Status of Women Committee on Dec. 5th, 2022

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

I call the meeting to order.

Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the 44th meeting of the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted on Monday, October 31, the committee will resume its study on women and girls in sport.

Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the House order of June 23, 2022. Members are attending in person in the room and remotely using the Zoom application.

I would like to make a few comments for the benefit of the witnesses and members.

Please wait until I recognize you by name before speaking.

For those participating by video conference, click on the microphone icon to activate your microphone and please mute yourself when you are not speaking.

For interpretation for those on Zoom, you have the choice at the bottom of the screen of “floor”, “English” or “French”. For those in the room, you can use your earpiece and select the desired channel.

I remind everyone that all comments should be addressed through the chair.

For members in the room, if you wish to speak, please raise your hand. For members on Zoom, please use the “raise hand” function.

The clerk and I will manage the speaking list as well as we can. We appreciate your patience.

In accordance with our routine motion, I am informing the committee that all witnesses have completed the required connection test in advance of the meeting.

Before we welcome our witnesses, I would like to provide this trigger warning. This will be a difficult study. We'll be discussing experiences related to abuse. This may be triggering to viewers, members or staff with similar experiences. If you feel distressed or if you need help, please advise the clerk.

I would like to welcome our first panel for today. We have Geneviève Jeanson, who is a public speaker and consultant and is appearing as an individual.

We have Dr. Jennifer Fraser, author and educational consultant.

As well, we have Wendy Glover, secondary schoolteacher and athlete development consultant.

We will be providing you each with five minutes for your opening comments. When you see me start swirling my hand, just start winding it down, and from there we will go on to questions and answers.

The first five minutes are for Geneviève. Geneviève, you have the floor.

[Geneviève Jeanson, Public Speaker and Consultant, As an Individual]

Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee.

I'm a former professional road cyclist. I competed for Canada in the 2000 Olympic Games. I've won multiple world championships and world cups throughout my career.

I feel very fortunate to have been invited here today, because all of you have a part in the safeguarding of athletes and are in a position to influence the development of future generations of athletes.

Please understand that I will speak today about my own experiences. Everything I say here is my personal opinion. For the sake of expediency, I will go directly to the unedited version of my story—hence the blunt terminology.

For the purposes of this discussion, we can say that my story began at 14 years old. That's the age I was when my coach, who was 26 years older than me, hit me in the head for the first time in a training session. I was told that it was to make me a better, tougher athlete. He compared the world of competition to living in the jungle. In the jungle, only the strongest survive. I was taught to welcome assault and to trust that physical violence was a normal part of training, that it was actually good for me.

At 15 years old, the verbal and physical violence progressed to sexual assault and rape, which was immediately followed by threats like, “I'm in love with you. If you leave me, I'm going to kill you, and then I'm going to commit suicide.” I was never the same person after that first sexual assault.

Because I was living with constant violence, I actually believed that he could kill me and that he could commit suicide. It was so real that I couldn't leave. I did not want to live the rest of my life with the responsibility of someone's suicide on my shoulders. In my case, abuse also included performance-enhancing drugs, which I started taking at the age of 16.

I was winning a lot of races as a junior, including national championships against older girls, so my coach decided he would take more and more time off from work to focus exclusively on my athletic career and development. He eventually took leave without pay from his job as a phys. ed. teacher.

During that year, when I was 16, we discovered that I was anemic. I was told that I could not wait for the anemia to subside and get healthy naturally, because I was supposed to win, get sponsors and earn money for him to live. He brought me to a doctor and they decided to give me EPO, a performance-enhancing drug, so that I could keep training and performing regardless of my anemia. What was supposed to be a few injections to treat anemia turned into career-long doping.

In our society, when someone is engaged in illegal activities, he is considered a criminal, caught or not. To draw a parallel with society, in less than two years I became a victim of abuse, a cheater and, because doping is illegal in sports, a criminal in the world I lived in—all at 16.

I was a teenager without an escape route, with no one to talk to and no one to help me. There was rarely a training session without verbal, psychological and physical violence. My coach took control of everything—whom I was able to talk to, when I was able to go out, everything regarding finances, etc. I was desperately trying to find a way out of the sport to leave him. I could not just stop, because I was earning money for him to live. He made sure to remind me of that: He had left everything in his life, including divorcing his wife, to take care of my career, so I was the one responsible.

