Abuse-Free Sport registry made public by Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner

The Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner has made public a registry of people barred or provisionally suspended from participating in sport.

The establishment of a public searchable database of individuals who have been sanctioned under the Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent Abuse and Maltreatment in Sport (UCCMS), or whose eligibility to participate in sport has been restricted, was announced in June 2023 by former federal sports minister Pascale St-Onge.

The purpose of the registry is to alert organizations and prevent the rehiring of abusers. Sport bodies quietly parting company with abusers, which allowed them to be hired elsewhere, was a common complaint of athletes at parliamentary committee safe-sport hearings in 2022 and 2023.

The registry, maintained by OSIC, includes a person's name, province, sport, category and nature of violation, sanction or provisional suspension, and date and length of sanction.

The registry contained Thursday the names of five sanctioned individuals and another 21 provisionally ineligible or being monitored for conduct that contravened the UCCMS.

"The main reason behind publishing the Abuse-Free Sport Registry is to reduce risks to the safety of all members of the sport community," OSIC interim commissioner André Lepage said Thursday in a statement.

"It provides another tool to the general public with regard to safeguarding against maltreatment, while also contributing to the deterrence and denunciation of maltreatment and helping prevent reoccurrence."

The registry "is not a comprehensive list of all individuals named in all reports received by the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner, nor does it include respondents subject to other types of sanctions and provisional