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Ottawa announces steps to eliminate abuse in sport

Minister of Science and Sport Kirsty Duncan and the Coaching Association of Canada announced two initiatives on Thursday in Ottawa to address abuse and harassment in sport.

Calls for action followed an investigation by CBC News and Sports that revealed at least 222 coaches involved in amateur sports over 20 years have been convicted of sex offences involving over 600 victims under age 18.

Duncan reiterated Thursday that the CBC News and Sports investigation “broke her heart.”

She announced:

  • More than $200,000 will be allocated for a Safe Sport Summit Series aimed at helping develop a national code of conduct.
  • The creation of a Gender Equity Secretariat, a department responsible with the development and implementation of a gender equity strategy.

In March, a series of regional workshops will be held across Canada that will include:

  • Provincial, territorial and national sport organizations.
  • Athletes.
  • Safe sport organizations.
  • Groups independent of sport organizations such as researchers and child advocates.

​A national Safe Summit in Ottawa will be held in the spring.

Sexual offences

The CBC News and Sports investigation involved searching through thousands of court records and media articles, and visiting courthouses across Canada. What emerged, for the first time, was a detailed database of sexual offences committed by amateur athletic coaches.

The charges include offences such as sexual assault, sexual exploitation, child luring, and making or possessing child pornography. Most but not all the victims were athletes training with a coach; in all cases, the accused was charged between 1998 and 2018, but the offences may have occurred earlier.

A number of high-profile sexual assault complaints involving national team coaches prompted Duncan to announce new rules last week in Red Deer, Alta.

Beginning in 2020, sport organizations that receive federal funding must have a policy to address abuse and provide mandatory training to their members.

They must also report incidents of abuse directly to the minister and will be required to make an independent third party available to hear athlete-abuse allegations — something athletes from a number of national teams have been pushing to get put in place.

Experts say these ideas will help athletes competing at a national level, but question what they will do for the hundreds of thousands of Canadian athletes who aren’t at the elite level.

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