Because of his suicide threats, I could not go to another coach. I could not share my story with my national or international federation, because in revealing everything, I would have been accused of cheating. I would have lost my whole career, my life and my name. I was down to thinking that the only solution was to get into an accident—not an accident that would kill me, but something that was serious enough that I could finally make everything stop.

Instead of getting into an accident, I failed a drug test. I got a 10-year ban from all sports. I swear that failing that drug test was the best thing that ever happened to me. I was immediately relieved, because it meant that I could finally stop cycling and I could leave my coach. A positive drug test was just a small inconvenience compared with the hell I was living in. Having my name tarnished forever was a cheap price to pay to finally get rid of him.

You might ask yourself why I didn't just leave. Well, it's never as simple as just leaving an abusive relationship. Fleeing an abusive relationship is by far the most dangerous step, as the perpetrator fights to regain his control. Most fatalities happen in the act of leaving or just after the victim has left the relationship.

Until 2015 I was more comfortable having my name and identity associated with performance-enhancing drugs than associated with the abuse I had been a victim of. In 2015, when a good part of my healing had taken place, I finally felt ready to open up about the violence I had lived through and how I had been coerced into taking performance-enhancing drugs, but I was not yet ready to talk about the sexual assaults. To me, it was still too dirty and too shameful.

It was only in 2021, after reading numerous stories about abuse in sports, that I decided to share the full extent of my experience with abuse, the story I just told you today.

With that being said, please don't tell me you are sorry for what happened. Being sorry will not change the past. Be sorry that the culture of sport is still what it is today, and be angry that things are not moving fast enough in the safeguarding of athletes.

Because I believe I can be a part of the solution and influence the change of culture that must be imposed in sport, I got involved with Sport'Aide, and I'm extremely grateful to have a voice here today in front of this committee.

The literature confirms it: Female athletes are more at risk of experiencing situations of sexual violence; young athletes are more vulnerable; and female athletes are particularly at risk of experiencing violence when they have low self-confidence, eating disorders, and a very strong dependence on the coach. In addition, elite athletes are more at risk of experiencing psychological violence and young athletes of experiencing physical violence.

It is my wish that you help us make the following changes. Here are my recommendations.

First, we must educate our athletes, starting as early as possible, on what is an acceptable or unacceptable behaviour. Young athletes need to be equipped so they know how to react, know which services or resources to turn to, and understand there is no shame in asking for help. We must not assume that the winning coach is a good coach. Some coaches are just repeating the bad behaviour they witnessed and lived as athletes. Therefore, we must grow the education network to reach coaches, federation officials and parents. Education on matters of integrity should be mandatory.

Second, I would like to request the implementation of a system for receiving and processing complaints that is totally independent of the federations and that is not reserved only for our elite athletes. I would like to remind you that violence in sports crosses all ages, genres and skill levels. It happens at the recreational and the competitive levels.

Lastly, I'm also asking the Canadian sports system to rethink the funding of our federations so that it gives at least the same importance to the well-being of our athletes that they do to their performance. We cannot continue to give money to federations solely based on performance, because this “winning at all costs” mentality is enabling the culture of abuse.

I sincerely hope that the work you are currently carrying out will not be shelved. I, like many others you have heard in this room, will push for change. You have decisional power, and we are relying on you to give us the support we didn't have as young athletes.

Thank you again for having me among you today.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you so much, Geneviève.

I'm now going to pass it over for five minutes to Jennifer Fraser.

[Dr. Jennifer Fraser, Author and Educational Consultant, As an Individual]

Thank you spending time on this critically important and urgent issue.

In the 1980s, from 13 to 17 years old, I was abused by teachers in a Vancouver public school.

Today, in fact, sexual abuse by school personnel is on the rise. When I was abused, that was 40 years ago, and I cannot believe that nothing has changed to better protect children and all individuals from abuse.

According to the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, at least 750 school children were subject to sexual abuse by school personnel between 2017 and 2021, and that is the tip of the iceberg.

Forty years ago, in the Quest program, we were emotionally, physically and sexually abused by three teachers across the hall from the principal, vice-principal and school counsellors. While the damage from the teachers' abuse is obvious, neuroscience shows on brain scans the physical damage to the brain, not only from the teachers' abuse but also from the failure of school personnel to stop it.

I am here today to address that lack of action and the systems that work against those who report and those who speak up.

