Madam Speaker, I have been involved in sports for some 45 years. I have enjoyed it and seen a lot, but how dare the Liberals suggest that we should keep funding an organization that contributes to a culture of abuse in sports?
Here is part of the issue I have. In the spring of 2018, the then sports minister proposed, and in fact held a news conference, that the government was going to roll out a new safe sport agenda for Canada. Good for the minister. However, within probably two weeks, one of the biggest sex assault scandals in sport in this country took place in hockey. Sport Canada, which was in charge, failed to even follow up with Hockey Canada.
We heard nothing from Sport Canada, which should have suspended funding immediately. That is its mandate, and it was not following through on its mandate. It stayed silent and did nothing until May 2022. Why? It is because a prominent sports reporter broke the story about the sexual assault allegations from the Hockey Canada gala in London, Ontario, which had actually taken place four years earlier.
Only when Sport Canada was embarrassed by its lack of due diligence, I believe, did it even begin to take half-hearted measures to manage the crisis. At the time, Sport Canada funded hockey. Canada did absolutely nothing. The government proved its incompetence and its unwillingness, I believe, to support safe sport in this country.
Then we found out that Hockey Canada paid out, from a slush fund, $3.5 million as a settlement to a woman known as E.M. We found out in testimony from Hockey Canada that it had an equity fund. It was actually set up long before, to take money from hockey membership registrations paid by parents, just to cover uninsured liabilities that included sexual abuse claims. Again, where was Sport Canada?
This is the issue I have. Understandably, minor hockey parents in this country were livid about the allegations of Hockey Canada's taking registration money and putting it into the fund. It paid out $7.9 million for nine claims out of the national equity fund. Of that, $6.8 million was for the settlement related to Graham James in my home province of Saskatchewan when he was head coach of the Swift Current Broncos.
The government set up the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner to investigate complaints in a timely and impartial fashion. However, we have received numerous anonymous calls to my office here in Ottawa from individuals, parents and athletes who are concerned that the rules are not being complied with in a timely manner by OSIC. That is right; my office is receiving anonymous calls because people are very concerned about the repercussions of even speaking out about abuse.
Sport Canada was told it must hold national sports organizations, all 62 of them, accountable. However, it is silent. We know from the Hockey Canada debacle in 2018 that it failed to do this. Sport Canada is not fulfilling its mandate.
We also heard from a number of members of the Canadian women's soccer team on their concerns about pay equity. It has affected their training and preparation for World Cup matches. Again there has been nothing from Sport Canada.
The funds must be fully accounted for and transparency must be disclosed, which it has not been. Since only national sports organizations are captured by the Office of the Sport Integrity Commission, OSIC, it is now essentially doing the job that Sport Canada was asked to do for many decades. That is the issue I brought up earlier: Sport Canada is not fulfilling its mandate. OSIC is another level of bureaucracy by the Liberal federal government, which has spent millions of dollars to set up safe sport in Canada, to the embarrassment of Sport Canada.
We would think in this country that is where we should start the conversation about safe sport. How does anyone know ,when they drop off their children at soccer, ringette or hockey, that they are safe? It is provincial jurisdiction, and all the sport organizations do is ask for a police check of the coaches and volunteers. We know that every organization in this country is grappling with the lack of volunteers. Many organizations will take anybody from the sidelines; they simply invite them onto the field or the ice.
The disappointment is that the heritage minister knew of the 39 recommendations, still funded Hockey Canada and funded only six recommendations.