McLaren appointed to review Gymnastics Canada’s culture and safe-sport policies

The 32-page proposed class-action lawsuit was filed in the Supreme Court of B.C. last month.

“The MGSS team is pleased to work with GymCan on this important engagement,” McLaren CEO Richard McLaren said in a statement.

“The sport of gymnastics globally has been facing intense scrutiny and the same is true here in Canada. We will be reviewing the findings from international reports and engaging the voices of athletes and other members of the GymCan community.”

Gymnastics was among several sports that complained to Canada’s Sport Minister Pascale St-Onge about toxic cultures and maltreatment in their sport in what St-Onge has called a safe sport “crisis.”

Hockey Canada is the most recent to hit headlines after quietly settling a lawsuit last month after a woman, now 24, claimed she was assaulted by members of the country’s 2018 gold-medal winning world junior team at a gala four years ago in London, Ont. None of the allegations have been proven in court.

Hockey Canada executives were grilled by legislators on Parliament Hill last week during a Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage meeting looking into the matter.

The national sports organization has lost its government funding and several major sponsors due to its handling of the case.

In gymnastics, 11 former gymnasts, known as the Bluewater Survivors, also last month publicly criticized GymCan’s handling of their abuse investigation into coaches Dave and Elizabeth Brubaker, saying they were re-victimized by their forced silence.

The 11 comprise the core group of athletes who pushed for a third-party investigation and testified in the 2020 disciplinary procedure with Gymnastics Canada.

According to the 11, who trained out of Bluewater Gymnastics in Sarnia, Ont., a March 2021 disciplinary judgment found 54 counts of misconduct, including emotional, psychological, physical and sexual abuse, in the couple’s capacity as coaches over multiple years, up to and including the year of Dave Brubaker’s arrest in 2017.

Brubaker was charged with multiple counts of sexual abuse. He was found not guilty, but GymCan launched its own investigation after numerous complaints and Brubaker was banned for life in 2021.

His wife Elizabeth was suspended in 2019 through 2024.

The Brubakers have denied all allegations.

McLaren said in its release Thursday that the culture review road map will engage athletes and alumni at various levels, as well as provincial and territorial leaders, coaches, parents and others to identify key issues.

“It is imperative that Gymnastics Canada gets this right which is why we believe engaging the GymCan community will inform a best-in-class culture review and ideally foster trust in the process,” McLaren said.

GymCan CEO Ian Moss said: “Notwithstanding our many efforts over the years to proactively address maltreatment, we strive to do better. We believe the culture review road map will give us the clarity we need to make the necessary changes in our system and to forge higher levels of trust.”

Among McLaren’s previous work, it was commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in 2016 to investigate allegations and evidence into state-sponsored doping in Russia. The report was released in two parts in July and December of 2016.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 30, 2022.

Lori Ewing, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

McLaren appointed to review Gymnastics Canada’s culture and safe-sport policies

Our Community