Faculty of health sciences

On March 24, the Future of Sport in Canada Commission released its final report and recommendations for change. The commission was struck following a series of high-profile cases of abuse and maltreatment in sport. These involved Swimming Canada, Gymnastics Canada and most notably Hockey Canada. Following initial hearings, advocates called for an independent public inquiry into a toxic culture in sport in Canada. However, the government elected to proceed with a federal commission, citing concerns about risks to victims and re-traumatization. Although the commission was initiated ostensibly to investigate abuse, maltreatment and safety, its recommendations go much further. They suggest sweeping governance reforms to the Canadian sport system. Calls for system-wide change have been made since the early stages of this process.  

A fragmented system that enables harm

The commission has made 98 calls to action to address safe sport and system alignment. The calls are wide-ranging and suggest the need for system-wide structural and governance reforms. The report is framed around several key issues. The commission identified that abuse and maltreatment are widespread, systemic and ongoing in Canadian sport. They noted that power imbalances within the sport system have created a culture of silence that allows harmful behaviours to continue. They also noted that the sport system is fragmented and disorganized, and that chronic underfunding has made attempts at change ineffective. Broadly, they suggested that these and other issues have made sport participation increasingly inaccessible and out of reach for many Canadians. The commission also acknowledged that issues of access and safety in sport disproportionately affect equity-deserving groups. As such, they acknowledged the need to support Indigenous-led sport programs and to improve representation of women, people with disabilities and people of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds within leadership and governance.

Plans to fix sport is clear – execution isn’t

While the commission made 98 calls to action, we review only a few themes here. Many of these recommendations were released and discussed in the context of the preliminary report; the final report solidifies some important details on the commission’s recommendations moving forward. The commission called for four national strategies: one for sport infrastructure, one for equity, diversity and inclusion, one for disability sport and one for participation. Each strategy would require a concrete action plan with progress tracked and evaluated. The commission also called for the development of a national tool for tracking sport and physical activity data, an approach that other countries have had in place for decades. They aptly note that effective monitoring, evaluation and policymaking must be supported by reliable data. Abuse and maltreatment in sport demand a co-ordinated national response. The commission was unequivocal about this need. It acknowledged the progress already made on safe sport but was clear that good intentions are no longer enough. What’s needed now is deliberate, co-ordinated action: a multilateral sport framework alongside bilateral funding agreements with provinces and territories. At the centre of the safe sport recommendations is the need for a fully independent, streamlined complaint mechanism and consistent screening processes agreed upon across jurisdictions. The commission was clear that structural change must be matched by cultural change. This must be backed by a public awareness campaign and a centralized safe sport education program. The commission also recommended sweeping structural reforms. They called for the creation of a Crown corporation to improve arm’s-length oversight, system alignment and universal governance standards. Sport organizations, it argued, must stop operating in silos. That means merging vertically and horizontally, adopting shared service models and subjecting themselves to efficiency reviews. The commission was unambiguous on funding: investment has been wholly inadequate. It called for a multi-year funding strategy addressing safety, access and inclusion in sport. Critically, budgets need to be adjusted for inflation without delay, and backed by transitional funding to ease the shift.  

Why reform may stall – again

So what could this mean for sport in Canada? Much of the lengthy report is background information that scholars have long been writing about. Advocates were raising concerns about harassment and abuse in sport long before the development of our first national sport policy in 2002. More recently, issues of equity, access, lack of resources, poorly co-ordinated systems and implementation difficulties have become features of the sport system in Canada. As such, the details in this report will be of no surprise to those involved in sport. The real question that will determine the impact of this report comes down to accountability. The commission has made many potentially impactful recommendations, but it’s also recognized that these recommendations are almost exclusively directed at the federal government. However, sport exists in a system where much of the change will need to take place at the provincial, territorial and community levels. The report acknowledges the complexity of change within Canada’s federated multilevel governance system. Tellingly, it heard directly from insiders who doubted reform was possible if the same people remained at the table. The structural fix of a new Crown corporation is aimed at enforcing accountability and leadership change. In a recent visit to Norway, Prime Minister Mark Carney indicated that changes are coming to the sport system. But many questions remain. Will this government take bold and decisive action to address these recommendations? Will it commit the resources necessary to facilitate governance reform? Will it exercise political leverage to get provinces and territories on board? And importantly, will future governments continue this work in the long term? Many Canadians will recall the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the 94 Calls to Action that were published in 2015. Recent tracking suggests that after 10 years, progress on 45 per cent of those calls is currently stalled or not started. This doesn’t bode well for a new set of calls to action in exceptionally turbulent times. Ultimately, change will require more than policy change. It demands political will at every level of government and a public willing to push for it. Kyle Rich, Associate Professor of Sport Management, Brock University and Laura Misener, Professor & Director, School of Kinesiology, Western University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Expert Insight reflects the perspective and scholarly interest of Western faculty members and is not an articulation of official university policy on issues being addressed.