Status of Women Committee on Nov. 21st, 2022

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Thank you.

You gave the example of the U.K. discipline. Do you think any other country is doing something different?

[Amelia Cline]

I believe that there are several countries that are trying. This is somewhat like trying to move a mountain. It requires a lot of legislative and policy change, but the U.K. is trying, and Australia is also trying. Switzerland came out with a very robust report about their gymnastics and sports system.

There is also a very good example out of Norway in terms of how they deliver sport in general, not just gymnastics. They have less of an emphasis on early competition, early specialization, and instead on the joy of sport and the value of sport for movement.

I think that's an entire culture shift that we need to see here in Canada. We need to view sport not as the be-all and end-all for achieving a medal or to achieve Olympic greatness. It should be something that's considered a lifelong love and something that people can do all the way through to adulthood. That is the type of cultural shift that will, I think, inform and change policy in a profound way.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you so much.

I'll now pass it over for two minutes to Andréanne.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

I again want to thank the witnesses for making the time to meet with the committee today.

Ms. Cline and Ms. Shore, in light of the rampant abuse of very young athletes in your sport, you called on the Minister of Sport to change the toxic culture in sport.

What are you expecting from the minister and from us, as federal elected representatives? How can we be part of the solution? What can we do to help you change the toxic culture?

[Kim Shore]

Thank you, Madam Chair, for that important question.

What we expect is what we hope for, and that is that our call for a judicial inquiry will be heard and acted upon. If I'm very honest, Gymnasts for Change has received a lot of attention, both from government and MPs as well as from the media. We feel we have been heard, but now it's time for action.

[Amelia Cline]

I would agree with that.

I would also add that we are hoping for accountability. What the survivors have not seen to date is any sort of accountability for the current leadership at Gymnastics Canada, which has been implicated recently in essentially covering up abuse. We're hoping that this committee can use its power to hold those individuals to account as well.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Mr. Koehler, you also called on the minister to do something, along with Gymnasts for Change Canada.

What do you expect from us, as elected representatives? What do you expect from this study?

[Rob Koehler]

I would support the call that the gymnasts have made and I would support the call from the 12 separate sport athletes who have spoken to us about their abuse, and that is to implement immediately a third party independent judicial investigation to, one, understand the abuse that's happened across this country and, two, to act on it, and, as Kim and Amelia have said, to make those accountable for abuse named and removed from sport.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thanks very much, Rob.

We're now going to pass it over for two minutes to Leah.

[Leah Gazan, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Thank you so much.

You've shared many stories today that have had lasting impacts on your spirit and the spirit of your child. You then spoke about a failure to uphold human rights, particularly the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, something that we are obliged to do as members—to uphold human rights—especially the international conventions we've signed on to, including article 39, which states:

...shall take all appropriate measures to promote physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration of a child victim of: any form of neglect, exploitation, or abuse; torture or any other form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; or armed conflicts. Such recovery and reintegration shall take place in an environment which fosters the health, self-respect and dignity of the child.

From your perspective, what would that look like?

[Kim Shore]

You're addressing our spirit. I think I speak on behalf of at least the over 600 gymnasts who have signed our open letter: Our spirits have been broken.

I can't believe that the environment I endured when I was 13 years old and thought might have changed enough, with our society evolving, that it would be safe to put my child in the sport I loved, that I found beautiful and that was a part of my soul and became a part of her soul as well.... I never expected that what had been perpetuated when I was a child would in fact be worse now, 35 years later.

Those things that you read in the convention don't apply in Canada. I have not seen them at play in a gym in Canada in gymnastics. I don't see that in operation at all. Whatever we need to do to do that, to get that as a national standard, I'm in favour of.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you so much.

We're going to do our last two rounds. We're going to have Michelle for two minutes and then we're going to go over to Emmanuella for two minutes online.

Go ahead, Michelle.

[Michelle Ferreri, Conservative, Peterborough—Kawartha, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Absolutely, two minutes will never do justice to what we need to do today.

I want to thank you. This is very powerful, and you inspire us. We're all very emotional. Children's welfare is our future.

