Achi news desk-
Former Ontario chief justice Lise Maisonneuve will lead the Commission on the Future of Sport in Canada.
Canadian sports minister Carla Qualtrough also announced Thursday that Noni Classen and Andrew Pipe will be Maisonneuve’s advisers.
The commission’s mandate is to investigate problems at the center of what Quatrough and his predecessor Pascale St-Onge have called a safe sports crisis in Canada.
The commission has an 18-month mandate and will consult with sports bodies and survivors of abuse on how to improve the national sports system. It will produce two reports and hold a national summit to discuss preliminary findings.
Some former athletes, academics and former sports minister Kirsty Duncan have called for a public inquiry.
This year’s federal budget provided the commission with $10.6 million over two years.
Maisonneuve’s eight-year term as Ontario’s chief justice ends in May 2023. The judge from Timmins, Ont., was the second woman appointed to that position.
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Ottawa’s Pipe was chair of the Canadian Center for Ethics in Sport from 1996 to 2004, and continues to serve as past chair and medical science advisor.
Winnipeg’s Classen is the director of education for the Canadian Center for Child Protection.
“We are committed to carefully examining the sports system in Canada and identifying the structures and processes that will support a safe and values-based sports system for all,” Maisonneuve said in a statement Thursday.
Qualtrough announced on December 11 that a commission would address the problems of safe sports, but there was no public inquiry.
An inquiry operates under terms set out in the Inquiries Act and requires cabinet approval. Often led by judges, commissioners have the power to subpoena witnesses, take evidence under oath and request documents.
Qualtrough has compared the work of the sports commission to that of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which investigated harm caused by residential schools between 2007 and 2015, and offered both solutions to that harm and to prevent further abuse of Indigenous People.
“We need to change the culture of sport in Canada,” Quatrough said in a statement.
“Our sports system failed victims and survivors of abuse and mistreatment, including children. We must understand how and why this happened, and we must take steps to prevent it from happening in the future.
“The commission needs to hear from all Canadians – those within the sports system and those from other areas who can share new ideas, approaches and solutions. This will help ensure that all Canadians have access to safe and inclusive sport.”
Athletes testified at parliamentary committee hearings in 2022 and early 2023 about physical, mental and sexual abuse they experienced in their sport.
MPs were told that the pressure on national sports organizations to produce medals, and get funding to do so, contributed to toxic environments where the welfare of athletes took a back seat.
Revelations that Hockey Canada reached a settlement with a woman alleging that members of the 2018 Canadian junior men’s hockey team sexually assaulted her at a gala, and that Hockey Canada used a portion of registration fees to pay such settlements, increased calls for sports. culture change.
Qualtrough was reappointed as sports minister in 2023 after her first spell in the portfolio between 2015 and 2017.
& copy 2024 The Canadian Press