I was an award-winning teacher for 20 years, but when I reported in 2012 to school personnel and governing bodies the direct reports from student athletes who were being subjected to a toxic culture of fear, favouritism and humiliation, the students were revictimized and I was exiled from the teaching profession.

As the mother of one of the victims, I watched first-hand the devastating impact on my son, not only from the abuse but from the “army of enablers”, to use Amos Guiora's phrase. While the abuse done to my son was sickening, he was clear that the enabling of the abuse and the cover-up by governing bodies were far worse.

I resigned in protest from that school that was covering up abuse, only to find myself in another school covering up abuse. This time, the abuse was sexual. Again, I heard it directly from a victim. I then watched first-hand as the school and governing bodies covered up the abuse and celebrated the perpetrator publicly in front of his victim. They did not tell the truth that he was fired after an extensive police investigation.

The commissioner for teacher regulation colluded by making his teaching certificate disappear from the registry of disciplined teachers. He had no restrictions on it when he sought out his victim at university and met with her again, further traumatizing her brain. She took her life several months later. She was 19.

Instead of being supported for trying to protect an abused student, I learned that being a whistle-blower put me at great risk, and there were no legal protections for me. The commissioner for teacher regulation did not try to protect the student victim or me. Instead, he put me under investigation for speaking up publicly about the teacher perpetrator and the risk he posed to other vulnerable students.

What is to be done?

A judicial inquiry like the Dubin inquiry in 1988 is 40 years overdue. We've had the knowledge of rampant child abuse and the damage it does since the 1980s, with further confirmation each following decade.

The urgent question is, when are we going to halt abuse? The equally urgent question is how. The answer lies in the Dubin Inquiry.

Dubin stated that:

The failure of many sport-governing bodies to treat the drug problem more seriously and to take more effective means to detect and deter the use of such drugs has also contributed in large measure to the extensive use of drugs by athletes.

This insight also applies to abuse.

The failure of sport governing bodies to treat the problem of abuse more seriously to effectively detect and deter abuse has contributed to the extent of it. If perpetrators think they can get away with it, they will do more of it.

Governing bodies in Canada are not motivated to protect victims of abuse. That negligence will instantly change when committed parliamentarians amend legislation so that it holds governing bodies criminally accountable for being accomplices to abuse and for committing the abuse of revictimization.

Provisions in the Criminal Code would act as a deterrent to governing bodies that are negligent, conduct sham investigations, cover up abuse, protect perpetrators and thereby refuse to treat seriously the harm done by all forms of abuse.

Most importantly, a fully independent parliamentary body is needed to address, investigate and keep a proper track record of all forms of abuse in sport, in education and beyond. It must be independent from sport, independent from education, independent from all governing bodies with conflicts of interest. It needs to be empowered to act independently and fearlessly. It needs to have the capacity to issue corrective measures.

I look forward to any questions you may have.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much, Dr. Fraser.

I'm now going to pass it over to Wendy Glover for five minutes.

Wendy, you have the floor.

[Wendy Glover, Secondary School Teacher and Athlete Development Consultant, As an Individual]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Dear members of the committee, thank you for having me here. I've been watching, listening and learning from the committee and various witnesses. It means a lot to me to be here, as this topic is something I've been concerned about for many years.

I am a physical and health education teacher certified for kindergarten through grade 12. I've had the opportunity to teach elementary school for five years and secondary school for 20. Over the years, I've taken on various roles in community sports, such as coach, parent, administrator and board member. Most of these experiences have been in soccer and hockey.

Two years ago, I was encouraged to contribute to the hockey community through the Ontario Hockey League as an academic and personal development adviser with the London Knights, as my previous experience in supporting student athletes in their holistic development would be helpful to the players. Additionally, my children grew up in the hockey system and are now in their early twenties, so I knew the youth hockey system from which the OHL players graduated.

I've also presented at local, provincial, national and international conferences on Athleadership and holistic athlete development. Additionally, I've written courses and curricula taught in the Ontario school system. While immersed in teaching and coaching athletes, I continued to study child and adolescent development. I was determined to bring current evidence about healthy long-term athlete development to community sport. I couldn't understand why people in community sport didn't follow the National Sport Organization's guidelines to serving the children in the most appropriate ways. I've been learning about NSO sport development models over the years and listening to athletes' concerns. I have studied concepts such as the rights of children in sport and other countries' athlete development models. There is much to learn, share, adopt and apply.

