Category: safety

It’s been four years since a CBC News and Sports investigation revealed more than 200 coaches — mostly at the local level — had been charged with a sexual offence against athletes under their care since 1998. Since then, CBC has found 83 other coaches have been charged or convicted across multiple sports, provinces and jurisdictions. …

Calls for an independent inquiry into safe sport — which, broadly, guards against everything from sexual abuse, poor parental behaviour, bullying, concussions and toxic culture — have recently grown louder. The latest came from dozens of Canadian sport scholars who, in a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, cited “widespread reports of sexual, physical and psychological abuse of athletes throughout the nation’s sport system.”

Gymnasts have been among the most vocal. …

Canada spends millions on safe sport. It’s not going where it’s needed

This story is part of a continuing investigation by CBC News and Sports into abuse in amateur sport in Canada. Read all of the reporting here.

Kirsty Duncan is a former Canadian Minister of Sport and served as deputy leader of the government in the House of Commons.

Kirsty was a former gymnast who felt fat shamed when she was competing.

On LinkedIn she listed 20 Twenty Reasons Why We Need a National Public Inquiry into Sport.

I’ll list a few here. Click through to see the rest.

• Safe sport should always be the primary goal of every sport organization and coach, ahead of winning games, tournaments, or medals.
• Stories of abuse, harassment, and sexual assault circulated for years but some sport organizations failed to hear, see, and act.
• Emotional, psychological, physical, verbal, and sexual abuse of young athletes abound across many sports, and some abusers have not been held to account.
• There is a compelling precedent for holding a national public inquiry, the Commission of Inquiry into the Use of Drugs and Banned Practices Intended to Increase Athletic Performance.

Right now in Canada we’re comparing the recent McLaren Report against other similar reports from other nations.

From McLaren, GymCan will be putting together ACTION targets in order to make Gymnastics training safer for all participants.

In 2017, coach Jim Holt reviewed the USAG Daniels Report which arrived with ACTION target recommendations.

I’m taking a look back at Jim’s report in order to assess the upcoming GymCan targets. Especially the methodology of reporting instances of abuse that fall short of calling the police or child protection.

It should be simple. But fair.

Victims should feel confident their complaint will be handled promptly and in confidence. Those accused should feel they are innocent until proven guilty.

Check out Jim’s 2017 report for yourself. It’s a free download.