Evidence of meeting #46 for Status of Women in the 44th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was athletes.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Anna Roberts Conservative King—Vaughan, ON
Have you had any complaints? Have there been any complaints with your athletes since 2015? If so, do you know the number? Have there been any financial awards granted?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Volleyball Canada
No, there has never been a financial piece done, going back to 2015. We have our list, and 19 cases have occurred. These are not all maltreatment or sexual cases. There are five of those on record.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Volleyball Canada
Absolutely. They can be shared.
Conservative
Anna Roberts Conservative King—Vaughan, ON
The last question I have is for Debra.
Who funds the Sport Information Resource Centre?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Sport Information Resource Centre
We receive funding and generate our revenue a lot of different ways. We do grants with researchers and literature reviews. We offer services—
Conservative
Anna Roberts Conservative King—Vaughan, ON
Does any of the money you receive come from the federal government?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Sport Information Resource Centre
Yes, we get some. We are doing something with Health Canada right now on an air quality health index. We do stuff with Sport Canada—
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
It's okay.
I'm going to pass the floor over to Sonia.
Sonia, you have four minutes.
Liberal
Sonia Sidhu Liberal Brampton South, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to all the witnesses for their insightful testimony.
My first question goes to Mr. Winter.
Can you expand on how the board and the Athletics Canada commissioner's office operate independently and impartially?
Director, Domestic Programs and Safe Sport, Athletics Canada
They're given their terms of reference, which is an agreement document published for public consumption. It sets out how they're to manage any complaints in those six different areas. They're given a great deal of discretion in how they conduct and appeal a complaints review. They work with the party by providing information to the complainants to ensure they're aware of their rights and what the process looks like. They'll work in different, alternative ways in coming to a resolution, and this obviously depends on the severity of the complaint. Obviously not all complaints they receive are the most egregious, with sexual abuse or maltreatment. There may be other issues and complaints brought forward for them to deal with.
It's done, again, in an independent manner. They can obviously ask questions of Athletics Canada if any sort of testimony needs to be provided on the part of the NSO, but they are able to manage it in a completely independent process. Those files are not shared with Athletics Canada. We're not able to embed ourselves in that process. In many cases, we are not aware a complaint has been received or an investigation is ongoing until the report is made at the end.
We feel that is the way the process should operate so that there's no way for the staff and Athletics Canada to meddle with the process. We want it to be as independent as possible so that athletes feel they're getting a fair shake at the process and don't risk retribution. Obviously we wouldn't want there to be retribution at all, but we also want to make sure athletes don't feel there's a chance of that.
Liberal
Sonia Sidhu Liberal Brampton South, ON
Thank you.
My next question is for Ms. Gassewitz.
I know you have done a lot of consultation with athletes and coaches. What are you hearing when it comes to promoting and improving mandatory training and education?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Sport Information Resource Centre
That's a great question.
We're hearing that loud and clear across the country. When it came to the survey, having education and training ended up being the biggest message, whether it was coming from our athletes or coaches. Our officials, in particular, came forward in this area of abuse. That was huge.
Education and training are priorities for getting the message out at all levels to all participants loud and clear. Values and ethics, which are under the category of safe sport training, ranked number one among our community sports.
Liberal
Sonia Sidhu Liberal Brampton South, ON
We know OSIC has only existed since June. In your view, what does the future look like?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Sport Information Resource Centre
I think it shows we're making progress. When we look at 2019, we see it wasn't really on the radar. Now we have it and everybody has mandatory programs. Now we have an independent mechanism. This is such an important topic, and the fact that we're moving and making progress is, I think, setting the course for Canada to be a leader in making sport safe for everybody. I think it's a good step.
Liberal
Sonia Sidhu Liberal Brampton South, ON
To follow up, do you think an annual report on the well-being of athletes, outside of performance metrics, should be necessary?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Sport Information Resource Centre
Do you mean an annual report on the athlete experience?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Sport Information Resource Centre
Honestly, I think this goes to the idea of having an athlete experience or a participant experience in sport regardless of who you are—athletes, coaches or anybody else involved. I would love to see each year that people are having a positive experience, because that was the message: Let's make it positive.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Karen Vecchio
That's fantastic.
We'll now move to Jean-Denis for two minutes.
Bloc
Jean-Denis Garon Bloc Mirabel, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Mr. Winter, many, if not all, athletes are calling for a judicial inquiry or an independent commission to get to the bottom of all the allegations and all the things that are happening in sports.
Can you confirm to us, here today, on camera, that you and your organization support this request from the athletes?
Director, Domestic Programs and Safe Sport, Athletics Canada
The simple answer is yes. We obviously want to know a bit more about what that looks like to fully understand it, but if the athletes feel unanimously that this will lead to a better experience for them in sport and a more positive and safe sporting environment, then absolutely we would be on board to help support that.