Ontario Tech researcher looking to create national Safe Sport handbook

Several Canadian sport governing bodies have introduced preventive efforts in recent years to promote 'safe sport', understood as a respectful, welcoming, right-based sports culture free of maltreatment. However, a health sciences research at Ontario Tech University suggests some athletes, especially those who identify as equity-deserving, continuously experience maltreatment in sport.

Ontario Tech’s Dr. Joseph Gurgis says one of the reasons safe sport goals have not been reached is due the development of dozens of safeguarding initiatives that are intended to support a safe environment, but are not empirically or theoretically driven. Dr. Gurgis is addressing this gap through new research leading to the development of a resource that will provide coherent, effective and proven safe-sport guidelines.

“To date, there are nearly 300 initiatives in Canada alone designed to promote safe sport, which makes this a very complicated space for sport participants, such as coaches, athletes, and administrators, to navigate,” says Dr. Gurgis, Assistant Teaching Professor with Ontario Tech’s Faculty of Health Sciences. “Through funding granted by the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada, we’ve launched a project to consolidate those resources into one national handbook that will provide guidance on how to advance safe sport across the country. The handbook will be applicable across all sports, all levels of competition, and consider people’s overlapping attributes (such as age, gender, sexuality, race, etc.) to understand the discrimination or disadvantage they might face.”

Currently, the dominant conversation surrounding maltreatment in sport focuses on prevention. Dr. Gurgis’ research suggests a more effective and sustainable way for safeguarding athletes is to explore how to optimize the sport environment, by making it inclusive, equitable, fair, and enjoyable for all—outcomes he asserts are fundamental rights everyone should experience in sport.

“Current research reveals that the harassment and abuse policies implemented more than 20 years ago by National Sport Organizations (NSO (the governing bodies for various sports)) in Canada failed to meet the established policy requirements outlined by Sport Canada,” says Dr. Gurgis. “In many policies, important criteria including comprehensive definitions, examples of maltreatment other than sexual abuse, policies on coach-athlete sexual relationships, and the rights of the complainant and respondent, were reportedly missing. Despite this failure to meet standards, no NSO received sanctions from Sport Canada.”

In developing and evaluating the proposed Canadian Handbook of Safe Sport, over the next three years, Dr. Gurgis will we working with Drs. Simon Barrick and Bettina Callary of Cape Breton University.

Athletes, coaches, sport administrators, and officials from across Canada who are at least 18 years old will be purposefully sampled to provide insights into the effectiveness of current safe sport initiatives, along with reasons for any shortcomings and recommendations for enhancement.

“As the first resource of its kind in Canada, this handbook will be evidence-based and participant-informed, serving as a synthesized tool to promote systematic alignment across Canada, that will offer actionable guidance on education, policy, reporting, governance, monitoring, and evaluation,” says Dr. Gurgis.

Media contact

Bryan Oliver
Communications and Marketing
Ontario Tech University
289.928.3653 (mobile)
bryan.oliver@ontariotechu.ca