One hundred Canadian boxers are demanding the resignation of Boxing Canada’s high performance director, Daniel Trépanier, and the launch of an independent investigation into the culture and safe practice of sport.
In a letter to Sport Canada Wednesday morning, the athletes say Boxing Canada maintains a toxic culture of fear and silence internally. “For more than a decade, Boxing Canada athletes and coaches who spoke out against wrongdoing and advocated for reform have been expelled from the organization,” the document reads. “Many athletes feel they have suffered physical and psychological abuse and neglect from the organization, due to their refusal to address these issues. Several attempts have been made to highlight these issues, and they have been ignored or dismissed outright. »
Concerns
The Boxers cite four main areas of concern: governance and transparency; Security ; toxic culture; and harassment and favouritism.
Last year, they point out, a compendium of the experiences of many boxers was submitted to Boxing Canada’s board of directors, but no investigation was launched to analyze these allegations.
Mandy Bujold, two-time Pan American Games gold medalist, two-time Olympic participant and 11-time Canadian champion, expressed her support for the movement on Twitter : “I support athletes and coaches! #timeforchange »
Boxing Canada declined to give an interview to The Canadian Press. For only answer, the chairman of the board of directors of the federation, Ryan Savage, issued a press release. If the federation reads the open letter, it says it is “proud (sic) of its values such as health and safety, integrity and responsibility” and takes these concerns “very seriously”. She also claims to have taken “rapid measures in recent months to improve the transparency and governance of the organization”.
The letter sent Wednesday was ratified by 121 active and retired boxers, and covers a period dating back to 2008. It was sent to the federal Minister of Sports, Pascale St-Onge, to the general manager of À nous le podium, Anne Merklinger, Boxing Canada Board of Directors and AthletesCAN.
“Crisis” in Canadian Sport
This missive was published when Minister St-Onge admitted the existence of a “crisis”. She said she learned of allegations of child abuse, sexual assault and embezzlement at at least eight national sports organizations in her first five months in the job.
Canadian bobsledders and skeleton specialists wrote a similar letter in March demanding the resignation of their program’s president and high-performance director. They have already indicated that they would not participate in a mediation process, since it would be, according to them, “a bandage on a serious wound”. And a group of about 70 gymnasts — which has since grown to more than 400 — have written to Sport Canada asking for an independent investigation to shed light on the culture of abuse in their sport.