‘We don’t change culture with a poster’: Former NHLer says new commission a starting point to tackle abuse
The Current18:41Former NHL player Sheldon Kennedy on tackling abuse in sport
For former NHL player Sheldon Kennedy, the federal government’s commission to investigate systemic abuse in Canadian sports is a step forward he’s never seen taken before.
“We’ve been in this space for a long time now, and and I think it’s the first time at that level that we’ve heard an acknowledgement of the magnitude of the issue within sport,” he told The Current’s Matt Galloway.
On Dec. 11, the federal government launched a three-person commission to look at systemic abuse and human rights violations in Canadian sports.
The work of the planned three-person commission will be “trauma-informed, victim-centred [and] forward looking,” Sport Minister Carla Qualtrough told CBC News’ Ashley Burke. It will be based on the “understanding that a group of vulnerable people have been harmed. The system didn’t protect them and we want to make sure that doesn’t happen again,” she added.
The federal government has been under pressure for months to call a public inquiry into abuse in sports.
Several athletes, advocates and a parliamentary committee have all demanded an inquiry to address what they call a pattern of normalizing abuse, covering up misconduct and failing to hold perpetrators accountable.
Qualtrough says she’s spent more than three months “obsessively” considering a process to address this “systemic problem.”
“We’re dealing with a complex array of abuse, harassment, discrimination [and] normalized behaviour that is very inappropriate,” she said.
The federal government has announced a commission to examine systemic abuse in sports starting in 2024, but some who have experienced abuse say the government should launch a full public inquiry with the power to compel witnesses to testify.
Kennedy, who’s one of the victims of convicted sex offender and former junior hockey coach Graham James, said this announcement is a starting point that will “allow us to think differently within the system of how we move forward.”
Creating a new culture — with intent
Kennedy made his NHL debut during the 1989-90 season, and played his last NHL game in 1997. He said cases of abuse like the kind he went through were seen as “isolated incidents” during his playing days — and the way they were dealt with was to just make them disappear.
But Kennedy says this isn’t about a few bad individuals anymore, and it shouldn’t be treated as such.
“I think we’re at a point now … where we can’t fluff this off anymore,” he said.
According to Kennedy, sports are supposed to be welcoming, and help kids — from all backgrounds — focus on exercise, movement and connection.
But some coaches only focus on winning at all costs; and when that’s the focus, he said, abuse becomes normalized and ignored because players who just want to have fun are driven away. Abuse is swept under the rug to avoid ruining a good team’s run.
“[There’s] such an imbalance of power here,” he said. “We applaud coaches sometimes for wins … and it doesn’t matter how you get there.”
“It doesn’t need to be about wins and losses. I think that’s our starting point and we can go from there and I think that’s where we’ve lost it.”
I think there has to be progress, or sport’s going to continually decline in this country.-Sheldon Kennedy, former NHL player
A more fun, inclusive culture won’t come to be through words alone, though, Kennedy says. It must be created with intent, prioritized, and practiced on an ongoing basis.
“We don’t change culture with a poster,” he said.
Moving ahead
Some athletes and advocates, such as Gymnasts for Change Canada, a group dedicated to eliminating abuse in gymnastics, say they are disappointed in the minister’s decision not to call an inquiry.
Unlike a commission, a national public inquiry would have the power to compel people and sport organizations to testify and hand over documents.
Amelia Cline, one of the group’s co-founders who personally experienced abuse as a child at the hands of her coaches, told CBC News she’s concerned a commission might not be able to hold people accountable.
“I think that’s really where this commission is really going to succeed or fail, is whether it’s actually going to dig into the systems that we currently have and the people that are currently running those systems and really hold them responsible for what’s been going on,” she said.
Elite athletes from multiple sports testified about abuse and sexual misconduct at the hands of coaches before a parliamentary committee. They say Canada needs a national inquiry into abuse in sport to protect the next generation.
But Kennedy said his understanding is that the commission will allow provinces and the federal government to act more quickly together than an inquiry would.
“Whether it’s an inquiry or whether it’s a commission, the job is is to bring the knowledge back to the decision-makers and come up with either a different way or a better way or a safer way that will bring the quality of sport back to what I think we all want it to be,” he said.
Until then, no one gets a passing grade, Kennedy said — and parents should continue to demand from and ask questions to their children’s hockey teams.
“I think we finally acknowledge what we’re dealing with, and I think there has to be progress, or sport’s going to continually decline in this country,” he said.
