Front Burner - Inside Canada’s safe sport ‘crisis’

Episode Date: February 2, 2023

This week, a parliamentary committee questioned Gymnastics Canada CEO, Ian Moss, about his organization’s response to allegations of misconduct against a national team coach. The national gymnastics federation is just the latest in a growing list of sports organizations that have faced scrutiny for their handling of allegations of abuse and misconduct. Many have called it a safe sport crisis. While Ottawa says it’s taking the issue very seriously, critics – including Liberal MP Kirsty Duncan – say the government hasn’t done enough. Macintosh Ross is an assistant professor of kinesiology at Western University, where he studies human rights abuses and the Olympics, and a member of Scholars Against Abuse. Today he shares his thoughts on why an independent inquiry is necessary to shift the culture in Canadian sport.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, I'm Jamie Poisson. Why would you not feel it necessary to conduct a safe sport investigation of a coach that has demonstrated a pattern of troubling behavior without any sort of rectifying of that behavior?

Beyond the code of conduct complaint, there was not any formal complaint in place in regards to his behavior. That's Ian Moss, the CEO of Gymnastics Canada, being questioned in the House of Commons this week. He was talking to the Status of Women Committee about his organization's response to allegations of misconduct against a national team coach. He is a coach who has a great level of technical expertise but has not necessarily adjusted to some of the behavior. So technical expertise but maybe not social expertise. Would you agree with that? Yes or no? At some point it came to a point where we felt that it was not appropriate to continue on in his contractual role.

The coach they're talking about is Alex Bard, who was allegedly known for inappropriate actions that included behaving abusively towards female coaches and kissing, touching, and stoking fear in young gymnasts. Bard denies any wrongdoing, has never been charged with a crime, and none of the allegations have been proven in court. But despite the allegations, some of which were known by the organization's leadership, Bard was promoted to head coach of the National Women's Artistic Gymnastics Team in 2018. His case is one of several that has prompted a reckoning in gymnastics, and calls for accountability have been growing, including for senior leadership to step down. The National Gymnastics Federation is just the latest in a growing list of sports organizations, including national hockey, bobsleigh, and soccer teams, that have faced scrutiny for their handling of allegations of abuse and misconduct.

Today, I'm joined by McIntosh Ross to talk about whether Canada is in the midst of a safe sports crisis. He's an assistant professor of kinesiology at Western University, where he studies human rights abuses and the Olympics. He's also a member of Scholars Against Abuse. That group recently sent a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, calling for an independent inquiry into sport in Canada. McIntosh, hi. Thanks so much for being here today. Thanks for having me. So I wonder if we could start by just laying out what we're talking about here and going over some of the

examples we've seen in recent years. So broadly, in a few sentences, when people say this country is facing a, quote, safe sport crisis, what exactly are we talking about here? So they're talking about a lack of accountability and prevention of abuse, broadly speaking, I think, across the nation from the grassroots right up to the elite level, right into our national system. It's physical, psychological, and sexual abuse that's occurring really with such a frequency that we as a nation find ourselves, in my opinion, facing nothing less than a human rights crisis. in my opinion, facing nothing less than a human rights crisis. Yeah. And I want to talk more with you about what you think needs to happen in a little bit. But first, I wonder if we can go through some specific examples and maybe first we could go through

what we've seen in elite sport. I talked a bit about gymnastics in the intro, right? There have been several cases of alleged abuse that I know have raised questions in gymnastics about both the culture and oversight. Another example would be the case of Dave Brubaker, who coached Canada in the 2016 Rio Olympics. And he and his wife, who was also a coach, were banned from Gymnastics Canada after 11 gymnasts accused him of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. A discipline committee found 54 of their allegations credible, among them that Brubaker had caused an athlete to land on her head during training. They both denied any wrongdoing, and Brubaker was acquitted of criminal sex-related charges. But I know you've been following what's been happening in this parliamentary hearing.

And while this week Gymnastics Canada was giving evidence, these hearings have actually been going on since November. And what has really stood out to you about what you've seen in recent weeks? Like, what have these hearings on the safety of women and girls in sport been seized with? It's not just been gymnastics. It's been the voices of survivors from across the sports system. So Kira McCormick from soccer, Genevieve Jensen from cycling, Alison Forsyth from skiing, Miriam DeSilverondo from boxing. We're hearing from the athletes that the sports system is not safe.