Yesterday was National Child Day. It's powerful when you read that we rank lowest in child survival, including teen suicide and child mortality and health, including immunization and unhealthy weights and children's overall life satisfaction. This has a lot to do with it. This is definitely interconnected.

Amelia, I have so much to say, but I know you have testimony that you didn't get to give. I would like to give the floor to you to give it.

[Amelia Cline]

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate that.

Many of my comments that I was initially going to give have been echoed in what my colleagues have said. However, what I would like to impress upon this committee is that while it's vital that survivors are heard, and we so appreciate this opportunity today, we could sit here for hours telling you stories that would break your hearts and break them over and over and over again, but that would be a useless exercise unless there is action at the end of it.

That is what survivors want to see, and that is what we have not seen yet. People need to be held to account.

As I was saying about the current leadership of Gymnastics Canada, despite all of the media attention and despite the fact that the CEO has been implicated in at least two situations in which abusive coaches were promoted under his watch, he still sits in his seat. The harassment officer that I referenced earlier is still in her seat. There has been no accountability yet, and that is really what we are searching for, because so many of us have been denied justice.

That is why we're here today. We hope this committee will do that for us.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you.

I'm going to pass it on to Emmanuella for two minutes.

[Emmanuella Lambropoulos, Liberal, Saint-Laurent, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'd like to begin by thanking all of the witnesses for their bravery in coming today to share their experiences with us and to try to make sport better in Canada for the kids who are joining teams and getting involved.

I have a teaching background. I played sports myself, but not at the professional level in any way. I've coached.

I think it's not necessarily Gymnastics Canada alone, but something that's a problem across the board. Any time a child is away from their parents and is with an adult who is not related to them, unfortunately, more precautions need to be taken.

Kids are some of the main victims of sexual abuse, and we don't talk about these things with our kids. We don't talk about it in schools. We don't talk about it in teams.

I'm wondering what your thoughts are on what role can be played in protecting kids who are in sports, teaching them and having them know what is appropriate and what is not appropriate, and who they can go to. For example, if someone touches you in this way, you go to the police. What are your thoughts on that, going forward?

I've spoken to Minister St. Onge. I understand what your main ask is. Because you've mentioned it several times, I'm focusing on something else. The minister will be speaking to her provincial counterparts. I'm wondering if there are any comments you have on the area I just discussed.

[Amelia Cline]

I think it's vitally important to be having conversations with children very early on about bodily autonomy in particular. This is something that I've discussed with many survivors. As gymnasts, we never understood that we had bodily autonomy. This played into not just sexual abuse but the physical violence that was done to us as well.

We did not realize that we could say “no”. We didn't know that an adult manipulating us to the point of our screaming in pain was not appropriate, because we trusted that our coaches knew what was best for us. That was part of the grooming process. I think part of what then contributes to sexual abuse as well is that once you have been groomed to the point where a coach can do anything to your body at any time, of course it leads to their being able to sexually abuse children too.

I think those conversations, that education and that breaking down of the natural power imbalance that exists there are vitally important.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Wonderful.

On behalf of the committee, I would really like to thank Amelia, Kim and Rob for coming and bringing forward their stories. As we indicated, this is going to be a very difficult study. If you need any supports, please contact the clerk. We are here for you. We recognize that today is just the beginning of this journey with us.

Thank you so much.

We're going to suspend just for seconds here, because we're going to get started with a new panel immediately.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

I'm calling this meeting back to order.

We'll be starting with our second panel. Everybody is online with us, I believe.

On our second panel today, we have, as an individual, Teresa Fowler, assistant professor, Concordia University of Edmonton. We also have Shannon Moore, assistant professor, faculty of education, University of Manitoba. We have Allison Sandmeyer-Graves, chief executive officer, Canadian Women and Sport. From Indigenous Sport and Wellness Ontario, we have Belle Bailey, assistant, sport program director, and Christina Ruddy, director and co-ordinator, governmental relations and national strategy, both of whom are in the room today.

We're going to provide five minutes for opening statements to each group. As you know, we're starting a little late, so I'm going to try keep everything rolling today.

I'm going to pass it over to Teresa and Shannon.

Teresa and Shannon, if you're sharing your time, you have five minutes.

[Dr. Shannon Moore, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Manitoba, As an Individual]

Greetings.

