The sports minister expects a wave of complaints for the new commissioner

The country’s first Sport Integrity Commissioner, Sarah-Ève Pelletier, will begin receiving and processing complaints on June 20.

The U.S. Center for SafeSport, founded in 2017, said it received 5,000 reports and disciplined more than 600 people in its first three years of operation.

In Pascale St-Onge’s first five months as Sports Minister, allegations of ill-treatment, sexual abuse or embezzlement were filed against at least eight national sports organizations in what he called crisis.

Minister St-Onge created the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner (BCIS) as an independent entity to investigate reports of abuse.

We also expect a retroactive effect, St-Onge told The Canadian Press. I know there will be a lot of phone calls just because of the stories we’ve heard over the past few weeks and months.

I was really fascinated by the stories we heard. I am happy because we will have an independent mechanism. I know the first few years will be difficult, but my hope is that we will have a future where athletes, once situations arise, they know (whom) they can approach, so that we can intervene as quickly as can. can.

This year’s federal budget provided C $ 16 million to fund BCIS’s operations in its first three years.

Sport Canada already pays more than $ 1 million annually to the Sport Dispute Resolution Center of Canada (SDRCC), which offers arbitration and mediation services to resolve disputes.

In comparison, the Center for SafeSport’s funding envelope in the United States in 2020 was US $ 18.2 million, with the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee contributing US $ 11.5 million.

We will closely monitor how things are going, if resources are sufficient, Pascale St-Onge promised. We have already funded the SDRCC. Your extra $ 16 million over the next three years, we’ll see how it goes. This new mechanism is for me an absolute priority, that it be effective.

All national sporting organizations will be subject to a universal code of conduct. St-Onge said he met with the National Sport Organization (NSO) about safe sport.

” They all knew it was a big deal, that I wouldn’t continue the situations and the stories we had heard. They all know that we are making a cultural change, that they need to be a part of it. We will raise the level of what we expect of them, how they should prevent these situations from happening. “

A Basketball Canada campaign

Pascale St-Onge is supporting Basketball Canada’s Learn About The Signs campaign announced Thursday in Ottawa at a Canadian Elite Basketball League game between BlackJacks and Scarborough Shooting Stars. The Minister attended the fight.

The campaign, funded by Sport Canada, includes ads that dramatize toxic practices.

We may not be in every gym in this country, but we can hold every gym accountable, ”said Basketball Canada CEO Michael Bartlett. Our job is to use our megaphone, our platform, our marketing power, our resources, to collectively bring the basketball community’s attention to what is acceptable and what is not, to they have the power to speak out against unacceptable behavior and to have the tools and resources at their disposal to know what to do in these situations.

We do this because it is our duty to take the lead in sharing and advocating right and wrong.

Bartlett is set for an ad campaign whose goal is to potentially inspire people to report cases of child abuse and abuse in the sport of basketball.

This is a good sign that a large organization like Basketball Canada will do something about this theme, St-Onge acknowledged. Given the latest stories we’ve heard, one of the problems with the sports system is the culture of silence. People remained silent in the face of these situations. Talking about it is a really important first step.