After months of waiting and after promising a national investigation into abuses in sports, the Trudeau government changes its mind and instead announces an independent Commission on the Future of Sport in Canada.
The new Minister of Sport and Physical Activity, Carla Qualtrough, announced Monday that a commissioner and two special advisers will be appointed to this independent commission, which aims to tackle the causes of abuse in the sports system and to transmit recommendations to the government.
“This is not a public inquiry,” clarified the minister, but rather “a model based on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada” on the subject of residential schools, in which victims must speak.
According to Carla Qualtrough’s analysis, a public inquiry would be too rigid, and too burdensome for victims of abuse. She wants to spare them cross-examination and further trauma. However, she assures that the commission, which will be public, will achieve the same objectives.
His predecessor, Pascale St-Onge, rather suggested in May that a public inquiry was imminent. “There will be a public inquiry. When we are ready to announce it… Don’t worry, it will give me great pleasure to do it, I know it is expected,” she promised, to the great satisfaction of the opposition to Ottawa.
Pascale St-Onge has since moved to the Canadian Heritage portfolio in July, following a cabinet shuffle that brought back Mme Qualtrough in Sports, a position she already held between 2015 and 2017. The elected official from British Columbia admitted Monday that she should have “dived more” into the issue of physical and sexual abuse in sports during her first assignment as minister, although his priority at the time was the prevention of concussions.
The announced commission promises to make profound changes in the country’s sports system, to tackle the issues of racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia, and ultimately to restore the confidence of the public and athletes. in their institutions. Details of the operation of the Independent Commission on the Future of Sport in Canada are to be announced in early 2024.
More details will follow.