My name is Shannon Moore. I am an assistant professor in the faculty of education at the University of Manitoba. I'll be sharing my time today with one of my co-researchers.

[Dr. Teresa Fowler, Assistant Professor, Concordia University of Edmonton, As an Individual]

Hi. I'm Teresa Fowler. As mentioned, I'm an assistant professor at the faculty of education at Concordia University of Edmonton.

We'd like to thank the chair and committee for inviting us here today.

Today we are going to share a few findings from a study we conducted in 2021 with 21 elite-level male ice hockey players about hypermasculinity and hockey. Our findings also echo testimony that has been presented already at this committee, specifically regarding Mr. Koehler's testimony regarding the silence of athletes, the lack of accountability, and that we need to believe and protect athletes; and also with Ms. Shore's testimony that spoke to a lack of diversity in sports and that adults who are in protective roles need to protect athletes, not the brand.

In Canada, men's ice hockey has been connected to our national identity. Researchers have made this connection due to enrolments, media attention and funding. This connection between nationalism and men's ice hockey is reinforced through sports being under the portfolio of the Minister of Canadian Heritage. Prioritizing men's ice hockey as heritage upholds a culture that is white, cis, straight and male-dominated. This culture is audaciously grounded in the mentality that winning at all costs comes at the expense of women's right to safety as well as men's physical and mental health.

While participants in our study identified as being resistant to this culture, they overwhelmingly spoke of their inability to push against it. One participant, for example, shared with us a moment from the locker room and the policing tactics that breed conformity. The coach “came into the room and like went single file and basically told every player how bad they were and what they did was bad, and at the end of his speech, he said that he was going to go hang himself in his shower and it was our fault. At 12 years old”.

As Canadians, we need to question the national status of men's ice hockey and the privilege granted to those who play, especially when this results in the normalization of sexual assault and subsequent cover-ups. In our study, when asked directly, the participants acknowledged that sexism is pervasive within hockey culture; however, they often did not offer specific examples or engage with this concept in any meaningful way.

With that said, the participants shared stories throughout their interview that we coded as sexism and misogyny. The participants told stories of women and girls being used for props and for points at team events. One participant shared that they had a coach do body shots off a 15-year-old girl at a rookie party. To these players, these were just hockey stories shared casually throughout the interviews. This superficial engagement with sexism in our data and in the larger culture may reveal why sexual assaults continue to happen, why cover-ups continue that centre on saving the team and the men involved rather than the victims, and why substantive change is elusive.

[Dr. Shannon Moore]

The consensus among researchers is that ice hockey socializes young boys and men into specific masculine ideals. Hockey masculinity involves aggression, dominance, stoicism and bravado. As players progress in the game to elite levels, these behaviours are expected, reinforced and rewarded. Yet, as the participants in our study made clear, these expectations were harmful to their physical and mental health. When people suggest that researchers do not understand hockey culture and are villainizing hockey over other sports, they ignore the voices of athletes like those in our study.

While reading through the data, we were struck by the participants' expressions of precarity. These elite-level players felt as though they were walking on eggshells. They were fearful of the consequences of any little mistake. The participants expressed insecurities about their position on the team and stated that they were lucky to be on the team, had to work very hard to stay or felt they couldn't take time for injuries. They felt that they needed to sacrifice their bodies for the team, which they justified because, one, they were part of a national sport, something bigger than themselves, and, two, there was the hope of making it.

Everything about the game is about the next steps, and the hope of mobility is used to keep people in line. As one participant stated, “If you're not going to do exactly what we're asking, if you're not going to give up everything you have, if you're not going to stand up for your team, then you're going to show up one day and your equipment is going to be in a garbage bag in a shopping cart out back. That's how they cut people.”

Participants also spoke of being traded as teenagers, one referring to himself as a “suitcase”. Others stated outright that their coaches did not care about them as people and saw them only as “money”. They referred to hockey as a cutthroat industry and they knew that they were the product.

The sense of precarity that results from a process of commodification may help us understand, but does not excuse, how hockey players do not overtly or actively resist elements of the culture, even those that are damaging to their own mental health.

