Status of Women committee  Thank you Madam Chair. Dear members of the committee, in no way is my testimony today to negate the positive experiences that athletes and children across Canada have taken from sport. I would further appeal to those athletes who have had positive experiences to listen, observe

Status of Women committee  I think what I've learned and what we've learned with the athletes from the 12 sports is evident. We have survivors with us today. They're not here from the sport of gymnastics because they want to be. Sport has not been able to self-regulate, and it almost appears that they're

Status of Women committee  Madam Chair, thank you for the question. What we're seeing in sport and what we're seeing as the solution in sport now is to move sport people around into different positions. Having worked internationally and in Canada, I know personally that if I'm friends with someone, it's a

Status of Women committee  I would support the call that the gymnasts have made and I would support the call from the 12 separate sport athletes who have spoken to us about their abuse, and that is to implement immediately a third party independent judicial investigation to, one, understand the abuse that'

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee. Today I am not going to detail the stories of abuse from survivors from 15 sports and the thousands of athletes who have come forward with the experience of physical, sexual, financial, and emotional abuse, and a lack of equa

Canadian Heritage committee  This government has an opportunity to reform sport in Canada and globally. You did it with the Dubin inquiry. Now it's time to launch a nationwide inquiry to be agents of change. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Canadian Heritage committee  We hear a lot of people asking and indicating what they think should change. That's what we've seen time and time again. That's why a judicial inquiry is so important, because instead of people giving anecdotal evidence, we need to get to the root and the rot of the problem, wher

Canadian Heritage committee  My top two would be, first, that SafeSport in Canada be independent of Sport Canada and not linked with them and be managed by human rights experts. The second would be that athletes in this country have independent collective representation to look after their interests when t

Canadian Heritage committee  We don't represent them; we advocate for them. That's correct.

Canadian Heritage committee  There are more than 600.

Canadian Heritage committee  Global Athlete has been working internationally for the past several years. The athletes were let down by the Canadian system and had nowhere to turn, and as a result they turned to us. I think that this inherently is the problem. It speaks volumes that these athletes had to come

Canadian Heritage committee  Of the 600-plus.... We've worked with over 1,000 in Canada.

Canadian Heritage committee  That's correct.

Canadian Heritage committee  We're not pressured by anyone other than the athletes. We get our narrative and our directive from athletes from a grassroots level. They sign off on everything. My statement today was shown to the athletes before coming here and was approved by the athletes. We advocate for them

Canadian Heritage committee  That's a complex question. I was standing up strong towards Russia. I was principled in not letting Russia back, and my organization and I came to a head. We didn't agree, and it was time for me to leave. I was pressured, I was bullied and I was intimidated. I continue to have th