The federal government will no longer pay one cent to national sports organizations that have not committed by the spring to ban comments on the weight of athletes or their forced return to play after a concussion, promises Minister Pascale St-Onge.
“There are many great stories in elite sport in Canada, but we need a repositioning of values,” argues the Quebec politician, in an interview with The duty in a cafe in downtown Montreal. This promised change of “values” is associated with deadlines in 2023.
First, the federal government promises to completely review in March the way it funds elite sport. The goal? That the “development and safety” of athletes become as important as their performance. “If not more,” adds Minister Pascale St-Onge.
“As a country, as a citizen, as an athlete, we attach great importance to performance, to medals. And our funding system is also based on this: we reward, we give more money to organizations that have great promise of medals and international success. »
A mandatory code of conduct
Then, the minister said she was “absolutely” ready to cut the funding of elite sports organizations that did not accept, as of 1er April 2023, to subscribe to a brand new code of conduct under the authority of the Office of the Commissioner for Integrity in Sport (BCIS). After signing an agreement, however, organizations will be given some time to comply with the new rules.
Only 36 of them have signed up to date, like Skate Canada, which joined the federal program on December 31, 2022. However, this is only a minority of the approximately 90 national organizations targeted.
Of course, when you see stories like that of Hockey Canada, where it took six months for the board of directors to resign, it was frustrating not to be able to intervene to fire everyone.
the Universal code of conduct to prevent and counter abuse in sport strictly prohibits all sorts of behavior, such as prescribing athletes on overly restrictive diets, commenting on their weight, or encouraging them to return to play too soon after an injury, such as a concussion.
It also marks out, in detail, sexual or romantic relationships in the event of an imbalance of power, such as between coaches and athletes. The reporting of prohibited behaviors becomes mandatory for adults working in sport. All this is associated with heavy penalties.
An ex-athlete herself, having competed in swimming for 11 years at a younger age and played college and university volleyball, the minister says she saw a parallel between the world of sport and what she saw in the world of communications. when she headed the National Federation of Communications (FNC-CSN). Cases of abuse arise when there is a power imbalance, she says, such as between artists and producers or between athletes and coaches.
After Hockey Canada
Pascale St-Onge was entrusted by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with the Sports portfolio, after entering politics in 2021. In the last elections, the former union specialist in the world of communications was elected with barely 197 vote ahead of her Bloc Québécois rival in her riding of Brome-Missisquoi.
Then, just named, in 2022 she saw the Hockey Canada affair. A “turning point”, says the minister. “Stories of gang rape [allégués commis par des joueurs de l’équipe nationale junior], it was so shocking, it’s so horrible, that no one, including me, can remain indifferent to these stories. »
If it had been in her power, the minister would have fired the entire board. For better or for worse, the federal government actually has very little power over the world of sport, which is essentially made up of independent organizations, she explains.
“Of course when you see stories like Hockey Canada, where it took the board of directors six months to resign, it was frustrating not to be able to intervene to fire everyone. »
This independence of sports federations limits to some extent what Ottawa can do. For example, victims’ groups are calling for a national inquiry into abuse in sports. “The minister is pushing the BCIS as if it is the only remedy”, criticizes for example the former Canadian gymnast Kim Shore.
The victims’ rights activist believes that Ottawa should turn away from public funding tied to athletic performance altogether, to end the culture of impunity for successful coaches.
Increase in complaints in sight
Pascale St-Onge does not condemn the functioning of the Canadian system for all that. “Sports organizations belong above all to those who practice sport. I think it should stay that way. But we, in the government, are able to tighten the requirements for obtaining public funding. For many organizations, it is the mainstay of their income. »
The latest BCIS quarterly report reports 24 complaints or reports targeting the sports world received between September 20 and December 31. However, two thirds of these complaints (16 out of 24) were not deemed admissible for various reasons. Some targeted a non-signatory organization or were more in the bosom of amateur sport governed by the provincial level, for example.
The Minister intends to insist with the provinces at their next meeting in February that they adopt their own code of conduct, like Quebec with Sport’Aide, or that they join the federal complaints mechanism.
“I expect that there will be many more complaints to the commissioner [Sarah-Ève Pelletier],” said Minister St-Onge, reading the statistics. As federations join in 2023, more anonymous reports can be processed.