Mr. Speaker, there was screaming, insulting, body shaming, ridiculing, isolating, humiliating, manipulating, controlling, comparing, berating, grooming and touching.
Those who know me recognize I will often be the optimistic one in the room and focus on the good. In reference to sport and youth, I would love to be speaking on the benefits and life lessons acquired through sport, such as healthy communication, commitment, concentration, competition, confidence, control and self-respect. However, today I am speaking to a report regarding safe sport in Canada that was tabled in the House by the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage in June 2024.
To provide some context, this report covers the study of abuse in organized sport in Canada, mostly hockey and soccer. This study was triggered by reporting that Hockey Canada had reached an out-of-court settlement with a woman who alleged she had been sexually assaulted by members of the national junior hockey team. This was later found to be a deeper issue within Hockey Canada and the study was expanded in September 2022 to include all organized sport, on ice, on fields, in gyms and on spring floors.
The key findings included abuse experienced by athletes, testimony concerning junior hockey, racism, issues faced by indigenous athletes, issues specific to minors, culture within the Canadian sport system, fear of retribution, jurisdictional issues and suggestions to amend best practices.
I am not a member of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage; I never have been. However, I chair the status of women committee, previously sat on the national defence committee and currently serve as the shadow minister for women, gender equality and youth. This may seem a rather scattered membership that would not tie into this report, but it does. In every one of these areas, we have dealt with predation by people in power positions on vulnerable Canadians, be they women, especially indigenous women, children or persons in abusive relationships, and with institutions that just do not care about what is happening unless it makes the headlines. This is true for resource extraction companies, the Canadian Armed Forces, the federal public service and apparently some of our sport associations here in Canada.
It seems wherever I turn in my political career, sexual, physical, emotional and mental abuse rears its ugly head. My most relevant role in all of this is my most important job and biggest privilege, which is to be the mother of two gifted athletes. I have two daughters. My youngest, Reese, is a club volleyball player with the U16 Peterborough Thunder, and my eldest, Tori, plays south of the border with the U19 Connecticut Junior Rangers. Watching our girls in competitive sport is what I love, alongside watching my nieces and nephews, who all love to compete and do it well.
I was raised with sport my entire life. I have seen, and continue to see, outstanding, motivating and firm but fair coaches and teammates along the way. However, it is disturbing to acknowledge how the twisted and dark stories of some can stain the very fabric of sport in Canada. Small rural communities like those in Hastings—Lennox and Addington are home to thousands of athletes, from house league to high performance. We play, we cheer, we win, we lose and we learn. Small communities rally together to support our own and can only hope they are experiencing safe, inclusive and fun sport cultures. Sadly, this is not always the case.
For the report itself, the testimony was harrowing but so essential in helping us, as legislators, try to address the systemic issues plaguing organized sports in Canada. The report itself was very thorough, but there are a few areas where additional action could be taken. In the dissenting report presented by the Conservatives, four particular areas were laid out.
The first was that Sport Canada must hold national sports organizations accountable. The report goes on to cite the revolting actions by Hockey Canada in establishing a hush fund for the survivors of rape and sexual misconduct by its players. To be very clear, Hockey Canada was complicit in covering up and, quite frankly, promoting and enabling the sexual harassment of women.
Before I was elected as a member of Parliament, I would have asked myself how this was possible. Now I know better. This is possible because these institutions often exist, in part, to protect and enable themselves, to the point where they are willing to cover up rape because some particular young athlete has outstanding talent or is a star on their team. This is the exact same issue plaguing the armed forces.
There needs to be buy-in from the government to bring the hammer down on these organizations when the issues are made so obvious. It should not have taken 10 months for Sport Canada to intervene, as it did in the Hockey Canada case. We should be teaching our children that respect, consideration and justice are more valuable than a trophy.
Similarly, point two says that the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner needs to be fully independent from the sporting community. Far too often, victims and survivors feel that they will not get a fair shake with the OSIC because it is populated by people with a vested interest in sport. Again, this is a similar to the complaint heard in CAF, where many survivors feel isolated from justice because they need to go through the chain of command, which often involves an associate of the perpetrator, if not the perpetrator themselves. The government is moving to rectify that by reforming the military justice system, but that needs to continue. Sport Canada should take a long, hard look at both the pitfalls of populating the review board with people involved in the industry and what steps the government is taking to rectify that and apply those lessons to sport in Canada.
The third point was on co-operation between the provincial, federal and territorial governments to ensure that provincial organizations and post-secondary sport organizations are being held accountable. The federal government needs to be exceptionally clear on what is expected from provincial and territorial counterparts, and leading by example would be an excellent start.
Lastly, we need transparency for the parents and young athletes who are making that transition into the next level of organized sport. We need a public, accessible, searchable registry of all coaches who have been found to have been in violation of the universal code of conduct to prevent and address maltreatment in sport, regardless of the type of violation. This registry should be detailed and include the name of the offender, the number of complaints, the number of arrests and the number of convictions. This would not only help ensure that our kids are kept safe from predators but also provide ease of mind to athletes and parents alike, who would know that the history of the person they are trusting is clean and issue-free.
Provocative testimony of allegations of sexual assault and secretive, unaccountable organizations have been covered up. While the committee was waiting for a response to this very report, the Minister of Sport claimed that it was her mandate to repair the erosion of trust within the sport system in Canada. Is this happening?
Sports is a significant part of who we are. The Liberal government must take responsibility, ensure that the toxic culture is eliminated and make sure that protecting our athletes who have been victimized takes precedence over protecting bullies, abusers and government officials. Crossing the line is never okay. Having athletes feel threatened and uncomfortable should never be tolerated or ignored.
I would like to acknowledge, in the last part of my speech, that earlier today we heard comments regarding intimidation towards witnesses. More specifically, they were conversations that members had with other members. I will speak more clearly to that and share acknowledgement from a member who wrote to me to say that they were sorry. They said they let their emotions surrounding the safe sport conversation get the better of them, and that, in one instance, they reacted in an unprofessional manner and called integrity into question. This was directed at a member, not a witness. Most importantly, we cannot turn a blind eye, or we will be jeopardizing the future of sport in Canada.
