Armed with powerful voices, many found they were as strong off the field as on it
TORONTO — If 2022 was a defining year for Canadian athlete activism, the snowball started rolling back in January.
In a groundswell of advocacy, athletes in bobsled and skeleton, boxing, gymnastics, rowing, soccer and figure skating among others waged wars this year against leaders in their sports, levelling allegations of toxicity and abuse.Rob Koehler, the Montreal-based director general of advocacy group Global Athlete, said his organization had received abuse complaints from around the world this year.On whether the number of complaints in Canada has risen this past year, Koehler said: "Exploded.
In May, dozens of Canadian boxers publicly called for the resignation of high performance director Daniel Trepanier. Three-time world champion Mary Spencer was among the most vocal, saying Trepanier should have been "fired a long time ago."But there were repercussions. Boxer Myriam Da Silva Rondeau recently revealed she was sued by Trepanier for social media comments.
The testimony has been tearful and tragic. Olympic water polo player and Hall of Famer Waneek Horn-Miller spoke about being "depressed and suicidal" after the national program rehired a coach who was previously removed amid complaints of verbal abuse. "I feel like it was this slow-building snowball. And I feel like, because athletes started talking about it, more athletes started talking about it . . . and it really demonstrated the scope of the problem," she said.
But some have argued that OSIC is ill-equipped to handle many complaints and is not truly independent."It could be a rugby athlete or a boxing athlete or a winter athlete or a summer athlete, it could be any athlete, but the fundamental structure of their story is the same — it's imbalance of power. There's nowhere to go. There's no accountability," she said.
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