Sport Manitoba receives investment towards Safe Sport

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This article was published 28/06/2022 (1375 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sport Manitoba is actively seeking a safer sporting experience for everyone, and the province has its back financially and through policies announced on Tuesday.

Any coaches in the K-12 school system must now take the three-hour Respect in Sport course, which was mandated for other Manitoba coaches in 2007. By Feb. 28, 2023, all school staff will need to take the Respect in School program.

The province also announced $250,000 towards the Pathway to Safer Sport program. Sport Manitoba president and CEO Janet McMahon said the funds will go towards a provincial media campaign, resources for parents, athletes and coaches, outreach to rural and marginalized communities, an online reporting tool and trauma-informed counselling for those abused in sport, to name a few.

“This goes well beyond coaching,” McMahon told the Sun. “We’re looking at amplifying the voices of athletes, empowering the bystander and educating parents and guardians. We also have a lot of work to do with boards.”

“If we don’t deal with the little things, these things escalate into the awful things,” she added. “We can’t allow bullying in the boardroom or body shaming or inappropriate behaviour by fans.

“… It’s about trying to change the culture.”

The most prominent recent violation in Manitoba came to light in April when Winnipeg’s Vincent Massey Collegiate football coach Kelsey McKay, 51, was charged with sexually assaulting players between 2004 and 2011. Additional charges followed a couple of weeks later as more former players came forward to the police.

McKay continued teaching physical education and coaching for almost six years after parents complained to the school and Pembina Trails School Division, according to a Winnipeg Free Press story in May.

McMahon said Sport Manitoba “learned a lot” from the situation, notably that people were unaware of the confidential Safe Sport line, 1-833-656-SAFE (7233). Alternatively, complaints can be emailed to help@safesportline.ca.

Complaints of abuse still run through school divisions or provincial sport organizations, and McMahon said Sport Manitoba’s role is to support, educate and establish “minimum standards around policy” to ensure they’re handled properly.

“It’s being able to do more, taking more initiatives in the area and it’s quite layered,” she said. “We want the voices of athletes to be amplified so we need to talk to athletes about their experiences. What do we need? What can we be better at?

“We need to do some training around empowering bystanders, people who stand around and don’t do anything. We obviously need to educate parents.”

Safe Sport focuses on verbal, physical and sexual harassment and abuse, as well as bullying, discrimination and neglect. It covers awareness, prevention and actions to take if any misconduct is suspected.

A lot of it centres around accountability and transparency. Coaches should stick to group training sessions, not one-on-one behind closed doors. They can communicate with athletes via group chats with the team, not direct messages via Snapchat.

And they are to criticize constructively and respectfully: A shift away from the old-school method of aggressive, derogatory commands written off as “tough love.”

“What people looked up to coaches for in the past was their technical expertise, not the soft skills of dealing with people,” McMahon said. “Through time we’re learning people want more of ‘This is about me growing as a person … this isn’t just about me being the best technician in a sport.’

“We’re going through a societal change of we value people, we value their experience and we value how they want to be treated. It used to be OK because ‘the coach taught us lots and we won.’ There’s a lot of people saying that’s not appropriate anymore.”

Respect in Sport is a product of Respect Group, which Elkhorn’s Sheldon Kennedy co-founded with Wayne McNeil in 2004, seven years after hockey coach Graham James pled guilty to sexual assault with Kennedy as one of the survivors.

“Sport Manitoba was the first organization in Canada to mandate the Respect in Sport program for community coaches over 15 years ago,” Kennedy said in a release. “I applaud the Manitoba government for their proactive approach to further expand child protection education for all school coaches and school-based personnel across the province. We know that those interacting with students each day are trusted adults in a child/student’s life and they need the tools to know how to listen and to step up and step in when required.”

Kennedy was mocked and mistreated when he first spoke up about James’ abuse, outlined in his memoir, “Why I Didn’t Say Anything.” Sport Manitoba wants everyone to feel safe and supported in sport, and when they need to report wrongdoing.

For every story of abuse that hits the news, there are likely a lot more that go unreported.

“To create change in the system, it’s going to take a long time,” McMahon said.

“… I’m smart enough to know this isn’t going to cure the problem completely. We’ve got an imbalance of power in sport … We’ve got to be better, more equipped and more proactive.”

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