Canadian Heritage committee  I'm sorry, but I don't know what I could add quickly to what's already been discussed there.

Canadian Heritage committee  I think they need to be more open and forthright in their replies, Madam Chair.

Canadian Heritage committee  If you think I suggested that it wasn't important, either I misspoke or you misunderstood, because I think confidentiality's extremely important. In fact, the only way you can really work with a whistle-blower is if they have sufficient trust that confidentiality will be maintained, because their biggest fear is retaliation, either by other athletes or by other coaches or members of the sport.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm sorry, but I did not see Mr. Reed's testimony in front of the committee, so I don't really have a comment on that. I think it's not the case that you're powerless to do anything. For example, a coach has to have a coaching licence and report to the coaching association as to what's gone on, but then you can't have a negative explanation for why the termination has occurred, so they don't make those reports.

Canadian Heritage committee  I think you have to understand what the foundations of all those attitudes are, so you have to do an assessment of attitudes. That comes from survey work. We did this with Gymnastics Canada. Then you have to establish a multidisciplinary group that covers all of the requirements.

Canadian Heritage committee  Money can be and in some cases is a corrupting factor, for sure.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm not sure that I have a good answer for that, sir.

Canadian Heritage committee  Well, of course, she wasn't involved in that at all. She wasn't part of the executive board or any of those decisions, because that was 2008 and her role is much more recent than that, but I think the questions are these. Why was it necessary to have this “negotiated exit”, as I described it in my remarks, which allows somebody to leave an organization and for which the real reasons are not revealed and never enter the public domain?

Canadian Heritage committee  Maybe it's not legislation that makes a system better but convening the forums and discussions and trying to act as the party that brings together the national governing body with the provincial and lower echelons of the sport. It's probably a more effective way to go than trying to simply influence everything at the top level and hope that it has a filter-down effect from there.

Canadian Heritage committee  There certainly is. If you start with the Olympic world, they have the IOC. They then recognize an international federation as being the worldwide body for a particular sport, which then, in turn, recognizes the national body as being, within that nation, in charge of the sport.

Canadian Heritage committee  I agree with you. It's a major problem that's been part of all the work that I've done in Canada and have observed. The funding that OSIC has, for example, can go only to the elite, high-performance athletes who are under the governorship and control authority of the national sporting organization.

Canadian Heritage committee  I think we need to have audits. I agree with that. We need to do 360-degree reviews of individuals who are on boards—which can be part of an audit—so you can assess the proper functioning of the governance process of that organization.

Canadian Heritage committee  Well, I'm not quite sure how to answer your question, sir. There's no doubt that sports administrators often try to protect themselves rather than have a greater objective of what the sport administration and the sporting body are absolutely there to do and are trying to do. However, when it comes to work that I do, like investigative work....

Canadian Heritage committee  Again I go back to the dysfunction of the whole system. The different provincial bodies don't necessarily co-operate with each other particularly, or have useful interchange. Then the provincial sport organization doesn't implement what is being done in the next province. There's a lack of overall co-operation.

Canadian Heritage committee  I think part of the reason it's not working is the limited jurisdiction Sport Canada has. The jurisdiction in sport really lies with the provinces, and the spending power of the federal government is used to influence sport through different programs they have at the top of the system.