I am a two-time Olympian, a mother of three young hockey players, and a victim of egregious sexual abuse within our Canadian sports system. Extreme grooming, horrific sexual assaults, mental coercion and psychological abuse are some of the immense physical and mental burdens I still live with each day. Our focus on success above all else is a shield for victims. I would give back every medal I ever run to have prevented what happened to me from happening to me. And it's so powerful. And you can tell when they're being interviewed by the MPs that this is really getting through to them. And I think they're

beginning to get the message that this is a truly massive problem, that it's spread all across the sport system. It's not just one sport, not just one level of sport. It's all of it. When athletes mention that there are no systems in place to protect them, it's not the number of resources or programs that are being talked about. There are quite a few of those. It is the action of holding people accountable

and the power to enforce consequences. That's what's inexistent in the Canadian sports system. When they say it's not safe, what are they talking about? What are they saying has been happening? One of the big problems is when they bring forward allegations against somebody within their national sports organization, they don't feel like it's being dealt with in a way that can bring around a resolution that is satisfactory for the survivor. Abuse does not happen without enablers and let me be explicit about our flawed system that covers up and enables abuse as

well as re-victimizes athletes who come forward. Too often, you know, it ends up being a situation where the organization says there's not enough evidence and they move on from there. But that's often the case in these types of offenses. There's often a lack of evidence and you have to really believe the survivors and make sure that they feel safe competing in these environments. And of course, there have been allegations of sexual abuse, physical abuse, but also bullying, right? Like a toxic culture. I wonder if you could just go through some more examples for me. I know we've seen a reckoning and rowing, soccer, water polo. Yeah, one of the big examples was actually at Bobsleigh Canada with Kaylee Humphreys, where she brought forward

allegations of emotional and psychological abuse, verbal abuse. And an independent investigation was ordered by Bobsleigh Canada. And then ultimately, the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada said that that investigation was not nearly thorough enough. But by that time, Humphreys had already decided to leave our team and go down to the United States to continue competing there. So those are some of the barriers they face. You know, ultimately, it is the organizations paying for these investigations to occur. So there is questions about independence, questions about conflict, whether or not the athletes can trust these processes that are in place right now, as opposed to something

that is more formalized and controlled beyond the organizations themselves. Our listeners would probably be quite familiar with what's happening with hockey, right? Essentially, a snowballing scandal centered around allegations of a group sex assault complaint against the members of the 2018 World Juniors team. And Hockey Canada came under intense scrutiny for how they handled or did not handle the initial complaint. Just to note, no charges have been laid at this time regarding the assault allegations. But other allegations have since surfaced, including these revelations that Hockey Canada used a settlement fund for sexual assault complaints. Hockey Canada settled with the woman, agreeing to pay a maximum of $3.5 million, but it is facing criticism for using a

fund partly made up of hockey registration fees. People will, I'm sure, remember their entire board and CEO resigned. They have a new board now. It makes me think of the independent review into Canada soccer as well that was released this summer. It found the organization mishandled sexual harassment allegations in 2008 against the under-20s women's coach. He pleaded guilty in February of last year to three counts of sexual assault, one count of sexual touching. The charges relate to four former players who were 16, 17, and 18 at the time of the offenses. And those offenses took place over a time period of 20 years between 1988 and 2008.

These are big national organizations that we're talking about. They made a lot of headlines, but what about concerns around what's been happening on the community level? The government has set up the Office of the Sports Integrity Commissioner to handle things at the elite level, but one of the things that is becoming increasingly apparent is that there really isn't kind of adjacent processes in place or mechanisms in place to help people at the provincial level, to help people at the community level. So when folks come forward with allegations of abuse from those levels,

it's beyond the jurisdiction of the Office of the Sports Integrity Commissioner to hear them and they ultimately, they're sent away. So one of the things we'll be securing enough funding from just the federal government, but also the provincial government and on down to make sure that safeguards are in place all the way across the board. And that has to, that has to happen. You know, it's not enough for the national level to say, well, that's beyond our jurisdiction. You depend on these athletes at these lower levels eventually when they're older.

