Thank you, Madam Chair, for the opportunity to speak to the committee.

My colleague Karri Dawson and I are pleased to be with you today to share perspectives from the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport on the critically important topic of safe sport in Canada. Today we will provide you with an overview of the CCES and speak to you about the importance of an independent national inquiry into the state of sport in Canada, along with the importance of education, prevention and culture change as part of the approach to create and maintain a positive sport culture.

The CCES is a national non-profit organization with a vision of fair, safe, accessible and inclusive sport. We have four main pillars of focus. The first is advancing values-based sport through True Sport. The second is fulfilling Canada’s commitment to the World Anti-Doping Code as the country's national anti-doping agency. The third is addressing the emerging threat of competition manipulation associated with gambling in sport. The fourth is offering ethical sport leadership through the development of tools and resources.

The CCES has worked collaboratively with athletes and sport leaders, as well as experts in sexualized violence, in an effort to address issues related to safe sport. An example of this is the work the CCES did in collaboration with sport leaders, athletes and independent academic experts to develop the first version of the UCCMS.

We recognize the substantial efforts being undertaken to address safe sport issues, including the implementation of the UCCMS and the establishment of the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner. We also recognize the positive steps towards a safe and accountable sport system, including governance, accountability, education and the sanctions registry announced by the minister last Thursday. We also recognize the enormous courage and effort of a multitude of former and current athletes to shine a bright light on abuse and maltreatment in sport.

However, more needs to be done. On July 25 of last year, the CCES board of directors wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister, calling for an independent national inquiry into the state of sport in Canada. We continue to believe an independent national inquiry is needed to examine the culture of sport and to produce recommendations on how to eliminate maltreatment in sport at all levels.

The commission of inquiry into the use of performance-enhancing drugs in Canadian sport, known as the Dubin inquiry, led to the creation of the CCES in the early 1990s. This was a time when countries around the world, along with sport organizations, were grappling with drug use in sport and how to manage this public health issue. The Dubin inquiry enabled Canada to emerge from this era with clear recommendations that led to culture change in sport and established Canada as a global leader in protecting athletes’ health from performance-enhancing drug use. The same approach should be taken for safe sport.

We also believe there needs to be the same focus on education and prevention to drive positive culture change as there is on compliance, regulation and reporting. Our experience with anti-doping has demonstrated the importance of both detection and deterrence, as well as the impact of values-based education—which we call “True Sport”—to change culture and behaviour.

For safe sport, we need to prioritize a centralized and standardized approach to education, underpinned by a common set of values and principles, in order to ensure we eliminate the behaviours we don’t want and model the behaviours we do want. Often, this area of work is overlooked and under-resourced. For real change to occur, it must be prioritized.

Thank you again for the opportunity to provide an overview of the CCES and to share with you the importance of both an independent national inquiry and a prioritized focus on education, prevention and culture change. The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport stands ready to assist in any way possible.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

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