Paralympian Carla Qualtrough replaces Pascale St-Onge as sport minister

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau changed sports ministers again and amid a Canadian safe-sport crisis with Wednesday's cabinet shuffle.

Pascale St-Onge, appointed to the sports portfolio in October 2021, was shifted to heritage minister and replaced by Carla Qualtrough, who had been Trudeau's employment minister since 2019.

Qualtrough, a former Paralympic swimmer, previously served as Canada's sports minister from 2015 to 2017.

Her return as Minister of Sport and Physical Activity marks the fifth leadership change to sport in eight years of Liberal government.

Safe-sport issues dominated St-Onge's 21 months overseeing sport. She called it a crisis.

Parliamentary committees have heard revelations in recent months from tearful athletes about mental, physical and sexual abuse, and their fears for their careers if they reported it to their organizations' leadership.

WATCH | CBC Sports' safe sport in Canada panel discussion:

Qualtrough, Kent Hehr and Kirsty Duncan were appointed sports minister between 2015 and 2018.

There wasn't a designated sports minister from November 2019 until St-Onge's appointment, during which time responsibility for sport fell under Canadian Heritage minister Steven Guilbeault.

Duncan introduced safe-sport policies during her year in the sports portfolio.

St-Onge came under pressure to do a lot more amid a flood of athlete complaints and reports of maltreatment and abuse after Beijing's 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

Revelations that Hockey Canada settled a lawsuit with a woman who alleged she was raped by members of the national junior men's team at a 2018 gala — and that Hockey Canada used a portion of minor hockey registration fees to settle it — sparked national outrage and intensified