association.

Following the conclusion of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, the board of Rugby Canada commissioned an independent high-performance review in response to on-field and off-field challenges faced by the organization. The findings from that review were published in March 2022 and included 12 recommendations to improve the culture, structure and strategy of Rugby Canada. In July 2022, Rugby Canada made a leadership change and asked me to join the organization as CEO.

Good governance and fiscal responsibility are the foundation of high-performance sport. We have invested in our organizational capacity as a governing body by creating new roles and filling gaps in our organization, including a senior director of finance and business services, a human resources manager and a high-performance director to lead the performances across all of Rugby Canada's national teams.

Our director of governance and regulations, Ashley Lewis, who joined us in January, is here today to support Rugby Canada and the committee with your review, and has been outstanding in helping our organization understand how we can better govern our sport. With Ashley's leadership, we have updated our policies and procedures across the organization, including the incorporation of our status as a signatory to OSIC. We have adopted a reconciliation, equity, accessibility, diversity and inclusion policy, developed by our independent ethics and integrity committee, and signed a memorandum of understanding with the Canadian Rugby Players Association. We are currently engaged in discussions with the CRPA on a new collective agreement for our players.

We have regular dialogue between our players and leaders within our organization. I have personally spent time with all of our national teams and engaged with our women's and men's teams collectively. We are currently writing a new strategic plan for Rugby Canada to set the direction for our organization over the next several years as we build toward the North American Rugby World Cup in 2031 and 2033.

I feel we have made some real progress, but we know these steps are just the beginning. We now need to find the necessary resources so that we can do more to support our teams, players and community.

After the months of important and, no doubt, difficult work that you have conducted as a committee, I feel that out of respect to you and to our players I should finish by talking about some of the good that sport and rugby bring to communities across Canada. It was a long, hard pandemic, but rugby has returned. Canadians are coming together to play rugby, be healthy, exercise, connect with their friends and teammates, compete and then shake hands and share some camaraderie after the game. This is rugby.

Your Canadian national teams are filled with some outstanding young people. They are some of the most impressive young men and women I have ever been associated with. You should be proud of them. In particular, your women's national team is one of the best in the world. I had the good fortune to spend some time with them at the Rugby World Cup last autumn in New Zealand. These young women are not just outstanding rugby players, but outstanding young people and outstanding Canadians.

We're hosting a major women's international tournament here in Ottawa in July. I invite each member of the committee to attend and spend some time with these women. I assure you that they will inspire you as they do me. They will make you proud to be Canadian.

Respectfully, they deserve our support.

Thank you for continuing your work to improve sport in Canada. We still have much to do.

Thank you for your attention.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Mr. Bombrys.

I'm going to go to Skate Canada.

Ms. Armstrong, you have five minutes, please.

[Debra Armstrong, Chief Executive Officer, Skate Canada]

Thank you, Madam Chair, for the invitation to appear before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage.

My name is Debra Armstrong and I am the chief executive officer of Skate Canada. It's a role I have held since November 2016.

Skate Canada is a not-for-profit national sport organization that is focused on teaching Canadians to skate. Our programs are delivered by 1,200 skating clubs and schools and thousands of coaches across our country. Last year, we supported 200,000 registrants to lace up their skates through our programs. If athletes wish to pursue further skills, they can enter our figure skating pathway as a recreational or competitive athlete.

We are proud of the community of skaters we have created. We always strive to create a safe and inclusive environment. Any violations or misconduct is unacceptable in our sport.

As a mother of three daughters, all of whom participated in sport, and now a grandmother to three children, I can say that the issue of abuse in sport is not only part of my professional life, but of huge importance in my personal life. I know from personal experience with my children that sport well done has a positive impact and helps children grow self-confidence as they become young adults. Unfortunately, we know that not everyone has had the same outcome and that for many, their experience in sport has been extremely damaging to their well-being.

What is special about sport is that it has the power to inspire, from the local level to the world stage. From the backyard to the Olympic Games, sport touches many of us on different levels. I truly want everyone to be able to enjoy sport in a safe environment and benefit from the positive experiences and life lessons that sport can offer.

Skate Canada knows that safety in sport is critical to all that we do. We recognize that historically our policies and processes were not as robust as necessary to address bullying, harassment, abuse and discrimination. We have made progress in that area.

In 2019, we launched a reformatted national safe sport program. This update also included the adoption of the universal code of conduct to prevent and address maltreatment in sport into all of our policies and procedures.

Since 2020, all matters related to misconduct at Skate Canada have been managed by Skate-Safe, a misconduct reporting system that is operated by IntegrityCounts, which is a third party service provider. Complaints received through Skate-Safe are submitted to an independent external case manager to ensure that there is an independent review, investigation and disposition. All of our registrants, their parents and guardians, and our members from across the country have access to this mechanism.

In 2022, Skate Canada signed with Abuse-Free Sport. Abuse-Free Sport will handle all misconduct complaints for individuals who are part of our national team and our next-gen programs. That includes athletes, coaches, team leaders, staff and integrated support team members. Abuse-Free Sport will also be the reporting system for the Skate Canada board of directors and international officials.

It takes courage for victims of abuse to share and report their experiences. We commend everyone who has testified during these hearings. We also want to acknowledge that some individuals in our sport are not comfortable coming forward. We confirm our commitment to making sport safer so that we are able to rebuild those relationships. Trust must be earned, and we hope to restore that trust.

Sport, like many institutions, has systemic issues. Skate Canada is listening to feedback from those negatively impacted and will continue to improve our education, training, policy and procedure frameworks as we work to eliminate these barriers in sport. We will also support and incorporate lessons learned along the journey to be better, including the findings from these hearings.

