Gymnasts repeat calls to sport minister for investigation into toxic culture of abuse

TORONTO — Seven months after they first appealed to the federal government for an independent investigation into their sport, more than 500 current and former gymnasts are repeating their call to action.

Gymnasts For Change Canada, a group that has grown from an original membership of 70, wrote an open letter on Wednesday to sport minister Pascale St-Onge imploring her to take action.

"You have the power to initiate the judicial investigation gymnasts are seeking," the letter said. "Every day without that action from the Canadian government is another day children suffer the most despicable forms of emotional, physical and sexual abuse. Every day without that action is another day that the brave survivors of this sport must find even more strength against a system that has failed to protect them as children, now invalidates their experiences, and threatens to leave the next generation at risk of horrific abuse."

Gymnastics Canada announced last week it had signed an agreement to join Abuse-Free Sport, and work with the new Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner (OSIC), which was created as a one-stop, independent complaint investigator. St-Onge froze Gymnastics Canada's funding in July, telling the federation it needed to accelerate the process to sign onto OSIC.

GymCan also hired McLaren Global Sport Solutions (MGSS) in June to analyze GymCan's national safe sport policies and procedures, but Gymnasts For Change say neither OSIC nor the McLaren review are truly independent.

This past summer, gymnastics coach Jamie Ellacott was charged with sexual assaulting four girls, ranging in age from seven to 14, in Lethbridge, Alta.

Abby Spadafora — who detailed in a public letter in May her own allegations of years of