Not all athletes have enjoyed their sport experiences. The longer I taught in high school, the more I heard from athletes and learned of their repeated concerns. I realized the adults were the ones harming the children through the system. By their teenage years, the teenagers knew it. They wanted to do something about it. I listened to them.

What if I educated and empowered the teens willing to do something positive in sport so that when they became adults, they could actually make a difference? I knew I needed to do something to address my concerns in sport, which I couldn't do as one individual.

At that time, about 15 years ago, I wrote an Athleadership program for teen athletes to become trained in coaching, sports administration, child development, safe sport, communication and more. Upon being trained, they would be immersed in the sport community in different roles and applying what they learned. After doing so, they would have opportunities to discuss and reflect and have guidance on what they were experiencing so they could better understand how to contribute effectively in sport.

There are over 500 graduates of this Athleadership program, and I've shared this model with other secondary schools and sport communities. They have adopted it.

One of the principles of the program is “Stop complaining—how do we address the concern?” It has proven successful, and many are now in sport leadership positions. The ripple effect is real. I've tested this concept and learned that if people have appropriate education, guidance and mentorship, they can make a positive difference in sport, regardless of age, if they are willing to learn, reflect and be led.

In community sport, it can be difficult to get adults willing to learn, reflect and be led. I thought that, if we educated the adults the same way the Athleadership program does teens, they would finally listen. I tried, and no, they don't. I witnessed more “I got this” attitudes than “How do we do better for children?” attitudes. This is part of the problem.

The problems are linked to governance. Adults in the system enjoy the status quo. If they do want to learn, the sport community won't allow what they've learned to be applied. People in youth sports do not have enough education, support and mentorship to effectively lead, or to follow or enforce the policies in appropriate ways. They often don't know what they don't know.

I do not blame them; I blame the system that has allowed this to happen. The ability to create change is virtually impossible within the current sport system. I've tried.

The system, as created, does not provide for children as it intended to. It was meant to offer safe, developmentally appropriate sport experiences. We have not been measuring the right examples of successful programming. As child development researcher Dr. Martin Toms suggests, “children are not mini-adults”. We have allowed the lack of governance in sport to “adultify” youth sports and harm our children as a result.

I too echo what previous witnesses have mentioned, and that is to have an independent judicial inquiry to learn the extent of the issues that enable the abusive cultures to exist, or harm will continue.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you very much, the three of you. That was fantastic.

We're going to start our rounds of questioning. We do six minutes for the first round.

We'll start off with Michelle Ferreri for the first six minutes.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses for being here today. It's very powerful and very emotional for everyone who is listening. I appreciate your candid testimony, your honesty and your vulnerability.

Geneviève, I really liked your candour and your bluntness, as you put it, because I think there's no beating around the bush, and I really appreciate that in this discussion.

I want to be really mindful of how delicate this is. I want to ask you something and I hope it's okay. What did you need when you were 14? What could you have said to your 16-year-old self?

[Geneviève Jeanson]

Thank you for this question.

I would have loved to have the knowledge that an organization was there for me. It was the late 1990s and early 2000s and the #MeToo movement, which helped a lot in the sensitization of people, was not known at that time. I would have loved to know and to have that education that if you get hit or if a coach says that kind of thing to you, it's not right. I didn't have any other support and I didn't have any other role models, so I would have needed to know, one, what was acceptable or not and, two, that there was a place that was clearly and easily accessible and that I could have called to ask.

Just those two basic things would have made a huge difference. I'm not certain.... You know, a little further on, with all the abuse when it continued and progressed, I cannot know for sure if I would have called, but just knowing that it was there would have probably changed something—changed my future.

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

Thank you for that.

I think Ms. Glover said it really well. You don't know what you don't know, especially when you're that young, right?

Can I ask about the process when you decided to speak up? Did your abuser...? What happened? Can you share that information?

[Geneviève Jeanson]

I decided to speak up, and of course I did it in a very public fashion, with articles, interviews and everything else. They tried to reach him. He never answered. He lives in the United States. He's Canadian, but he lives in the United States, and he's still violent, because he was arrested by the police in 2017 for domestic violence.

For me, I had only that amount of energy, and I chose to spend it on getting better and to heal from that trauma, to be able to have a normal life and a normal partnership with someone who loves me and who I love, or kids, and all that stuff. I wanted to get better for my future, but sometimes I regret not having pursued criminal or civil laws to get him a sentence. When I think of it now, though, I mean, what is he going to get—two months in prison, or nothing? I'd rather spend my energy on myself, but yes, he didn't say anything.

