Instead of creating a Crown corporation, the minister of sport should work with national sport organizations to secure a massive funding increase to support better coaching oversight. That is how perverted coaches and abusive practices should be eliminated, not by the creation of another bureaucracy.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on March 30, 2026.

OTTAWA—Two years and $10-million later, a federal commission has deemed that sport in Canada is underfunded and in need of a Crown corporation to manage it.

The Future of Sport in Canada Commission, led by Ontario Justice Lise Maisonneuve, concluded that the system is broken, unsustainable, and fragmented and issued 98 calls to action.

She recommends the establishment of a separate organization to oversee sport even though there is a minister of sport whose job it is to do so.

Maisonneuve also recommends more auditing of national sport organizations, and an increase in general funding.

The core of the oversight issue is the lack of funding that has been awarded to the national sport organizations by the federal government for the past two decades.

The commission budget was more expensive than any annual funding paid to national sport organizations. NSOs have not received a funding increase since 2005. These organizations are supposed to manage the safety and function of all elite sports in Canada.

As for fragmentation, the commission is reflecting a Canadian reality. Local sports organizations are funded by communities and provincial governments, not the federal government.

Elite athletes, who train for international competitions, and their funding structures, are financed by the national government.

Maisonneuve interviewed more than 1,000 people including 175 survivors of sport abuse.

The report reflects the problem of abuse, but it is hard-pressed to identify real solutions.

That is because abuse is not unique to sport. It is a societal problem, and by trying to pin it only on sports’ organizational shortcomings, Maisonneuve misses a golden opportunity to educate Canadians about the real origins and nature of sport development.

When it comes to sport and physical activity, by the time an athlete reaches the elite level, they have already cycled through many programs, including those offered by local sports’ organizations and, most notably, the education system.

While Canadians struggle with obesity, the responsibility of the education system in encouraging physical activity and equality is not even mentioned in the report.

In the commission, education is referenced in the context of sports organizations, not our school systems.

A fish may stink from the head, but building blocks for healthy and inclusive physical activity and sports start in the classroom.

There was a time when the federal government financed a national physical activity program called “Participaction.” It provided mechanisms for every school in the country to involve kids in games and testing to put fun into improving their fitness level.

It was launched by prime minister Pierre Trudeau in 1971, when only five per cent of Canadians were physically active. By 1995, the number was up to 35 per cent. But the funding shrunk from $1-million at the high point to $350,000 when its doors were closed in 2001 after a Health Canada budget cut.

Health Canada did not see a role for itself in supporting the active lifestyle of Canadians. And that hasn’t changed.

National sport organizations are required by contract to provide bilingual services, embrace gender and racial equity, with, in some cases, zero budget to support their work.

Instead of creating a Crown corporation, the minister of sport should work with national sport organizations to secure a massive funding increase to support better coaching oversight. That is how perverted coaches and abusive practices should be eliminated, not by the creation of another bureaucracy.

The commission spent two years interviewing sport participants with a particular focus on sport safety following abuse complaints after the 2022 Beijing Winter Games.

Almost 20 per cent of the presenters were there to describe the abusive situations they had faced.

Like society, sport is rife with predators, who seek association with vulnerable young people.

This problem is not unique to sport.

Life presents a similar dilemma. We would be hard-pressed to find any large company in Canada where there are no abusive bosses, or sexual predators in charge.

The Criminal Code is the place to deal with that abuse. And the Canadian Human Rights Commission is uniquely placed to tackle racial or gender inequality in all areas, including sport.

There were a number of good suggestions in the commission findings, but the creation of another Crown corporation is not one of them.

National sport organizations’ strengthening, and school-based involvement in sport and physical activity should be the two pillars from which change will come.

Everything flows from there. From the local minor hockey associations, to future Olympic medallists, it starts with education and ends with sport leadership, and definitely not from another Crown corporation.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.

For the first time in my lifetime, all Canadians have become engaged. We have not found all the answers, but we are asking the right questions.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on October 4, 2021.

Canada’s first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation posed more questions than answers.

A court-upheld Canadian Human Rights Tribunal decision to compensate Indigenous children taken into care was the subject of much reflection.

The decision puts the government on the hook to compensate Indigenous children living on “reserves” who were taken into care for the last 15 years.

During the election, the Liberals appealed the decision and at press time, it was unclear whether that might happen again.

Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller said the government was reviewing the judgment before deciding on whether another appeal would be launched.

But to those Canadians who embrace the need for reconciliation, including leaders in the Indigenous community, a possible appeal soured the significance of the day of Truth and Reconciliation.

As children’s shoes were strewn across the lawn of Parliament, the reflection of little feet stood in stark contrast to jackboots of oppression that those children have felt over the centuries.

The more we learn about the horrendous deculturalization of residential schools, the more that Canadians would like to be able to make amends for a horrible historical legacy.

But the racism and discrimination identified by the Canadian Human Rights Commission did not end last week.

The first-year anniversary of Joyce Echaquan’s death coincided with a call to recognize racism in public sector services in Quebec. The mother of seven, while on her deathbed in a Joliette hospital, was called stupid, and the author of her own problems, by staff caught on a recording.

One employee was ultimately fired but Quebec’s premier Francois Legault continues to deny the existence of systemic racism in his province even though a provincial commission report has already found it “impossible to deny …systemic discrimination” when it comes to Indigenous people.

One day of the year will not change the systemic discrimination that has existed since the beginning of Canada.

But it is fair to say that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is the first leader who has actually engaged in a real reconciliation conversation.

For the first time in my lifetime, all Canadians have become engaged. We have not found all the answers, but we are asking the right questions.

The first time I visited an Indigenous community was the Six Nations of the Grand River, Canada’s most populous First Nation, just 30 kilometres south of the place where I was born.

My parents took me for a visit when I was about eight or nine years old. We attended a community celebration.

To this day, I vividly remembering watching the drummers and the dancers in a cultural celebration that was unlike anything I had ever experienced.

Over the years, we visited again, and I was always struck with how different this world was, and how little we even knew about it.

I wondered why the history books in my school in Hamilton made no mention of the people who had populated our lands long before the arrival of the first Europeans.

We knew a little bit about Pauline Johnson, because of her poetry and Tom Longboat because of his athletic achievements, but for the most part, our understanding of Indigenous peoples was net zero.

How many Canadians know that the people of Six Nations helped us when the Americans were trying to take the country over. Every child was educated about the battle of Stoney Creek, a turning point in the battle for Upper Canada.

But not a single history book explored the Haldimand Proclamation, a 1784 decree that promised a tract of 950,000 acres in recognition of Six Nations loyalty and assistance to the British during the American Revolution. Only half that land was ever awarded.

In modern times, disputes arising from this agreement are covered as Indigenous protests. In reality they are only seeking what was promised in multiple settler agreements.

So many promises have been broken, it is understandable that Indigenous leaders view the current government plans with skepticism.

It is also true that while reconciliation preoccupies many Canadians, it was certainly not the top-of-mind subject in the last federal election.

Last week’s national day gives all of us a chance to engage in a deeper reflection.

From the sixties scoops to the shame of residential schools, to the appropriation of Indigenous lands by developers and governments, Canada has a sorry history to atone for.

When pundits reflect on Justin Trudeau’s potential legacy, they don’t need to look far.

Without Trudeau, this journey toward Truth and Reconciliation would never have begun.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.