Exit the Complaints Officer, here comes the protector of athletes. Quebec will reopen the Sports Safety Act to create a brand new ombudsman specifically to monitor the sports and recreation sector.
This organization, named “Protector of Integrity in Leisure and Sport”, would have the duty to handle all complaints concerning abuses perpetrated in locker rooms, fields and arenas in Quebec. He would also have investigative powers, provides for Bill 45, tabled Tuesday by the Minister responsible for Sport, Isabelle Charest.
” Eventually ! » exclaimed the parliamentary leader of the official opposition, Monsef Derraji, after the tabling of the bill in the middle of the afternoon. It has been about a year since Minister Charest spoke of her intentions to legislate.
Until now in Quebec, a complaint for an action carried out in the sporting environment could be sent to the Complaints Officer, an organization launched in 2021 by the Coalition Avenir Québec government. Since then, less than half of the 1000 files opened had been deemed admissible.
In addition to creating the position of Protector, the bill aims to require sports organizations, including schools, to ensure better checks of the criminal records of coaches. This responsibility previously fell to sports federations. As many coaches were not members, it was possible for those of them with a criminal past to slip through the cracks.
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Further details will follow.