Report on hazing in sports shows disconnect between policy and reality

A new study finds there's a disconnect between how hazing on sports teams in Canada is perceived and the realities of toxic culture.

The Coaches Association of Ontario, with support from Hydro One, commissioned the survey by Leger and released the findings on Thursday. The CAO had five speakers address the report at a conference at Toronto Metropolitan University before hosting a series of workshops..

A thousand coaches across the province representing more than 80 sports were surveyed.

One of its most alarming findings was 86 per cent of coaches agree hazing in sports is a serious issue, but only 40 per cent of respondents had a clear set of standards on acceptable behaviour or will intervene when hazing occurs.

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Why hazing remains an issue in Ontario sports

"People will often say to me about hazing specifically 'what? that's still happening?' and I will say back, 'Well, who stopped it?"' said Allison Forsyth, founder of Generation Safe and a former Canadian Olympic Alpine skier. "We get stuck thinking that when we put in place a hazing policy, that suddenly the behaviour is going to miraculously disappear, but we don't educate and have respect for where that behaviour was coming from in the first place.

The survey also found six in 10 coaches personally experienced hazing when they were athletes but four of 10 respondents were aware of hazing on their teams.

Forsyth, who was one of the five speakers at the CAO's conference, said that dynamic was common where coaches, parents, or volunteers will tell themselves or the athletes that a particular ritual isn't so bad because what they experienced when they were athletes was worse.

"Hazing is a spectrum from pranks all