Considerable work remains ahead of us, and we are prepared to put in the effort. We will hold ourselves accountable and be vulnerable as we make skating more inclusive and a safer place for all. As a community, we must provide an environment where everyone is respected, valued and supported to reach their full potential so that, in our case, they can truly experience the joy of skating.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you, Ms. Armstrong.

Now, everyone, we have votes coming up. I think there are 30-minute bells that are going to begin soon. We may only have time for one round of questioning.

I shall begin with the questions, which will be for six minutes. We'll begin with Mrs. Thomas, as the first Conservative up.

You have six minutes, please.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Thank you, Chair.

My first question is for Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton and Ms. McNeil.

It came to our attention that more than 80 athletes have called for the resignation of the former president, Sarah Storey. It's my understanding that many of the individuals who wrote that letter championed you to come forward and offer leadership to the organization.

I can appreciate that you want to reform the culture. Some of the allegations that came forward from by those 80-plus athletes were against Chris Le Bihan, who currently serves as the high-performance director. He has served in that role for quite some time. He's still there. I'm curious, then. If you're looking to transform the culture of the organization—you've now signed on with Abuse-Free Sport and OSIC—does it not concern you that you have this individual still within the organization with all of these allegations against him?

[Tara McNeil]

Thank you for your questions.

I can say unreservedly that this has been an incredibly complex issue.

I'll start by saying, first of all, that when I came in, I said right away that I was going to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, although I knew those allegations were in place. The individual you're speaking about had expressed deep concern that he was the recipient of abuse and was treated unfairly. It was my first week on the job when I discovered that. We went into an organizational crisis, really, truthfully, to ascertain what was going on and what was coming down the pike.

I had countless meetings with our partners and legal counsel about this to investigate what to do to best support the staff, because they reported that they had a very harrowing experience at the hands of the athletes. Imagine my surprise and concern about all of this. With that, we sought careful legal counsel as to how to manage all of the circumstances. We were in daily contact with our sport partners as to how to manage this. We brought on an interim CEO as quickly as possible, to be able to do a very extensive deep dive into the staffing concerns. At the same time, to be frank, our assets were frozen. Our finances were frozen. We didn't have access to even understanding how to put staff on leave.

We've had a very challenging time, but we're in the process right now of working towards a new staffing plan. Largely, that's in the hands of.... There are some changes with our sport partners right now. We've—

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Thank you. I'm sorry. In the interest of time, I'll keep going.

I guess my question is this, then: Now that you've signed on with OSIC, where's the accountability? Has Sport Canada reached out to you in this regard? You have more than 80 athletes who have signed a letter of concern or who have issued concerns here. Has Sport Canada reached out to you? Has there been any accountability from them?

[Tara McNeil]

Specifically, we've had discussions about that almost on a weekly basis. We—

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Is that with Sport Canada?

[Tara McNeil]

Yes, it's with members of Sport Canada and Own the Podium.

We had an outstanding legal case to be resolved, the Kaillie Humphries case. That investigation was affecting the parties concerned. It had put us in a place of not being able to make decisions readily without legal consequences. We have been awaiting the ruling from that particular case, which, from my understanding—

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Thank you.

I appreciate that you brought up Ms. Humphries, because of course she was Canada's best bobsledder and she chose to go to the United States of America because of the abuse she experienced. Those allegations were not taken seriously, so she went south of the border, and I think that's to Canada's shame.

Now that you are a signatory to OSIC and a signatory to Abuse-Free Sport, what changes do you see being made in the future in terms of the accountability mechanism that takes place with Sport Canada?

[Tara McNeil]

We have instituted an immediate athlete communications pathway whereby the athletes have direct contact with all members of our sport partners, our community. We've been meeting with them regularly to ascertain what they need for safety and security. In fact, that started the week I started: meeting with the athletes, talking about them and figuring out what we can do.

In the interim, given our complex situation, to support them in the daily training environment, we've made allowances to make sure that we have separation from key individuals who were concerned and affected until we could have clarity, legally, around the alleged abuse in the Humphries case.

I'm being honest. Our hands were tied in being able to deal with this. There has to be a formal complaint and a third party investigation completed by Chris, so we've been left with a bit of a struggle. I've spoken to the minister personally about this and what we can do.

I'm not going to mince words. We're struggling, but we're bringing in resources right now with an executive director and legal counsel to help us support a transition.

[Chris Bittle, Liberal, St. Catharines, ON]

I have a point of order, Madam Chair.

I apologize to Mrs. Thomas for interrupting, but the bells are ringing, so I'm hoping there is unanimous consent that we get through this round of questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I see no one disagreeing, so thank you very much, Chris, for that.

I now go to the Liberals and Anthony Housefather.

Anthony, you have six minutes, please.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. It's much appreciated.

Ms. McNeil, my first question is for you again, so if you wouldn't mind coming back.... I want to thank my friend Rachael for having asked the questions I was going to ask.

I do think you're a bit of a hero for actually agreeing to step up to become president of Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton in this situation.

Do you have any existing NDAs in place with athletes that preclude them from speaking publicly?

[Tara McNeil]

No, not that I'm aware of.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

Perfect.

I want to ask both Skate Canada and Rugby Canada the same question.

[Debra Armstrong]

Not that I'm aware of.

[Nathan Bombrys]

Not that I'm aware of, no.

[Anthony Housefather, Liberal, Mount Royal, QC]

A lot of the issues, of course, have involved abuse by coaches, allegations about coaches.

In our investigation of Soccer Canada, we saw that there was no coherent policy that once the national organization became aware that a coach was committing infractions that led to suspension or termination, anybody across the country became aware of the fact that this coach should not be hired, leading to coaches popping up in other provinces.

Ms. McNeil, could you speak about what policy you now have related to coaches so that—it's a smaller sport; there are fewer coaches in the sport—everybody would know if they shouldn't hire a coach?