Canada's sports minister expects rush of complaints for new integrity commissioner

Canada's sports minister expects a rush of complaints when the new Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner starts its mandate later this month.

The country's first sport integrity commissioner, Sarah-Eve Pelletier, begins receiving and addressing complaints June 20.

The U.S. Center for SafeSport, established in 2017, has said it received 5,000 reports and sanctioned over 600 individuals in its first three years of operation.

St-Onge established the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner (OSIC) as an independent entity to investigate reports of abuse.

"We anticipate a backlog also," St-Onge told The Canadian Press. "I know that there's going to be a lot of phone calls just because of the stories that we've heard in the past few weeks and months.

"I'm really shaken by the stories that we've heard.

"I'm happy that we're going to have an independent mechanism. I know that the first years are going to be hard, but what I hope is that we can have a future where athletes, as soon as situations happen, they know (where) they can turn to, so that we can intervene as fast as possible."

This year's federal budget provided $16 million to fund OSIC's operations over its first three years.

Sport Canada already contributes over $1 million annually to the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada (SDRCC), which provides arbitration and mediation to settle disputes.

By comparison, the U.S. Center for SafeSport's funding envelope in 2020 was $18.2 million US, with the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee contributing $11.5 million to it."

"We're going to watch closely how things go, if the resources are sufficient," St-Onge said. "We are already funding the SDRCC. This additional $16 million over the next three years,