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OTTAWA — Canada has a chance to become a world leader when it comes to helping athletes alleging abuse against coaches, a prominent American judge told a parliamentary committee.
Judge Rosemarie Aquilina sentenced former U.S. gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar to 40 to 175 years in prison in 2018 after he admitted to molesting top gymnasts under the guise of medical treatment.
She testified before the standing committee on Canadian Heritage on Monday that sporting organizations cannot be relied on to regulate themselves and called for more athlete and government involvement.
“Eliminating the risk of abuse is the only answer,” Aquilina said. “Non-disclosure agreements cannot be mandated. They cannot be tolerated because they hide the truth from parents, public, the media and even from (the government).”
She added that she believes the boards of sporting organizations should be split between athletes and others to allow more transparent oversight.
The committee is examining toxic and abusive culture in high-performance sport.
Sport Canada is overseen by the federal Heritage Ministry.
Canada works hard on the international stage to help others, such as refugees, from around the world but has neglected protecting its athletes, which has trickle down effects, Aquilina said.
“Coaches are simply moved. They need to be removed and if there’s a violation that is found after an investigation, they need to be punished and not put back in sport,” Aquilina said.
“There needs to be an absolute ban. You have an opportunity to be a leader on how it’s done right.”
More needs to be done to encourage athletes who witness or experience abuse from coaches to come forward, including adding more protections for whistleblowers, she said.
That lack of protection, Aquilina said, was highlighted in the Nassar case, which showed that coaches and sporting organizations helped enable his crimes.
“Bystanders and enablers who were complicit were not charged, which sends the message that the only culpable person was Nassar,” she said.
Aquilina said there were hundreds of people who should have been investigated.
“It wasn’t just Nassar, it was a whole broken legal system. It was a whole broken sports system. No one listens to children.”
The issue of coaches accused of abuse moving to other provinces or sporting organizations and escaping oversight has been brought up before in the committee, with several current and former athletes alleging similar situations they were aware of.
Emily Mason, with Fencing for Change Canada, testified to the parliamentary committee in April that she knew of a coach who had faced discipline in Vancouver and had since moved across the country to continue instructing fencing.
Parliamentary hearings began last year after media reports that Hockey Canada had paid out a substantial legal settlement after eight members of its 2018 men’s world junior team allegedly sexually assaulted a woman.
Hockey Canada and other national sports organizations, including Gymnastics Canada, Boxing Canada, Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton and Canada Soccer have had significant turnover in their leadership over the past year due to allegations of toxic and abusive cultures.
The special committee will next prepare its report on abuse and misconduct in Canadian sports with recommendations on improvement.
— By Nick Wells in Vancouver.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 19, 2023.
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