WARNING: This story contains graphic details some readers may find disturbing.
Calls to investigate the “toxic culture and rampant child abuse entrenched in Canadian gymnastics” have gone unanswered for seven months, a group of more than 500 Canadian gymnasts allege in an open letter released on Wednesday.
Now, the group known as Gymnasts For Change Canada is “urging and imploring” federal sports minister Pascale St-Onge to initiate an independent third-party judicial investigation “for the wellbeing of every gymnast in the country.”
The letter states that “The lack of response sends the message that these voices do not matter, and their experiences are not worthy of action.”
According to the group, these experiences include children being publicly humiliated, sexually groomed, forced to train on significant injuries, deprived of food and verbally and physically abused.
The list, which includes other disturbing details, was reportedly sent in a June 22 email addressed to St-Onge, her chief of staff, and a Sport Canada representative.
Gymnasts For Change Canada claim the email “has been met with no action” from St-Onge’s office, along with another open letter from March of 2022 asking for an independent investigation on the matters.
“Surely by now their voices are too loud to be ignored and yet their courage has been met with no action from your office.”
St-Onge responded to the letter in a media scrum on Wednesday.
“The stories that we’ve heard about abuse or maltreatment in their sport at all levels, sometimes it’s a local clubs, provincial clubs or the national level, I have to say that it is totally heartbreaking and extremely disturbing,” she said.
The sport minister added that there needs to be a “collective response,” and that the creation of the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner is the independent body that athletes across sports have asked for.
“Yes it’s funded by the federal government, just like any court of justice that is supported financially by the federal government, but it’s still an independent entity,” St-Onge said. “And this is a part of the solution so that athletes have somewhere to address their cases of abuse and maltreatment whether it’s individual complaints or cultural sport assessments.”
The group says abusive behaviour continues to exist in the gymnastics community.
“These examples are not historical, and abuse continues in gyms all across this country today.
“Today we call for your action … Every day without that action from the Canadian government is another day children suffer the most despicable forms of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse.”
WATCH | Minister of Sport responds to Canadian gymnasts’ call for action:
Minister of Sport Pascale St-Onge addresses the calls from Canadian gymnasts who penned an open letter to her office about dealing with toxic culture in the sport.
Public inquiry
Liberal MP and former sport minister Kirsty Duncan is pushing for a full public inquiry that would probe the problem of abuse across all sport, much like the Dubin Inquiry that investigated doping in Canadian sport in 1989.
Kim Shore, a former member of GymCan’s board of directors, said there is precedence. Several countries including Australia and Great Britain have done independent investigations. Australia’s was completed by the Australian Human Rights Commission, while Great Britain’s Whyte Rview was co-commissioned by U.K. Sport and Sport England.
“It’s so unbelievable that in a wonderful country like Canada, that there are so many capable entities stuck in apathy when it comes to child abuse,” Shore said. “Nine other countries have completed independent investigations, many at their government’s behest, so what is wrong? What more do we have to do as survivors to get action and to protect children?”
The group also notes that Gymnastics Canada signed onto the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissionaire (OSIC), but argues this interferes with “gymnasts’ need for a judicial inquiry,” citing reasons such as the OSIC’s limited resources, lack of independence, lack of subpoena powers and inability to enforce sanctions.
“The Commissionaire and her team have graciously accepted our decision not to move forward with a Sport Environment Assessment, recognizing that gymnastics requires a mechanism equipped in substance and scope, to tackle the severe and systemic nature of abuse that plagues gymnastics.”
