Qualtrough chooses a former chief justice from Ontario to lead the sports commission

A former Ontario chief justice has been tasked with tackling abuse and mistreatment in sports in Canada.

Lise Maisonneuve was introduced Thursday by Canadian Sports Minister Carla Qualtrough as head of the Future of Sport in Canada Commission.

“Justice Maisonneuve has a strong background in the administration of justice and managing complex processes,” Qualtrough said. “She comes to this role completely independently of the sport.”

The committee’s job is to delve into what Qualtrough and her predecessor Pascale St-Onge have called a safe sports crisis in Canada.

“Sports are a source of national pride for Canadians,” Maisonneuve said at a news conference in Ottawa. “Anything that undermines the integrity of the sporting systems affects us all.

“The committee is about people in sports. We are here to listen, reflect and help chart a safer future for sports in Canada.”

The 18-month commission will consult sporting organizations and survivors of abuse on how to improve the national sporting system. She will prepare two reports and organize a national summit.

When that consultation will start and how much of the commissioner’s work will be visible to the public had yet to be determined.

“We meet for the first time today,” Maisonneuve said. “All these questions will be answered in due course.”

The 18-month timeline takes the commission to the end of 2025. The final report will include recommendations on how to make the sport safer and help athletes disclose and heal from abuse.

“We as a government have committed to respond to their report within six months and to take immediate action once their report is submitted,” Qualtrough said.

This year’s federal budget provided the commission with $10.6 million over two years.

Some academics, former athletes and former Sports Minister Kirsty Duncan have called for a public inquiry into sport.

Maisonneuve’s eight-year term as chief justice of the Ontario Court of Justice ended in May 2023. The judge from Timmins, Ontario, was the second woman appointed to that position.

Former president of the Canadian Center for Ethics in Sport, Andrew Pipe, and education director of the Canadian Center for Child Protection, Noni Classen, will be Maisonneuve’s advisors.

“The appointees are going to have to be really decisive,” said Amelia Cline, director of Athletes Empowered, formerly Gymnasts For Change.

“They don’t have the backing of a national investigation. They do not have the mechanisms that would give them the power to compel testimony and documents.

“We know how allergic the sports system is to accountability, so this committee will likely live and die by the commissioner’s willingness to dig and expose where they are not getting the adequate information they are looking for.”

Cline was among a number of former athletes who testified at House committee hearings in 2022 and early 2023 about the physical, mental and sexual abuse they experienced in their sport.

MPs were told that pressure on national sporting bodies to produce medals, and receive funding to do so, was contributing to toxic environments in which athletes’ wellbeing took a back seat.

Qualtrough was further questioned Thursday about her refusal to hold a public inquiry.

An investigation takes place under the conditions set out in the Inquiries Act and requires cabinet approval. Often led by judges, commissioners have the power to subpoena witnesses, take evidence under oath and request documents.

“Forcing victims to tell their stories was not a trauma-informed approach,” Qualtrough said. “Having a full public inquiry would have resulted in months of negotiations with the provinces to reach an agreement on terms of reference, which ultimately I was not confident we could achieve.”

Cline believed an investigation could prevent survivors from being retraumatized.

“There is nothing in the Inquiries Act that prevents this from being a trauma-informed, empowering process for people,” she said. “It’s actually survivors who have asked for an investigation because we know how reluctant the sports system is.”

Qualtrough compares the sports commission’s work to that of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which investigated the harm caused by residential schools between 2007 and 2015, proposing solutions to that harm as well as preventing further abuse of Indigenous peoples.

She was reappointed Minister of Sports in 2023 after her first stint in the portfolio between 2015 and 2017.

Qualtrough opened Thursday’s news conference with an apology to athletes and sports participants who have been abused, especially those who were abused as children.

“I’m sorry this happened to you,” Qualtrough said. “I’m sorry that the sports system failed to protect you and hold those who hurt you accountable. What you experienced should not have happened.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 9, 2024.

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press