In 1994, Rachel Corbett wrote a handbook on Harassment in Sport that was distributed to NSOs and other amateur sport organizations around the country. As part of our 20th anniversary of service to the Canadian amateur sport industry, we thought it might be interesting to post the handbook and ask Rachel about the evolutionary changes [...]
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International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) Paves the Way in Creating a More Inclusive Sport Environment
By Rachel Corbett. I am in Ottawa this weekend participating in the centennial celebrations of the Canadian PGA, and I had the opportunity to have lunch with my friend and colleague Moira Lassen, who is an international official with the sport of weightlifting and a member of the IWF’s Technical Committee. Moira had just returned [...]
OFSAA Eligibility Policy Discriminatory? Or Just a Poor Fit With Organization’s Mandate
by Hilary Findlay. Direct discrimination on well-known prohibited grounds is typically easily discerned. For example, it is well-known, if not always accepted, that girls may try out for boys’ teams – whether or not there is a girls’ team available to them. Discrimination on other prohibited grounds has not been as well discussed or clarified, [...]
The Transgendered Athlete – A New Resource
Conversations about gender identity and transgender athletes are definitely going mainstream these days. Just recently there have been two high profile stories: the first openly transgender athlete competing in the NCAA, and the change to the constitution of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) to remove a requirement that members be “female at birth”. Personally, [...]
Sport Organizations and the New Occupational Health and Safety Act
On June 15th 2010, an amendment to the Occupational Health and Safety Act was signed into Ontario law which focuses on workplace harassment and violence. The new changes are important for all workplaces, including sport organizations. It is also notable that the vast majority of National Sport Organizations are incorporated under Ontario law, and have [...]
Girls Playing on Boys’ Teams
Girls wanting to play on boys’ teams…. This human rights issue has cropped up again, several times in fact, in the past short while. This timely column is about what the law actually says about girls trying out for boys’ teams and addresses some of the issues that are often raised around the issue – [...]
Case Comment – Sagen v. VANOC Appeal (2009)
Bruce Kidd (sport historian, Dean of the Faculty of Physical Education & Health at the University of Toronto and a former Olympian) describes the ski jumping feats of the Wurtle twins of Montreal back in the 1930′s [1]. Seventy-seven years later, women will not be part of the ski jumping competition at the 2010 Canadian [...]
Case Law Comment – Sagen v. VANOC (2009)
On July 10, 2009, the 15 women ski jumpers (the Skiers) suing the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) lost their bid for inclusion in the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver/Whistler. Madame Justice Fenlon, of the BC Supreme Court, did however find that the omission of female ski jumpers is discriminatory but that control over which [...]
