The Canadian hockey world does not have a monopoly on the culture of silence around cases of assault and mistreatment: these problems are also frequent in other sports organizations in the country. Specialists and activists point to a system based on performance and short-term financial gains.
“I am contacted by a lot of people from different sports. Soccer, cross-country skiing, boxing, wrestling…I think it’s everywhere. »
At the end of the line, the ex-Canadian gymnast Kim Shore is categorical: a generalized problem exists within the sports federations in Canada, whose toxic mode of operation would have claimed, according to her, “thousands” of victims for many years. The recent scandals at Hockey Canada would be just one sad example among many, most of which have never been documented.
“I don’t know how invasive it is in every sport, but I can say that in gymnastics, it affects young children,” says the one who notably sat on the board of directors of Gymnastics Canada before becoming an activist. “to end systemic abuse in sport”, as she presents herself on his Twitter page.
The emotion in her voice, she says that it was when she saw her own daughter evolve in this sport that she realized that the practices had changed only too little since the time when she herself was athlete. The problem would still be present at the highest levels of the sports world, according to her.
“I think we’ve built a system that’s driven by results,” she says. We are very focused on how to get good performances, now, quickly, and with very young people… Children. »
The other disciplines affected
Several scholars and researchers have come to exactly the same conclusion. A group of 28 specialists from English Canada have also published a letter to the federal Minister of Sports, Pascale St-Onge, to affirm that the shocking revelations at Hockey Canada are far from being isolated incidents.
” These problems [sont] systemic, and a symptom of a deeply ingrained culture in hockey and other sports in Canada,” they write, with plenty of evidence to back it up.
Recent headlines on Hockey Canada were “no surprise” to Gretchen Kerr, dean of the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education at the University of Toronto and signatory of the letter.
“I think it’s a generalized problem,” she confirms to the To have to. Although the situation in hockey may be different, since in this case, we see athletes who are aggressors, not victims. Although some [joueurs de hockey] were probably also victims. »
A statement shared by his colleague Peter Donnelly, professor emeritus in sports policy who has studied the question for nearly 40 years. “We see situations in which older players bully younger athletes: bullying, physical violence, actions committed during initiations… But the worst, by far, are situations of abuse of coaches to young athletes. Coaches who have an authoritarian style, which is also probably the most common style of coaching. »
The University of Toronto professor predicts that the new sports integrity commissioner, in office since June, will be “inundated” with testimonies of all kinds of abuse.
A specialist in sport and performance psychology, Joëlle Carpentier also blames it on a culture in sport that is “very results-oriented”: a short-term philosophy obsessed with winning medals and funding that goes with.
“There is a false belief that persists that to have good results, you have to have coaches who are tougher physically, mentally. […] While the science is very clear: what allows the achievement of excellence, in the long term, are athletes who are doing well,” explains the professor at the School of Management Sciences at UQAM.
A change of culture
How can this performance goal lead to serious crimes, such as sexual assault?
“The jobs of coaches, national team officials, all administrators, depend on the performance of children [les athlètes mineurs]. Whenever you have a situation like this, you will see exploitation. There is a diversion of the well-being of athletes, ”says Professor Gretchen Kerr.
“Sport is the only institution in which children are not a protected category,” laments Peter Donnelly. He believes, however, that the general public was made aware of this issue during the sad doping case involving 15-year-old Russian skater Kamila Valieva at the 2022 Winter Olympics. is more rules. »
Male hockey players, for their part, are glorified in Canadian society, notes Joëlle Carpentier. “It puts them in the head that they have certain rights over other people,” she analyzes. These players therefore benefit from the same privilege resulting from the culture of silence as coaches in other disciplines.
” When [les signalements] come to the attention of managers, we tell ourselves that we must not harm the careers of athletes or coaches, because we need them for the results. Because results are more important than humans. »
Despite the accumulation of scandals in recent years, the various observers contacted by The duty remain rather optimistic about the culture change promised in hockey and in the world of sport in general.
A first code of conduct for sport was introduced in Canada in 2019, and in June the federal government appointed former national artistic swimming team athlete Sarah-Ève Pelletier as the very first commissioner to integrity in sport.
The Minister of Sports, Pascale St-Onge, has announced her intention to make all federal funding to sports federations conditional on the acceptance of the authority of this commissioner, who will then be able to independently and anonymously collect complaints from athletes and audience.
Only four organizations are currently signatories, but dozens of others are in negotiations with the commissioner’s office to add to the list.