OTTAWA, ON (October 30, 2020) – Canoe Kayak Canada (CKC) would like to update the Canadian paddling community regarding modifications that were recently made and approved to its Safe Sport Policy Manual.
CKC has a fundamental obligation and responsibility to protect the health and well-being of the organization, its members and its participants. CKC takes this responsibility and any situation involving misconduct very seriously. CKC and its Members are collectively committed to enacting and enforcing strong, clear, and consistent policies and processes for addressing misconduct.
CKC’s Safe Sport Policy Manual was first approved by its Board of Directors and has been in effect at the national level effective March 1, 2020. Since this time, the policy has been in force, and the mechanisms for dealing with reporting and properly addressing Maltreatment, Harassment and Abuse within our CKC system have been operating. Details of our CKC Safe Sport Policy Manual and approach and contact information for our Independent Safe Sport Officer are available here.
Through the process of rolling out our national policy, valuable feedback from our membership has been collected and changes in the national landscape have arisen which have led CKC Staff, to make recommendations to the Board of Directors to revise certain elements of our CKC Safe Sport Policy Manual. The revisions include:
- Clarification within the Screening Policy around which roles in our community will require which level of Screening and Education.
- Integration of the newly released Safe Sport Training module developed by the Coaching Association of Canada into the Screening Policy.
- Creation of an independent screening process, to be managed by a CKC-mandated independent third party which will relieve member organizations from bearing this responsibility.
- Facilitation of the revised screening process through ckcmember.ca
- Clarity around sharing of costs of investigations within the aligned system.
An Executive Summary of the Updated CKC Safe Sport Policy is available here.
The phase we are now entering is one of education and support to our membership in adopting the CKC Safe Sport Policy Manual within their own organizations. To facilitate this process, a membership declaration has been created and we are targeting April 1, 2021 as the date by which members will have adopted the CKC Safe Sport Policy Manual within their own organization, as well as the target to understand and comply with screening and educational requirements.
As part of our CKC 2020 virtual Summit, CKC will be offering webinar opportunities to provide full details our Safe Sport Policy Manual, including key responsibilities relevant to Member implementation, and to answer questions. The schedule and registration link for these webinars are as follows:
November 12th – PTSO/Division Leadership Webinar: 7:30 pm EST (Registration: http://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYuf-GrrjMjHtbFilGCqtB6bDrf7h1Q4Pke)
November 19th – Club and Member Organization Webinar: 7:30 pm EST (Registration: http://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEkcOyqqTwsEt2FWGUNTwxOe_kGfj5M_BYf)
November 26th – Athlete Webinar: 7:30 pm EST (Access Link: http://zoom.us/j/97661460060?pwd=ZWEzQ0pFZTFWUXJrcHJ3eGZ6Z2o5QT09)
December 3rd – Club Webinar – French: 7:30 pm EST (Registration: http://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0uf-mqqDIvHN0viRreYLNzZMxne_JsNma_)
In the meantime, our Safe Sport Policy Manual remains in force, and our Independent Safe Sport Officer has been and continues to be available to contact for complaints or questions confidentially and to guide you through the complaint process as necessary. Further details are available below and linked throughout this page. If you have any further questions regarding the Policy itself, or any of CKC’s safe sport initiatives or programs, please contact Ian Mortimer, Director of Development (imortimer@canoekayak.ca).
The full CKC Safe Sport Policy is available here
All other CKC Policies are available here.
Reporting a Complaint
As described above, CKC has appointed independent Safe Sport Officers who any person within the CKC community, at any level can contact to report or discuss incidents of abuse or harassment of any kind. These officers are available to communicate in English or French, as well as officers identifying as male or female are always available based on the preference of the complainant.
CKC has contracted W&W Dispute Resolution Services for this role. They may be reached directly and independently through the email address safesport_wwdrs@primus.ca. This is a confidential email address which will only be accessed by one of the independent Safe Sport Officers.
Reporting Abuse or Harassment is often a difficult process. To this end, a person expect the following when contacting the independent safe sport officer:
- All reports will be kept entirely confidential, in line with the wishes of the person making the complaint. This includes confidentiality from CKC staff.
- Complaint will be followed up on in a timely manner.
- The independent Safe Sport Officers are available to support persons making a complaint through the process and will provide advice and guidance on steps as and if a complaint proceeds.
- Your complaint will be taken seriously, and rigorously examined.
- Complaint will be managed in the language, and by an officer of the gender identity of your choice.
Should any complaint or concern come to the attention of the CEO or any CKC representative, it will be forwarded to one of our Safe Sport Officers.
Safe Sport Hotline
An independent helpline has been set up with the support of Sport Canada and the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada.
Anyone with a concern, who is not comfortable reaching out to one of the CKC appointed independent Safe Sport Officers, should feel comfortable reaching out to this free and confidential service as well. Information on their services and how to contact them can be found at; abuse-free-sport.ca. The abuse free sport phone and texting line is accessible at 1-888-83-SPORT, and is monitored from 8 am to 8 pm Eastern time.
Training and Screening
Training and screening are essential elements of ensuring our CKC community is safe and free of harassment and abuse for all participants. The details of CKC’s approach through our policy are available in the Screening Policy, which is part of the Safe Sport Policy Manual.
For training, the CKC policy is set up with recommended and required training for different roles based on the risk level associated with the role and position of authority of a given individual in our community. The recommended and required training is the CAC Safe Sport Training and/or Respect in Sport – Activity Leaders Training. Coaches are also required to be Making Ethical Decisions Certified.
The Screening Requirements Matrix that is an annex to the CKC Screening Policy, outlines the Risk Levels and Associated Recommended and Required Training within the policy.
All athletes on CKC teams, staff, volunteers working on a project on behalf of CKC (running a competition), committee or board members who are covered by a CKC Terms of Reference, National Level Officials and Integrated Sport Science Team members working with CKC reams will be required to complete Safe Sport Training before April 1st.
In regards to Screening, based on member feedback, CKC has set up an online platform on ckcmember.ca through which CKC community members can submit their required screening documents to be reviewed by an independent qualified individual. This process will allow the screening process to remain independent, to alleviate the burden on club volunteers and ensure a qualified individual makes recommendations back to member organizations on cases where a relevant issue is disclosed through the process. This screening process is now in final testing, and will be available by December 1, with the target of April 1, 2021 for screening to take place ahead of the 2021 season.