Critics call Gymnastics Canada's agreement with Abuse-Free Sport 'miniscule step'

Rosannagh Maclennan, of Canada, performs in the women's trampoline gymnastics final at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, on July 30, 2021. (Natacha Pisarenko / AP)

Gymnastics Canada has signed an agreement to join Abuse-Free Sport, the new federal program to prevent and address maltreatment in sport.

But an international athletes rights group said the news is more "miniscule steps" the embattled national gymnastics federation has taken to improve what more than 500 current and former Canadian gymnasts say is a toxic environment of abuse and maltreatment in their sport.

Gymnastics Canada said in a release Friday it can access services of the new Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner (OSIC), which was created in an effort to provide a one-stop, fully independent complaint investigator, as of Dec. 2, 2022 at the latest.

"We believe that offering a safe environment is everyone's responsibility," Gymnastics Canada CEO Ian Moss said in a statement. "Gymnastics Canada is fully committed to doing our part to support a growing national movement that is changing the culture of sport in this country and to support the development and implementation of an independent safe sport complaint mechanism.

"Managing maltreatment complaints through the OSIC provides an independent, responsible and positive step forward for the sport community."

The announcement comes amid calls for an independent inquiry from more than 500 current and former Canadian gymnasts who call themselves Gymnasts for Change.

Rob Koehler, the Montreal-based director general for Global Athlete, said GymCan hasn't acted in the interest of athletes in ignoring calls for an investigation.

"If Gymnastics Canada really wanted to protect victims and clean up the sport they would be publicly supporting (the call for an investigation). To date, they remain silent and complicit," Koehler said.

"OSIC yields no power and is a band-aid solution for a hemorrhaging toxic sport system in Canada."

Canada's Sport Minister Pascale St-Onge froze Gymnastics Canada's funding in July, telling the federation it needed to accelerate the process to sign onto OSIC.

Canada's first sport integrity commissioner, Sarah-Eve Pelletier, began receiving and addressing complaints of maltreatment in sport on June 20 amid what St-Onge has called a "crisis" in Canada.

Athletes have filed 24 complaints since then, but 16 are in limbo because their national federations have yet to sign up to use the service. St-Onge has given all sports until April to sign on to the integrity commissioner's system or risk losing their federal funding. During the transition period, GymCan said it is completing full adoption of the Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Maltreatment in Sport (UCCMS), and that GymCan members who've experienced or witnessed abuse will "continue to have access to independent third-party services already in place through the Gymnastics Canada independent reporting and complaint management process."

McLaren Global Sport Solutions (MGSS) was hired in June to analyze GymCan's national safe sport policies and procedures, but the culture review has been panned by Athletes for Change, who say it was "bought and paid for by GymCan."

"(OSIC) is not independent, it is directly linked with the government has a similar relationship as Sport Canada has with the government," Koehler said. "And we all know Sport Canada has done nothing to address the issue of abuse across Canadian sport."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2022