The country’s first Sport Integrity Commissioner, Sarah-Ève Pelletier, has been hard at work since she was appointed. A month before the launch of the operations of the organization he oversees, the trained lawyer spoke with Radio-Canada Sports to describe his new roles and his role.
Q. What was your reaction to your appointment to this position?
A. As you know, I am a synchronized swimmer myself. My sport has changed names since I retired [NDLR : natation artistique]so that means i retired earlier!
I have a positive experience in the sport. Ever since I retired, what has always guided my professional journey has been my desire to act as an agent of positive change in the sport. Once I chose to pursue a career in law, which had not yet ended on my own, I found a way to bring the sport back.
Q. You studied to be a lawyer, led jobs on the International Olympic Committee and Canadian Olympic Committee, among other things. How can all this background help you in your new role?
A. Many experiences and learned may be relevant, but there is certainly a notion of listening to the needs of the community.
It is important for me to listen to people and try to meet their needs, while using external expert resources in the appropriate fields.
Q. Since the beginning of April, you have been the first Sport Integrity Commissioner in Canada. Honestly, what is your mandate in this new position?
A. Our role in the Office of the Integrity Commissioner for Sport is to administer the so -called Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Mistreatment in Sport (CCUMS).
More concretely, this means that our office is responsible for receiving and processing complaints of abuse that affect individual members of organizations that sign up to our program.
Q. What role or link do you have within the independent complaints management mechanism that will be set up in the coming weeks?
A. In relation to the duty of the commissioner so, therefore the individual duty that I will be called to perform, it is not a duty that is in the decision of each of the files, of the complaints we receive. One of the really important concepts at the heart of mechanism and office is the notion of freedom.
Our office receives complaints and does minimal management. On the other hand, when it is appropriate for a complaint to continue its progress toward a thorough investigation, these investigations take place through the services of independent investigators.
There will be a team, a system and parameters, if you will, that will guide these independent investigators in carrying out their mandate. In terms of potential penalties against individuals, that duty is separate from the duty of the commissioner’s office.
The role of the Commissioner is to act as a centralized resource, to facilitate the smooth operation of all these functions. I understand that this is a complex system to build and understand, but we want to make sure we create something that will gain users ’trust and be accessible by people.
We will also make available resources for psychological support, mental health and legal assistance for certain individuals who may be eligible. And more than that, we believe there is an important place for education.
Q. The first phase of the operation will begin on June 20. What steps will be taken when the process is launched?
A. It will be a phased approach, we will offer services to receive complaints. They must first be reviewed to determine the best course of action, through mediation or further investigation. We must work immediately once complaints are received, then provide support for the people.
This is a service that will be progressive because it will affect the organizations that sign up to the program, and we hope that they will increase even more.
But this is not something that happens overnight because the organizational structure and the reality of each sports organization is different, so it may take a bit of time.
Q. Allegations have long been brewing against national sports federations in the country. Is training in elite sports in Canada healthy and safe?
A. I believe that sport should, on any level, be first of all about joy, about self -development and self -confidence, about creating friendships that will last a lifetime. In my role as Sport Integrity Commissioner, I am unable to comment or comment on a particular sport or on its reality.
Source: Radio-Canada
