Madam Chair, members of the committee, thank you for your invitation and for your work on this important and troubling issue for people in the sport community.
Sport should be a positive, welcoming and enriching experience for everyone involved. That experience should be about joy, about friendship and about growth. This is the kind of experience I'm privileged to take away from my own participation as a former athlete.
Unfortunately, as demonstrated by powerful and heartbreaking testimonies before and outside of this study, as well as by studies about the prevalence of maltreatment, it is clear that too many have experienced harm in their sport journey. Even one experience of maltreatment is too many. It simply is not what sport is all about.
I have been guided by a deep motivation to act as a positive agent of change for sport, with the athletes at the heart of it. This is the same motivation that drove me to step into this role eight months ago, at such an urgent time for sport.
The Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner shares your vision that all participants in Canadian sport should benefit from quality, inclusive, accessible, welcoming and safe sport experiences.
We are working hard to make sport safer by actively addressing the issues, while also broadening our services to support those who are reaching out.
We are nowhere near where we want to be and acknowledge that much more work is needed to attain this vision. As we build the foundations of this program, we note that sport in our country is in dire need of harmonized rules around maltreatment in sport and how to address it. The Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Maltreatment in Sport, or UCCMS, provides a strong foundation at the national level. However, the current lack of consistency in the rules and their application at the different levels of sports participation remains an important gap to be addressed.
I echo the recommendations made by other witnesses who have appeared that education and prevention are required at all levels to truly effect the sustainable change in culture that is needed.
We are attentive to feedback from athletes and others directly impacted by experiences of harm. We continue to work diligently and relentlessly to strengthen our processes.
We are building. We are a place where people can now go for help. And just like this committee today, we are listening, adapting and doing everything within our power to make sport safer.
Thank you for listening and thank you again for your important work.