Canada’s bobsled, skeleton federation in talks with safe-sport office
Canada’s new safe sports office will sign on the national governing body for bobsled & skeleton.
Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton (BCS), spokesperson said Monday’s negotiations are ongoing with the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner. The Office began receiving complaints of maltreatment in sports on June 20th and has been addressing them ever since.
The announcement comes after more than 90 former and present bobsled/skeleton athletes repeated their appeal to Pascale Saint-Onge, Sport Minister to help them clean up the environment that they feel is toxic in their sport.
OSIC informed the athletes that their lengthy list of complaints could not be investigated since BCS isn’t a “program signatory” and therefore the OSIC doesn’t have the authority to consider any issues regarding individual participants.
Out of more than 60 national sporting organizations funded by Sport Canada only weightlifting and volleyball have signed on to OSIC. BCS is among many sports currently under negotiations.
Although national sport organizations were required to have a mechanism for handling safety-sport complaints in the past, there were serious concerns about transparency as well as independence.
Canada’s new Office for Reporting Abuse and Harassment in Sport was created to address those concerns. However, there are still some issues to resolve.
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Canadian bobsleigh and skating athletes have called for the resignations of two Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton top officials. This is in response to safety concerns that the organization has been handling.
April 2023 deadline to join NSOs
“I am an expert in the NSO environment and many NSOs haven’t signed yet due to ambiguity regarding processes and indemnification,” said Mike Naraine is an associate professor at Brock University’s department for sport management. “The system would be a train wreck if NSOs signed carte blanche and there was no clear process about procedures, responsibilities and liabilities.
St-Onge has established a deadline of April 2023 for national sports organizations to sign up, and a spokesperson representing the minister said Monday, it is fully anticipated that they will all have done so by that date.
Gymnastics Canada was recently denied funding by the minister until it signed up with OSIC. The safe sport office is currently in talks with the gymnastics federation.
St-Onge had Hockey Canada’s funding frozen several weeks ago as a result of the handling of an alleged assault on sex and out-of-court settlement.
On Friday, some 90 bobsled and skeleton athletes — BCS Athlete for Change — wrote their initial public letter in March calling for the resignations of BCS president Sarah Storey and high-performance director Chris Le Bihan.
St-Onge also ordered a financial review of the company, which is still being performed.
The athletes said Friday’s letter to St.Onge reveals that BCS has struggled with systemic issues over the eight years since Storey was reelected.
“These issues continue not to be acknowledged and resolved by the organisation,” they wrote. “During this time we have witnessed the increasing deterioration in both sports of daily operations, athlete participation at national and grassroots levels, overall performance, competitiveness on international stage and culture within organization.”
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Source: CBC News
