Canada's bobsled, skeleton federation in talks with safe-sport office

The national governing body for bobsled and skeleton plans to sign on with Canada's new safe sport office.

A spokesperson for Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton (BCS) said Monday it is in negotiations with the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner, which began receiving and addressing complaints of maltreatment in sport on June 20.

The news comes on the heels of more than 90 current and former bobsled and skeleton athletes repeating their call to Sport Minister Pascale St-Onge to help clean up what they say is a toxic environment in their sports.

The athletes were recently informed by OSIC that their long list of complaints couldn't be investigated because BCS is not a "program signatory and the OSIC therefore does not have the authority to further consider issues regarding its individual participants."

Of the more than 60 national sport organizations funded by Sport Canada, only volleyball and weightlifting have signed on with OSIC. BCS is one of many sports currently in negotiations.

National sport organizations were previously required to have their own mechanism in place for handling safe-sport complaints, but there were major concerns about transparency and independence.

While Canada's new office for reporting abuse and harassment in sport was meant to remove those concerns, there are still some pieces to be ironed out.

WATCH | Athletes describe toxic culture at Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton:

"As someone with intimate knowledge of the NSO environment, several NSOs have not yet signed due to ambiguity with processes and indemnification," said Mike Naraine, an associate professor in Brock University's department of sport management. "If NSOs sign carte blanche, and there's no explicit process about procedure, responsibilities