The most comprehensive review of Canada’s sport system in a generation concluded with a stark assessment: the system is fragmented, under-regulated and, in the words of its authors, “broken.”
The final 950-page report of the Future of Sport in Canada Commission, released Tuesday, laid out a detailed roadmap for change, anchored by nearly 100 recommendations and a series of calls to action that would fundamentally reshape how sport is governed, funded and policed in this country.
At the centre of those recommendations is a proposal that has been debated for years: a national, mandatory public registry of sanctioned individuals, designed to prevent those who have been banned for misconduct from quietly resurfacing elsewhere in the system.
The report built on the commission’s preliminary findings from August 2025, when commissioner Lise Maisonneuve, the former chief justice of the Ontario Court of Justice, warned that Canada’s sport system was in crisis and called for a new independent body to oversee it.
Now, after hearing from more than 1,000 participants – including 175 survivors of abuse and maltreatment – and reviewing years of complaints, legal cases and policy failures, the commission urged governments to impose structural change to confront what it called a “culture of silence” within Canadian sport, in which victims and witnesses have been discouraged from speaking out.
“Sport should be a place of joy, growth, community, and belonging,” the report said. “But for far too many Canadians, especially young athletes, sport has been an environment marked by abuse and insecurity, where they have not been adequately protected and where no one has been held accountable. In recent years, the public has learned, as has the Commission, of a distressing number of abuse and maltreatment cases involving sport participants — particularly young athletes — across many sports and communities. The magnitude of abuse that has been brought to light — and tolerated — is unacceptable.”
The commission called the absence of a unified registry one of the system’s most persistent and dangerous gaps. Individuals sanctioned in one league, province or sport have, in some cases, been able to move undetected into another. That absence of a registry is a direct contributor to harm, the commission wrote.
The call for a national sanctions registry was recommended in 2024 by the federal Heritage Committee.
Across Canada, sport organizations rely on inconsistent screening practices and incomplete information, the report said. In some cases, it noted, individuals with lifetime coaching bans continued working in youth sport. In others, references withheld critical information about past misconduct.
The commission argued that a sanctions registry must not be voluntary. It recommended making participation in a registry mandatory and tying it directly to federal funding.
The report detailed how, for decades, Canadian sport has operated through a patchwork of national, provincial and local bodies, each with its own policies, codes of conduct and disciplinary processes. The commission described the system as a “fragmented framework” that has allowed gaps, inconsistencies and, at times, deliberate opacity.
To address this, the report called for the harmonization of safe sport standards across the country, including a strengthened and consistently applied Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Maltreatment in Sport.
Perhaps the most consequential recommendation was the suggestion to create a centralized national sport entity similar to agencies in Australia and New Zealand, likely structured as a Crown corporation, that goes beyond the role currently played by Sport Canada and has the authority to oversee governance, funding, safe sport enforcement and data collection.
“We were repeatedly told that genuine change would not be possible if the new entity is established and led by the same familiar groups and people,” the commission wrote, adding that it had heard how “a small contingent of decision-makers and senior leadership within the Canadian sport system had gained massive influence over the direction of priorities and funds and directly or indirectly benefited from the status quo.”
Secretary of Sport Adam van Koeverden said in an interview with TSN that the commission has made it clear that system-wide action is needed and that efforts to make sports safer are already underway.
Last week, Sport Integrity Canada, which accepts and investigates complaints of misconduct and abuse in amateur sports, expanded a sanctions registry to include details of historical cases provided by some national sport organizations.
“This is a journey we are on,” van Koeverden said. “A good majority of the immediate recommendations [from the report] are underway or already complete… We’ve announced additional funding for Sport Integrity Canada so that they can do their work. We’ve announced funding for athlete mental health services… and that expanded registry is good progress.”
Van Koeverden said he was confident at least some sport organizations have been taken over led by new leaders.
“What I’m heartened by is the number of athletes – prior to my generation, my generation, and since – who have stepped up to lead sport organizations, who are committed to turning the page and moving forward in a more athlete-centred, sports-centered, ethical manner,” he said. “I’m confident a new generation of sport leaders is emerging.”
Beyond a sanctions registry, the report placed significant emphasis on prevention.
It called for the establishment of a universal screening standard across all sport organizations, addressing what it described as inconsistent and, at times, ineffective background checks. Background screening policies should feature vulnerable sector and criminal record checks, screening disclosure forms, reference checks, interviews, and social media screening, the commission wrote.
The commission also highlighted the need for improved data collection, arguing that policy decisions have too often been made without reliable evidence. A coordinated, national approach to data would allow for better tracking of complaints, sanctions and outcomes, as well as a clearer understanding of the prevalence and nature of maltreatment, the commission wrote.
The commission recommended that every sports organization in Canada should appoint an independent individual to be a “safeguarding officer... ideally a licensed health professional who operates outside performance structures,” to observe training and competition environments directly to identify potential maltreatment without relying on athletes to report it themselves.
“Athletes described situations where their concerns raised about abusive coaching were dismissed, minimized, or suppressed by sport leaders who prioritized performance results and avoided negative publicity,” the report said. “Even when formal complaint processes existed, many athletes first disclosed concerns to team personnel who lacked the independence or qualifications to handle them. This resulted in mishandled complaints or further silencing.”
Education was another pillar of the proposed reforms.
The report recommended harmonizing safe sport training across the country, ensuring that coaches, administrators and athletes receive consistent instruction on preventing and responding to abuse.
The commission also called for mandatory governance standards across all sport organizations, including requirements related to board composition, decision-making processes and financial transparency.
In presenting its findings, the commission expressed cautious optimism that change is possible. There is, it says, a growing recognition of the need for reform and a willingness among many stakeholders to engage in the process.