So it's all connected and everybody needs to be safe. Mm-hmm. Maybe worth noting here, an investigation by my colleagues just came out. Canadian sports insiders are sounding the alarm over an ongoing struggle to keep young athletes safe from abuse. A CBC sports and news investigation found that in the last four years alone, 83 coaches have been charged with a sexual offence against a minor

across 16 different sports. You know, those numbers might be quite shocking for people, I think. You know, those numbers might be quite shocking for people, I think. We talked about how you're calling for a national inquiry, something similar to the Dubbin inquiry you saw back in the late 1980s. And what was that inquiry all about? How did it change sports? Sure. So in 1989, we had the Dubbin Inquiry here in Canada, and it was intended to dig in to the ethics and our approach to sport at the time because basically Ben Johnson had just tested positive

for steroids after winning gold at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Well, it's been a year since Ben Johnson was stripped of his gold medal at the Olympics in Korea. An inquiry into's been a year since Ben Johnson was stripped of his gold medal at the Olympics in Korea. An inquiry into the scandal has been hearing evidence for months. Today, lawyers for Johnson, his coach, and his doctor made their closing arguments. And Dubbin ended up concluding that, you know, we had a really flawed approach to sport in Canada at that time, that people were taking steroids, because we were obsessed with winning, that we had a win-at-all-costs mentality.

Coach Charlie Francis deliberately conspired with his athletes to beat the system of amateur sports. Today, Francis' lawyer says that system is partly to be blamed for what happened in Seoul. A system that, I would submit, has been nurtured on hypocrisy, fueled by greed, and indeed one which has all the ingredients to develop a high degree of cynicism amongst the participants. And for a little while it seemed like we were going down a better path,

but pretty quickly we just reversed and went right back to where we were. Around the 2010 Olympics, you know, we saw the rise of Own the Podium. Right from the get-go, Own the Podium had big goals, win more medals than any other country. And it had the financial backing to get the job done. This year, more than $22 million just for winter sports. Which, its name alone tells you what it's all about. It's all about winning. It's all about funding the athletes with the best chances of winning. It's not really about a holistic approach to sport at all. And having an inquiry into, you know, abuse allegations, safety in sport, allegations of toxicity in sport.

Like, what do you think it would achieve? Like, what do you think it would uncover that we don't already know? I think it would really show just how ugly the system is, how disconnected and disjointed and broken the system is. I think a lot of people assume because there are safe sport initiatives unfolding at the national level, that those are able to occur at the same sort of capacity at lower levels, but that's just not the case. And if we're able to look at this and really pull back the curtain on abuse in Canadian sports, we'll be able to rebuild some of the trust, I think, that's been lost. People will feel like, okay, they understand what happened,

and now we can move forward. Otherwise, we won't be able to rebuild the trust of survivors that we've lost. They want an independent judicial inquiry into abuse in Canadian sports. They want the government to dig in. They want them to leave no stone unturned and reveal just how ugly it is, the whole ugly truth. Because the Canadian public needs to know that because it impacts children, it impacts youth all the way up. Because only after that are we going to be able to understand that this culture of abuse is really how it functions, how it's able to replicate itself. Why, when we intervene and sanction people, that it doesn't do anything, that it just continues on and seems to be almost impervious to our current system?

Can you elaborate on what you mean by that, when we intervene and sanction and sanction people doesn't do anything? What do you mean by that? So it's like people get into trouble and for whatever reason, it doesn't resonate. It doesn't stop it from occurring again and again and again across the Canadian sports system. So even when we see youth coaches in the paper, for example, being found guilty in courts, it doesn't seem to matter. You know, just as the CBC showed over the last four years, it's just rampant. There's tons of cases. And we have to find a way to get out in front of it. And that's what I think an inquiry can do. It can help us come up with a preventative game plan so that we can try to prevent as much as we can before we get to the point where OSIC or a similar body comes in, and we start to try to look at more reactionary measures and reporting measures like that,

so that we have both sides operating, preventative and reporting. Right. So OSIC, as you mentioned, is the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner. And this is a new office created by the Liberal government, I understand, right? And it's to provide some sort of oversight. And how? They accept cases of abuse basically at the national level. And they're able to adjudicate upon those cases. So it does have some tools built in that can really help us. It's a really important piece of the puzzle, I think, but it's just not the whole thing. Right. Is it fair for me to say that

like the criticism is that it doesn't have enough teeth and it also doesn't address what is happening at the community level, right? It can't. Yeah, it doesn't have the scope to deal with the enormity of the problem. In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization. Empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. Hi, it's Ramit Sethi here.

You may have seen my money show on Netflix. I've been talking about money for 20 years. I've talked to millions of people and I have some startling numbers to share with you. Did you know that of the people I speak to, 50% of them do not know their own household income? That's not a typo, 50%. That's because money is confusing.

