Former sport minister Duncan has zero faith Hockey Canada can clean up its sport

Warning: This story contains graphic details that may be disturbing to some readers

As a former gymnast who has seen the darker side of that sport, Kirsty Duncan's mandate was to try to eradicate abuse in Canadian sport.

Duncan, who was Canada's sport minister from 2015 to '19, is angry she wasn't informed by either Hockey Canada or Sport Canada about the assault allegations against the world junior team in 2018.

"If we look at hockey, they failed for 30 years," Duncan said. "We're hearing about initiatives. We're hearing a lot after the fact. The watershed moment should have been after Sheldon Kennedy [who was abused by then-coach Graham James in junior hockey].

"Did Hockey Canada change? The answer is no. I think they've played right around the edges. I think they've done bits and pieces. But I think they've failed to change the culture over 30 years. And why is this time different, if it's the same leadership?"

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Duncan spoke to The Canadian Press the day after publishing an op-ed in the Globe and Mail about hockey and Canada's safe-sport crisis. The emotion was obvious in her voice.

"I know personally what it feels like to be told to eat Jell-O, laxatives, toilet paper, and water pills to 'make weight,' and to be repeatedly verbally abused by other coaches, judges, and parents," Duncan wrote.

"I'll tell you about a judge," she said in Friday's phone interview. "I'm at a local competition. It's LOCAL. It's club level. The judge came up to my mom, in front of the whole crowd and said `Your daughter's good, but she has a fat ass.' I would have been 11 or 12."

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Duncan, who is an MP for Etobicoke North,