After Hockey Canada, the Soccer Canada organization also receives some blame, to a lesser extent, for its mismanagement in a sexual assault case.
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While Bob Birarda awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to three counts of sexual abuse, the organization may not have followed its own policy regarding such assaults, according to the findings of an independent investigation. Soccer Canada is said to have remained silent, according to a report released by McLaren Global Sport Solution.
Birarda, who coached Canada’s women’s under-20 team, was also dropped from the Vancouver Whitecaps women’s team in 2009. He was arrested in 2020 on six charges of sexual exploitation, two for sexual assault and one for child luring between 1998 and 2008.
At Hockey Canada, it was revealed on Wednesday that a special fund dedicated in particular to out-of-court settlements had been used, since its establishment in 1989, to make nine payments for cases of sexual abuse, totaling 7, $6 million.