Quebec will extend the obligation to check criminal records for any person in a position of authority among young athletes, even outside of schools and sports federations.
This is the objective of the highly anticipated bill tabled Tuesday by the Minister responsible for Sport, Recreation and the Outdoors, Isabelle Charest, in response to a damning investigation report from the Ministry of Education which found significant gaps in the criminal background check process in school sports.
This report was commissioned following a JE report on allegations of physical violence, psychological harassment and sexual assault against a women’s basketball coach.
The ministry’s investigation revealed that in certain cases, criminal records were subject to verification only for people wishing to be affiliated with a sports federation, even though the majority of coaches are not.
This was, for example, the case of Réal Chayer, the karate teacher from Saint-Lin-des-Laurentides currently facing 65 charges for sexual crimes of all kinds, as the Journal reported in January. Even though he was not affiliated with any sports federation, Mr. Chayer had worked for around twenty years with young athletes, as a coach and as a referee.
To prevent such abusers from continuing to slip through the cracks, the bill therefore plans to extend the obligation to check criminal records to anyone who plays a significant role with young athletes, regardless of affiliation. to a sports federation. The obligation will also apply to leisure organizations.
Power of investigation
In her bill, Minister Charest also creates a protector of integrity in sport and leisure, an entity which will replace the Independent Complaints Officer, set up three years ago to manage cases of abuse. and harassment denounced by athletes.
The government is thus responding to a recommendation from the transpartisan parliamentary commission on violence in sport, according to which the Complaints Officer should be “formalized in a position and embodied in a person”.
Unlike the complaints officer, the new integrity protector will have the power to launch investigations when he deems it appropriate.
The bill also provides for the removal of the 120-day “limitation period” available to young people to file a complaint when they are victims of violence by a coach.