Thank you, Madam Chair and the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, for inviting me to speak today on behalf of the Sport Information Resource Centre. I'll refer to it throughout as SIRC.
To the survivors who have come forward and shared their experiences, and to those who have not, my heart goes out to each and every one of you, as no one should have to go through the abuses and harms you have suffered. As a parent, as a volunteer, as a girl who loved sport growing up and today as someone working in sport, I firmly believe we need to do whatever we can to ensure that no one—especially children—is maltreated or harmed in any way.
My reason for coming here today is that I believe we can make a difference. Why? Because I'm watching behaviours change.
SIRC is Canada's leader in advancing sport through knowledge and evidence, and our role is to help answer questions, facilitate conversations and share knowledge with the sport sector. We're not an advocacy group. We're a resource centre known for neutrality and our desire to help find credible information, to listen and to learn.
For example, 10 years ago, concussions were not well known in the public sphere. Athletes, coaches, parents, sports officials and media all seemed to embrace the “tough it up” mentality. In 2016, the government, led by Governor General David Johnston at the time, embraced “we can do better”. The ministers made it a priority to increase concussion awareness and the management and prevention of concussions, and to collect data so we could continue learning. Today, all national sport organizations have mandatory concussion policies, the provinces have implemented concussion protocols, Ontario has Rowan’s Law Day and the FPT endorsed the fourth week of September to be concussion awareness week so that we continue learning.
Addressing concussions through research and evidence is one part of making sports safer for Canada's athletes. Safe sport is more than just physical safety.
We've heard about the horrendous harms and maltreatment experienced by our athletes, and we know our government has been listening—