The federal government intends to cut public funding from sports federations whose board of directors is made up of more than 60% of directors of the same gender.
“When the governance of sports organizations fails, the consequences for athletes are disastrous,” Sports Minister Pascale St-Onge said Thursday.
His government is giving national sport organizations until April 2025 to “fully adopt” a governance guide for Canadian sport. This guide also requires the integration of “initiatives” each year to attract directors with “the required skills and diversity”.
This diversity is defined as “gender, sexual identity, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, social class, economic means, ability, age, official language spoken of Canada, religion and education”, without limitation.
The boards of national sports organizations will also have to respect strict criteria of independence, training and transparency. Their members will only be able to sit there for a limited time. The government is also creating a “compliance unit” within Sport Canada, which must verify whether sports organizations are following the rules and to support them in the changes.
The world of elite sport in Canada has been littered with various scandals in recent months. Federal officials have harshly blamed Hockey Canada’s board of directors for maintaining a culture of impunity for sexual abuse by players. Then came to light the abusive initiation practices of young hockey players. Female soccer players have also sounded the alarm in Ottawa over the unequal access to resources between the women’s and men’s teams.
Minister Pascale St-Onge has always indicated that sports federations “belong above all to those who practice sport”, while repeating that Ottawa’s powers in this area are limited to whether or not to accept public funding. The obligations announced Thursday only affect national organizations, in the hope that provincial federations will take inspiration from these practices.
“There will be a public inquiry”
The Minister of Sports was speaking from her home on Thursday, since she was infected with COVID-19. His remarks were broadcast on a giant screen in an Ottawa sports centre. She still answered questions from reporters remotely and said the federal government will launch a public inquiry into abuse in sport.
“There will be a public inquiry. When we’re going to be ready to announce it… Don’t worry, it’s expected,” she promised.
Victims groups, and even ex-sports minister Kirsty Duncan, have long called for a national inquiry into abuse in sports.
Since last April, the Minister has been forcing all Ottawa-funded sports organizations to subscribe to a “Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Mistreatment in Sport.” She said Thursday that a handful of organizations, “between three and five”, are a little behind in its adoption, but are working to comply.
This code of conduct strictly prohibits all kinds of behavior, such as prescribing athletes diets that are too restrictive, commenting on their weight or encouraging them to return to play too quickly after an injury, such as a concussion. The Minister offers the provinces to draw inspiration from her complaint mechanism, which already exists in Quebec with Sport’Aide.