Will the new safe sports measures protect young athletes? What Parents Need to Know – National

Recently announced reforms to make sports safer in Canada represents a step forward, but more needs to be done than offering “band-aid solutions” to win back the trust of Canadian families involved in youth athletics, say experts and advocates.

Last week, the federal Sports Minister Pascale St Onge released a list of measures to improve the accountability of national sports organizations and bring about a ‘culture change’ for athletes.

Among the steps Ottawa is taking is creating a public registry of people who have been sanctioned or suspended within the sports system, as well as new funding to test national coaches.

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The government also seeks to ensure that non-disclosure agreements or non-disparagement clauses cannot be used to prevent athletes and other sports participants from disclosing abuse or harassment they have experienced or seen.

“I think what we’re seeing is sort of taking away the little things and instead really addressing the larger systemic issues,” said Laura Misener, a professor and director of Western University’s School of Kinesiology.

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For many parents, it might come as a surprise that some of the steps, such as extensive evaluation of coaches, have not yet been implemented, he told Global News.

It’s a confusing and worrying time for Canadian parents who want to get their kids involved in sports, Misener said.

“Parents are hearing a lot of things on the news and what’s going on, and it’s very muddy waters.”

“They don’t quite understand what kinds of things they should be doing to ask the right questions, enroll in the right programs, make their kids responsible and safe and feel like they belong.”

In recent years, a growing number of current and former athletes in Canada have reported mistreatment and abuse, including sexual assault, in their sport.

Many of them, including dozens of gymnasts, have come forward and recounted their past experiences facing abuse from coaches when they were young.

“I think with the barrage of stories that have emerged about mistreatment in sports, it raises questions about the public’s trust in the sports system,” said Gretchen Kerr, dean of the University of Toronto’s School of Kinesiology and Physical Education. .

A public record of sanctions could help parents make informed decisions for their children and help curb the trend of sanctioned people hopping from one sports club to another or between provinces, he said.

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“The registry goes a long way toward providing transparency so that parents who are interested in registering their children for athletic programs can check that registry to see if there are any identified names on that list.”

However, the implementation of such a public registry could face legal challenges and privacy concerns, advocates say.

“There are all kinds of privacy issues that go along with this,” Misener said. “And how do we make this a situation that remains secure and then also comply with the privacy regulations associated with it?”

For example, the national sex offender registry is not public in Canada.

Currently, only Canadian police services have access to this database through their provincial and territorial sex offender registration centres.

Sylvain Croteau, chief executive of Sport’Aide, said another creative way to use the sports register could be to document the “positive practices” of coaches with annual statements about their training and referrals to improve accountability.

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“It’s not just the coaches who need to be seen for training. Our youth need to be able to recognize what is acceptable and what is not,” Crouteau told MPs in French at a meeting of the parliamentary heritage committee on Monday.

“Managers of our sports organizations need to realize that they are responsible for the decisions they make.”

Within weeks of St-Onge taking over the sports portfolio in October 2021, he was faced with what he called a safe sport crisis.

Accusations of mistreatment, sexual abuse or embezzlement were brought against at least eight national sports organizations in his first five months in office.

In the midst of an avalanche of complaints, there have been calls for an independent national public inquiry, which St-Onge has so far resisted.

Those calls were reiterated at Monday’s parliamentary meeting on safe sport.

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“We continue to believe that independent national research is needed to examine the culture of sport and produce recommendations on how to eliminate mistreatment in sport at all levels,” said Jeremy Luke, President and CEO of the Canadian Center for Ethics in Sport. , during the meeting

The Podium’s own chief executive, Anne Merklinger, said the organization would back a public inquiry into the entire sports system in Canada.

Meanwhile, the way sports are funded in Canada with a “win at all costs” approach indicates that more must be done to ensure safe experiences for athletes, Kerr argued.

“As long as sports are funded based on performance, medal count or medal potential, without regard to the ways in which those medals are achieved, it will be very difficult to change the landscape, to prioritize the health and well-being of athletes. and your rights.”

— with archives from The Canadian Press

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