Canada requires a National Inquiry into Sport

CALGARY, AB — On September 9, 2023, an article was published with quotes referencing the work Gymnasts for Change Canada (G4C) and other athlete advocacy groups have done to raise awareness about the abuse crisis in sport. Specifically, Dasha Peregoudova, director of sanctions for Abuse-Free Sport, also known as the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner (OSIC) was quoted as stating: “I think through athletes, primarily, and groups like Gymnasts for Change, and people who have come forward, we’ve had the national reckoning version of a national inquiry”. In this context, G4C’s work was used to bolster the argument that we have no need for a national inquiry because we already know all there is to know about this crisis and can jump to solutions instead.

G4C was one of the first and has consistently been one of the loudest organizations calling for a national inquiry. We have assisted survivors in sharing their stories for the express purpose of establishing why a national inquiry is so vital. To have our work misrepresented and used to argue the opposite is deeply harmful and problematic. We ask those who may invoke our organization to support any statement to do better than this.

It bears repeating that the overwhelming majority of survivors who testified at the FEWO and Heritage Committee hearings called for a national inquiry. That should be enough for this Government to call it. If you are blatantly ignoring survivors to impose a different mechanism, you are already starting this off on the wrong foot. That is not trauma-informed nor does it help to rebuild the trust of the survivor community that so badly needs repair.

But it wasn’t just survivors.

It was the Coaching Association of Canada. The Canadian Olympic Committee. The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport. Scholars Against Abuse in Sport, representing hundreds of academics. The Canadian Human Rights Commission. Even Gymnastics Canada.

This is not a fringe group calling for something radical. This is survivors, sport stakeholders, and scholars all coming to the same conclusion. We’ve largely come to that conclusion independent from one another. Although survivor groups are closely linked, we are in no position to dictate to the likes of the Canadian Olympic Committee or the Canadian Human Rights Commission what they should advocate as solutions. They concluded that a national inquiry is necessary on their own, bringing to bear their own perspectives and expertise.

Continuing to amplify the opinions of people who have self-admittedly positive experiences in sport, who are in paid positions to promote programs like OSIC, or who are otherwise reaping professional and financial rewards from this existing system is deeply harmful and disingenuous. To suggest that the opinions of those who hold such conflicted positions carry equal weight to those who are neutral or who are risking personal and professional backlash for supporting a national inquiry is a farce.

Gymnasts for Change Canada continues to believe that a national inquiry is the only mechanism that will protect survivors and allow a thorough assessment of the current sport system to identify how and why human rights abuses have been allowed to infest our sport landscape. We know these abuses are occurring; what we don’t know is how or why they are so prevalent. Only by shining a light on the darkest corners of our sport system will we find the answers.