By Canadian Press

Canadian gymnasts ask sport minister to suspend government funding to their sport

Jul 21, 2022 | 4:05 AM

More than 500 Canadian gymnasts are calling on Canada’s Sport Minister to freeze funding to their national sport organization. 

In a public letter Thursday to Minister Pascale St-Onge — and after four months of “sharing devastating stories” of years of abuse — Gymnasts for Changes, which represents 508 athletes, are repeating their calls for strict measures.

That includes a third-party investigation and the suspension of funding, as was done with Hockey Canada. 

Their initial request months ago, they said, has been ignored by Gymnastics Canada (GymCan), Sport Canada, and “now by your office, and to the great detriment of child gymnasts across the country.”

The letter comes a week after a coach in Lethbridge, Alta., was charged with sexually assaulting a seven-year-old girl.

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Several gymnasts told The Canadian Press earlier this week they wondered if the abuse could have been prevented had their calls for intervention been heard.

“In the last four months, we have publicly bared our souls, sharing stories of devastating treatment we suffered at the hands of our sport,” the letter said. “We have called for an independent third-party investigation to address the systemic culture of abuse that prevails in Canadian gymnastics.”

GymCan announced recently it had commission McLaren Global Sport Solutions to do a “culture review” of the sport’s national governing body. But the gymnasts have rejected the review, since it’s “bought and paid for by the very organization to be investigated.”

The Gymnasts for Change group, which has grown from an original 70 members three months ago, asks for the suspension of funding to prevent taxpayer dollars going to what they say will be an ineffective and harmful review that will whitewash the survivor experience. 

St-Onge froze Hockey Canada’s funding in the wake of the national organization’s handling of an alleged sexual assault and out-of-court settlement.

Thursday’s letter noted that GymCan and Sport Canada had been aware of potential for widespread maltreatment claims. GymCan CEO Ian Moss told Sport Canada’s director general Vicki Walker in August of 2020 — in a communication recently published by TSN — “there could, very soon, be a wave of historic athlete complaints.” 

In April of 2021 and again in December, GymCan’s board of directors was urged by survivors to initiate an independent, third-party investigation into the sport. 

The gymnasts posted their first public letter on March 28, urging Sport Canada to move ahead with an investigation. 

“According to this timeline, GymCan and Sport Canada have had knowledge of, and the opportunity to act on, suspected systemic abuse in gymnastics for at least two years and have done nothing, allowing abuse to continue against Canadian child athletes without intervention,” the letter said. “We had hoped for a better, more urgent response from you.”

Emails to St-Onge, according to Thursday’s letter, have gone unanswered. 

“To date, your office has taken no steps to hold GymCan or Sport Canada accountable and all those who have presided over this abuse crisis remain in their positions of authority,” the gymnasts wrote. “There has been no accountability and no meaningful action. . . We will never know with certainly whether your initiation of the requested investigation would have prevented this latest devastating example of abuse (in Lethbridge). 

“But your inaction sends a clear message to every young gymnast that abuse in their sport does not deserve your attention; your inaction sends a message to every perpetrator and predator that it is ‘open season’ for abusers in gymnastics; your inaction sends a message to every enabler of this abuse that they will not be held to account for turning a blind eye; your lack of action leaves you increasingly complicit.”

The gymnasts say a third-party investigation could provide information to help halt abuse in their sport, plus send a message to all sport organizations that the government will hold they accountable if toxic cultures are allowed to endure.

Canada’s first sport integrity commissioner, Sarah-Eve Pelletier, began receiving and addressing complaints of maltreatment in sport on June 20. While the office expected to receive a rush of complaints upon opening, it was unclear whether the office would hear historical complaints. 

“Our shared experiences of emotional, physical, psychological and sexual abuse hold valuable truths that are necessary to come to light if change is ever to be truly achieved,” the gymnasts wrote. “The stories of survivors must be investigated to understand how abuse has prevailed in the Canadian system for decades. To ignore the past is to risk repeating it. And right now, in gyms across Canada, the past is being repeated. Abuse is being repeated. And children are paying the price.

“We need the Minister of Sport to work with us to commence the long overdue . . . investigation. The safety of Canadian children hinges on your action and your courage.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 20, 2022.

Lori Ewing, The Canadian Press