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

There's no point in regret. That's for sure. That's why we're here today: to go forward. I think that's why we're here.

Ms. Fraser, I really like your connection to neuroscience and how trauma changes the brain. I think that's very powerful when we look at this.

I would ask again if it's okay with you to share the process.

You spoke about something that jumped off the page for me, in that there was no legal protection for whistle-blowers. In this committee, I think that learning the process and where the gaps are in the process when somebody does come forward is really valuable for us in order to fix the system, so I'm curious about what you found were the biggest gaps in your process when you came forward.

[Dr. Jennifer Fraser]

I went to school administrators first and reported the abuse I was hearing directly. They asked me to take testimonies from students, which I did, at their request. I helped the students go and have interviews with them, and then they turned everything around. Very quickly, they went from acting like they were supportive of victims to actually trying to cover it up. It turns out they had been informed a year earlier, so they were in a negligent position if, in fact, abuse was identified.

When I realized they weren't going to fulfill their legal duty to report to the commissioner for teacher regulation, I had to step in and do it myself, as a teacher, which I did. I reported on four teachers, I reported on the headmaster and I reported on the chaplain for covering up, and then I just watched the whole system. It would take me a long time to tell you about the corruption, but I have lots of documentation of how completely corrupt the system was.

And I was a believer. My father's a lawyer. My grandfather's a judge. My uncle's a lawyer. I believed. I believed in school, I believed in government, I believed in education until this happened, so I went to the commissioner for teacher regulation. Then I took all the documentation and handed it over to the ombudsperson's office, because of course that's where you take things when in fact you are being basically destroyed by your own professional organization that's supposed to protect students. They are there to protect students, and it's supposed to be transparent.

Then it went to the ombudsperson's office, and three years later, when I was frantically alerting them that my student had suicidal ideation and she was still being pursued by the principal of the school even though she had gone to university, they still weren't doing anything. They were just dragging their feet.

I didn't know what to do at that point. I went to the representative for children and youth. I went to the Ministry of Education. I was frantic trying to save her. I knew she was very mentally ill and I knew he was pursuing her, and he met with her. I called the police, and they said they weren't able to charge him. The special victims police officer who dealt with all of it stepped down after that. She was just finished.

What I found was that every single governing body I went to, whose job is to protect young people and children and to protect whistle-blowers and to support you when these kinds of things happen and you're being manipulated, actually was deeply engaged in enabling the abuse.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Thank you so much.

I'm now going to pass it online. We have Emmanuella Lambropoulos, who is online, for six minutes.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'd like to begin by thanking our witnesses for being here and coming forward with this testimony that I think is going to be very helpful to our study. I want you to know that I appreciate each one of you for being here with us today.

I heard a lot of points in the testimony of all three witnesses that resonated a lot with either my own experiences or what I believe needs to happen going forward in this process, so thank you.

I was a high school teacher. I started teaching when I was 23. I was actually in a pretty dangerous position myself, and the school did whatever it could to cover it up, so I completely understand where you're coming from when you say they cover up. I know it has a lot to do with ruining the school's reputation. That's what they really care about and what they want to protect.

Unfortunately, I can't go much further into that today because we are the federal government, and there's not very much we could do at the provincial level, but what I heard today from all three witnesses was about education and the importance of educating our young people who are going to play sports, as well as coaches and everyone else who plays a part in a child's experience with sports.

Dr. Fraser, you spoke about teaching our kids within the education system.

Geneviève, you spoke about the importance of making sure kids are aware of what's appropriate and what's not appropriate. Is there a formal way? Can you give our committee a recommendation on the way you think this education should happen within our national sports organizations?

Also, any of the other witnesses can comment on the approach you think the national sports organizations can take in order to better educate the kids who are playing sports professionally.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

I'll send it to Wendy Glover first, and then we'll add comment.

[Wendy Glover]

The program that I created that the students take is two additional credits in high school. They are willing to do that. As you mentioned, creating programs for kids would be through the provincial governments. I also think you could put it in the sport systems as well, but you need to hire people to deliver it.

I said earlier that they don't know what they don't know. I found that when you're trained as a coach or as an administrator, you get the training, and then you're kind of left on your own for many years. There is little circle-back of professional education or constant upgrading of information. They may be one year into coaching and then coach the same way for 20 years, so there isn't a system of improvement and checks and balances.