In my new book and podcast, Money for Couples, I help you and your partner create a financial vision together. To listen to this podcast, just search for Money for Couples. Just to go back to the inquiry for a moment, like what kind of information could an inquiry get that might not otherwise come to light? Yeah, when Ian Moss was interviewed at the committee the other day, you really got some insight into how this happens, how this works, how he could just, you know, shrug his shoulders when somebody had been accused of some pretty horrific

things and say, well, there wasn't a complaint filed, so we didn't do anything. The decision ultimately was made in regard to Mr. Bard. That decision was based on factual evidence that was available to me. There was ultimately one complaint that was filed and action was taken, and it was not in respect to abuse and maltreatment. And was that complaint investigated? No, because it was a code of conduct complaint and a decision was made in terms of a contractual matter. To most people, that's unbelievable. But I bet you it's far more common than many people would like to believe. It's probably going to come out that, for the most part, very little is being done or has been done. And we have to find ways through this inquiry,

that's my opinion, that will help us put in a system that is fully funded to handle all of this. Support Minister Pascal Sénage was asked about whether we should have a national inquiry. She essentially said she thought it wouldn't get to the bottom of what's happening at the community level. I feel like it's really important to have investigations

in any situation of abuse and maltreatment. So we not only need one investigation, we need many investigations in each sport where these situations happen so that we can address it directly and specifically. She basically said she thinks there should be lots of different investigations, different inquiries, you know, at these various sports. And how would you respond to that?

That might work if it was just one or two sports organizations that we were talking about. But like we said earlier, there's too many. It's the sports system itself. It's not just a couple organizations. And like Christy Duncan said the other night in her interview, this is just the tip of the iceberg. We're only hearing a fraction of a fraction of what's going on because people are afraid to speak up. Are we really having an argument about protecting athletes and young people? Because that's the argument. Hockey Canada pushed back against a third-party investigator

and a safe sport helpline. Who wouldn't want a child to be able to pick up a phone and say, I've had a problem? And a lot of people are going to feel that way. And that's why we need to get this out of the hands of the sports system and over into the hands of the judiciary. And when you say put it into the hands of the judiciary, what do you mean by that? Like, I guess, what do you want to see happen?

I would like to see something similar to the Dubbin Inquiry, where a justice is appointed to handle it and can subpoena everything they need to subpoena, call witnesses, and set it up in a way that really digs deeper, I think, than any body under the umbrella of the sports system possibly could. They have, you know, the powers of the court, basically, to be able to investigate this with the rigor it deserves. Now, Kirstie Duncan, this is the former sports minister in the Liberal government. She told my colleague, Devin Heroux, that she thinks the Liberal government, her government,

hasn't done enough to address this issue. Two policies Duncan pushed hard for were an abuse helpline and an independent investigative body. But she says after she was dropped from cabinet following the 2019 election, those initiatives got less attention. I don't think people understood the problem. There wasn't a lot of interest in parliament. And even though they say that they are taking it seriously and they spent many millions of dollars, like, would you agree with her assessment here?

A hundred percent. And she would know better than anybody as a Liberal MP whether or not the government's doing enough and what those discussions look like behind closed doors. You know, just to end today's conversation on that culture, right? conversation on that culture, right? Like, in addition to all of these revelations, allegations that have come forward in recent years about, you know, the abuse that athletes have faced at the hands of individual coaches, we've also, I think, been talking more about these broader cultures, you know, gymnasts that feel this incredible pressure to be skinny. I grew up figure skating, I can certainly attest to the fact that weight was an issue that was talked about a lot and this had an effect on me. Certainly the widespread

discussion around toxic culture in hockey of hazing and misogyny and homophobia. And these are so entrenched in our culture. And like, how do you even work towards changing that? In order to spark some meaningful, sustainable culture change, it's going to take a really long time, and it's going to take a lot of money. And, you know, people just have to turn to the government and say, okay, fund it, make it happen, no more waiting around. Because if we don't do something really significant, if we don't do this inquiry, if we don't dig into the culture, it's not going to go away. We can't even begin to think about shifting it because we won't have a blueprint in place that will allow us to move forward. The prime minister, he just needs to get

moving. The premiers need to get going. They need to work together on this because it's not just a federal issue. It's a provincial issue. And all of us together need to throw our support behind them and behind the survivors to get this sorted out. McIntosh, thanks so much for this. Thanks for having me. All right, that is all for today. I'm Jamie Poisson. Thanks so much for listening to FrontBurner.

Talk to you tomorrow. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.