Sport Canada discontinuing survey on inclusion after complaints of discrimination toward transgender athletes

Sport Canada says it will discontinue a commissioned survey on inclusion in sport after receiving a letter signed by over 200 members of academic and sport communities saying it was discriminatory toward transgender athletes.

Canadian soccer stars Quinn and Erin McLeod were among those who signed the letter asking Sport Canada to withdraw financial support for the survey.

Athlete Ally, an organization advocating for equal opportunity in sport regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, said in a release that the "Canadian High Performance Athletes 1" survey uses language that discriminates against transgender athletes.

An outreach email obtained by The Canadian Press says the survey is part of research commissioned and funded by Sport Canada that is investigating the views of high-performance female athletes regarding the inclusion of trans athletes in female categories.

"Sport Canada has heard the concerns and met with the partners who raised them to discuss how we can move forward," they said in a statement to The Canadian Press.

Among the alleged problematic language in the survey was the phrase "biological males" in reference to trans athletes, which Athlete Ally says "demeans and devalues trans women's identities and humanity, and ignores scientific research demonstrating that the athletic capabilities of transgender women are not comparable to those of cisgender men."

The survey was being conducted by researcher Catherine Devine, who carried out a survey of 15 female British Olympians in 2019 in response to the International Olympic Committee's guidelines for transgender athletes.

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A June 2019 article by British