You need people who are trained in the sport systems, in long-term athlete development, and in child and adolescent development to be in the sport system to oversee it. It's just not happening.

People continue to be in these high positions at high levels in sport, as you're hearing, and it's still happening there. It's mind-boggling that these people who are leading the youth of today and the elite athletes of tomorrow just don't know enough or have systems in place that circle back to update them on what they're doing in these positions, to be fair.

[Dr. Jennifer Fraser]

I would add that I actually think that all of this is a federal issue, whether it's education or sport or anything beyond, because it's actually about health, mental health, substance abuse and self-harm, including suicide. It's far larger. It's really a public health crisis and a safety crisis at the highest level across the entire country. I don't think provinces are in any kind of position to be managing it. I see it as something that belongs to the highest leadership in the land.

I would say that children, as early as they start in kindergarten.... Instead of teaching them to obey adults, all adults, and respect all adults, especially teachers and coaches, we need to teach them—the brain learns from repetition at timed intervals—about safety and their own holistic safety from five years old all the way through to 18, getting more sophisticated with every step of the way, the same as with all other subjects, such as how to kick a soccer ball or how to solve a math problem.

[Geneviève Jeanson]

I agree 100% with my colleagues.

To add quickly, the national federations.... In cycling, you get to the national team when you're much older—like 16, 17, 18—but in many sports, such as gymnastics or swimming, it starts at a very young age. They can do projects with the national team when they are young.

Maybe a good place to start, at least at the federal level, would be to have that mandatory education on matters of integrity the minute they're part of the national team. Then, yes, it has to be the provinces, and the provinces have their own jurisdictions, but somewhere leadership has to come from up high. Then at the national level—national federations—you get that established, and then it trickles down.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

You have 10 seconds left.

Thanks, Emmanuella.

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

Thanks very much.

I appreciate everyone's being here and adding to this testimony. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Karen Vecchio]

Awesome.

We're now going to turn it over to Andréanne Larouche.

Andréanne, you have six minutes.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Ms. Glover, thank you for your testimony and for appearing before our committee today.

Ms. Fraser, having heard the testimony you've just given, I empathize with you.

Ms. Jeanson, you said in your opening remarks that you wanted to be involved in the change. I wish that for you. That's the reason why you're here.

I'd like to go back to a letter that you sent to the International Cycling Union, in which you discussed the defects of the process for filing complaints. You said that, in society, sexual assault is a crime punishable by imprisonment, that suspensions must be consistent with the seriousness of the actions and that filing a formal complaint of abuse, such as physical assault or sexual abuse, should result in an immediate provisional suspension during the investigation. You also said that, if there’s time to measure sock length and dictate how riders may ride their bikes, there’s time to investigate an email saying that a coach is overly temperamental or giving unwanted and inappropriate attention to his athletes, and let him or her know that someone is watching and investigating.

Your remarks are quite consistent with those of many athletes who have previously spoken out on this subject and who think that the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada, the SDRCC, isn't a mechanism that appropriately and adequately protects athletes.

Are you surprised to learn that the organization that the government has established to handle complaints doesn't understand what you've requested? You alluded to it earlier in response to a question from my colleague and when you spoke out on the case of cyclists who had been victims of sexual assault committed by Patrick Van Gansen.

[Geneviève Jeanson]

For starters, there has to be an independent committee that's capable of handling complaints. It must be a safe place for everyone, particularly for athletes. Athletes must be assured that it isn't a "boys' club" that's always connected in some way with another federation and that seeks to protect its federation and so on.

My experience is in cycling. What inspired me to write that letter was that, at the international level, the case had been handled in a completely inadequate way. It was hilarious how badly the case had been mishandled.

The federal government should establish an independent committee, but it should be consistent in all sports. There should be a body to which any athlete can turn, whether in soccer, cycling or bobsleigh, for example. There should also be the same consequences and sanctions for all sports.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Many stakeholders and victims in sport are requesting that the government hold an independent commission of inquiry to shed light on the current situation, which is toxic. You also mentioned the fact that this situation affects the entire sporting world, in all sports across the country.

Do you support the call of athletes and other organizations, such as the Coaching Association of Canada, and the call of women in sport to establish an independent and public judicial inquiry? Are you with them on that?