In the wake of the Hockey Canada allegations, we are witnessing a superficial response to a systemic issue. It sees that as long as the game promotes nationalism and maintains its national status, particular aspects of the culture will be promoted, ignored or excused. These cultural aspects will continue to harm the victims of the culture, who are assaulted, objectified, excluded and discarded in the name of winning at all costs.

Thank you for your time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much.

We're now going to pass it over to Canadian Women and Sport.

Allison Sandmeyer-Graves, you have the floor now for five minutes.

[Allison Sandmeyer-Graves, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Women and Sport]

Good afternoon, Madam Chair and members of the committee.

My name is Allison Sandmeyer. I am the chief executive officer of Canadian Women and Sport. My pronouns are she/her.

I'm joining you today from the traditional territories of the peoples of the Treaty 7 region in southern Alberta. The city of Calgary is also the homeland of the historic northwest Métis and of the Métis Nation of Alberta Region 3.

Before I begin, I want to express my deep respect and gratitude to the survivors of maltreatment in sport. We stand with you in seeking change.

We are motivated in our work at Canadian Women and Sport by our belief that safe, equitable and inclusive sport is a powerful vehicle to advance opportunities and equity for women in every area of society. I am here today with the goal of ensuring that sport lives up to this promise.

Maltreatment in sport is global and universal, as we heard Rob Koehler share, but women and girls are a particularly vulnerable group. Even more so are women and girls who experience overlapping systems of oppression, such as indigenous girls, transgender girls and girls with disabilities.

How did we get here? Despite progress, research and experience confirm that sport remains a male-dominated space in which patriarchy, misogyny and hegemonic masculinity are institutionalized and expressed culturally at every level of sport. Women and girls are systematically devalued, creating conditions that put them at risk of harm due to maltreatment or gender-based violence. This is normalized.

As we just heard, there is no doubt that this negatively impacts men and boys as well.

We recognize that many women have also internalized patriarchy and misogyny and that women can and do perpetuate gender inequity and cause harm themselves. This is a reality that must be accounted for in developing solutions.

Recent examples of these phenomena in the news include unchecked toxic masculinity, normalizing gender-based violence by male athletes against young women; gender inequity in the form of inadequate oversight and accountability, exposing young women athletes to unfettered abuse by coaches; and misogyny in coaching practices, expressed as the body shaming and weight policing of young girls. That's to name but a few.

We need a sports system that is values-based, that prioritizes the dignity, rights and well-being of participants above all else, reflected in how sport is designed, measured and funded. We need a sports system that reflects the needs and interests of women, girls and other under-represented groups by embedding their voices and perspectives in every aspect, from governance and strategy to program delivery. We need a sports system that is diverse, equitable and inclusive at its core.

Safety in sport is inextricably tied to the decades-long fight for women to be valued, respected and treated fairly in sport and beyond. Without gender equity, sport will not be a safe space for women and girls. Without safety, full inclusion for women and girls is impossible.

We firmly support the need for a multitude of safeguarding measures to mitigate harm by anyone in sport. As part of this, we must act with urgency to address gender inequity. This must be done with an intersectional focus.

Progress is undoubtedly happening, but it is taking too long and it is inconsistently realized across the sports system. The recent announcement of $25.3 million in renewed federal funding for gender equity in sport is vitally important. However, it is clear from the testimony today that further measures are needed to accelerate progress. The goal must be structural and cultural transformation. Anything less will be insufficient.

To that end, our recommendations are the following.

First—echoing the other witnesses—we must seize on the all-party concern about abuse in sport to initiate a national judicial inquiry by the Government of Canada into maltreatment at all levels of sport to gain a full systemic view of the challenges and to design appropriate solutions. Again, an intersectional gender lens must be applied to this process, and as part of the inquiry, possible regulatory systems for sport should be explored.

In the meantime, we must move urgently to use the full force of the federal government as a major investor in sport to effect change. This includes imposing minimum standards for gender equity, diversity, inclusion and safeguarding for any organization receiving sport funding. This should not be limited to the core funding frameworks alone. Funding for high performance from Own the Podium, as well as for events hosting, infrastructure, projects and so forth, should all be contingent on groups' meeting these standards for values-based sports.

Thank you.