(Montreal) An independent report suggested a change in Boxing Canada’s high performance leadership as early as 2016, but six years later, Daniel Trépanier is still in office. Why ? Because Boxing Canada does not want to deprive itself of Own the Podium funds and does not want to pay the severance pay it would have to pay Trépanier in the event of a layoff.
Posted yesterday at 10:25 p.m.
This is what Ariane Fortin, double world champion who is now president of Boxe Quebec and coach of the national team of South Korea, advanced Thursday.
She is also one of the 121 signatories who sent a murderous letter on Wednesday to Sport Canada, to the federal Minister of Sports, Pascal St-Onge, to the general manager of À Nous le podium (ANP), Anne Merklinger, to the Boxing Canada directors’ office, AthletesCAN and several media to demand Trépanier’s resignation.
Photo EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, PRESS ARCHIVES
Ariane Fortin
“Daniel is very good at writing reports, he’s a very straightforward guy and he’s very good at justifying what he says,” said Fortin from Italy, where she is in training camp for the Worlds with the Korean team. He convinced ANP to give us a lot of money and the Boxing Canada board is afraid of losing that money.
“The other reason is that because of the labor laws in Quebec, it is very difficult to fire someone without offering them a severance pay, especially if there is no reprimand registered in his file. […] I know from a reliable source that it’s too expensive for them: I had a meeting with two members of the board of directors before the holidays and it was clearly mentioned that it would cost too much to kick him out. So we don’t take the risk. When I pointed out that we were stuck with Daniel as long as he didn’t do something more serious, these people laughed. They had no answer.
“It has reached the point that some provinces are ready to contribute to pay for his separation bonus. »
For Boxing Canada, the file of Trépanier is virgin, but it is it only in appearances.
“The toxic climate (within Boxing Canada) meant that people didn’t dare complain,” Fortin added. The rare times that there were, we swept it under the rug or said that it went beyond the framework of Boxing Canada. In short, his file appears blank, but in reality, it is not. »
It is absurd that we agree to maintain this climate, that athletes are removed from their training environment deemed unhealthy or psychologically unsafe. Why ? Five or six thousand dollars going into the coffers? We don’t get good results and we prefer to keep this unhealthy atmosphere? Are these really the values we want to convey at Boxing Canada? We’re at a point where it wouldn’t matter to lose (ANP’s money) and start over.
Ariane Fortin
Departure recommended
In a May 2016 report produced by the Irish firm Performance4Podium for Boxing Canada and ANP, of which The Canadian Press obtained a copy, the conclusions could not be clearer.
The three main points highlighted by this report are that Boxing Canada does not have a clear mandate, supported by modern infrastructures and policies allowing it to effectively operate a high performance system; that its training environment for its elite athletes does not meet world-class standards; and that it has a lot of room for improvement in all areas of the development of top athletes, be it in coaching, medical teams, sport science and athlete lifestyle.
The report’s recommendations: immediately conduct a review of Boxing Canada’s governance principles and identify a world-class High Performance Director and National Head Coach. The report mentions several times how absurd it is that Trépanier holds these two positions, which are too demanding for a single person.
“Boxing Canada’s response, which does not make any mea culpa, really scares me,” said Fortin. This is not the first time (that Trépanier’s work has been singled out): in addition to this independent report which drew the same conclusions that we are now arriving at, there was a letter sent to Pat Fiacco (then president of Boxing Canada) in 2015 signed by all national team athletes and coaches demanding Trépanier’s resignation, another report in 2019, the story of Mandy Bujold (who had to fight in court for the right to participate at the Tokyo Games).
“It will take something else. There are a few good people on the board (of Boxing Canada), but not enough to tip the scales. You also need people who know boxing. People who realize that it doesn’t matter to lose ANP’s money at this point: we’ve come to that. »
The Ontario and Quebec federations have also united their voices to demand a meeting with the board of directors of the national federation in order to “respond to a critical solution that affects the members of Boxing Canada”.
The two federations would like to see three motions passed: that Boxing Canada employees and the high performance program be subject to a third-party evaluation chosen by the two provincial federations, the results of which would be disclosed to all members; the establishment of a national selection team composed of one member from each of the provinces and responsible for writing all the selection policies that will now be used with an emphasis on results in competitions; finally, that there be a vote of no confidence in the Board of Directors of Boxing Canada.
“For years, the path to the national team has been nebulous, to such an extent that athletes turn to professional boxing or drop out of boxing altogether. It’s serious, underlines Fortin. […] We are not just talking about an athlete who was robbed of a fight and who is a marabout: we are talking about more than 120 people who all have at least one story (about Daniel Trépanier) to tell. »