Two 14-year-old athletes have been excluded from Gymnastics Quebec activities for an indefinite period, while an investigation determines whether the teenagers sexually abused a young teammate aged only 11, harassed and intimidated him.
Posted at 5:45 a.m.
The allegations are set out in a case heard last summer in Superior Court. I’m warning you, it’s shocking. The two young people are accused in particular of having:
- placed the child on his stomach, buried his face in a pit, held his ankles and wrists to immobilize him before pushing his fingers into his anus over his clothing, despite his requests to stop;
- put the child under a rug, then jumped on him;
- encouraged another child to put a stick coated in honey in the victim’s buttocks while she was training on the high bar;
- lifted the child by the arms, leaned against him and shook him on the lockers in the locker room so that his feet were no longer touching the ground, which would have caused him bruises and injuries to his back.
Stories of abuse perpetrated by children against other children in sport are rarely aired publicly. This is because most of them are managed confidentially by the Complaints Officer. It’s what ? A government body that investigates complaints of abuse and harassment in sport. If the Officer considers the complaint admissible, he submits it to the Integrity Protection Committee (IPC), which investigates and suggests sanctions. The decisions of the CPI are also confidential.
So why did this story make it into the public space?
Because the parents of the two 14-year-olds appeared before the Superior Court to challenge the decision of the Complaints Officer.
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Basically, the Complaints Officer is an excellent idea. Since its creation in 2020, federations no longer have to investigate their own members — with all the conflicts of interest you can imagine. However, in this story, his competence was seriously tested.
What happened?
On June 3, 2024, the Officer received a complaint from the mother of the 11-year-old child*. The next day, the organization contacted her for more details. It seemed serious. In the following hours, in accordance with the law, the Officer reported the allegations of sexual abuse to the Directorate of Youth Protection.
This all happened quickly, in less than two days. On June 5, the Officer announced to the parents of the two gymnasts that their sons would be excluded “immediately” from their gymnastics club, their sports-study program and from all Gymnastics Québec activities “for an indefinite period.” . One of the children was then competing outside of his region. The club summoned his parents to come pick him up in the middle of the night.
At that time, the parents had no idea of the charges against their sons. It stayed like that for 12 days. For what ? Because the Complaints Officer is required to respect the “Integrity Protection Policy”, which provides that a complaint of sexual misconduct must not be communicated to the alleged perpetrator of the abuse.
On June 17, the Officer finally sent them a summary of the complaint. Hearings before the ICC were scheduled for mid-July. Except that between the two dates, an official complaint against their sons was filed with the police. The CPI therefore had to cancel the hearings, because according to its policy, it cannot work in parallel with an investigation by the DPJ or the police.
Consequence: a month after their expulsion, the two gymnasts remained suspended, without ever being able to present their version of the facts.
That’s when their parents decided to go to court. They argued that if their children “had had the opportunity to present their observations, the Complaints Officer would have quickly understood that the alleged acts are only childishness or teasing in bad taste, that normal boys of that age have the habit of doing without any malice or intention to hurt.”
I notice that the “teasing” of a “normal boy” has evolved for the worse since I was 3e secondary, but hey, that’s not the question.
The parents requested that the exclusion be lifted until the conclusion of the ICC investigation. Their sons, they alleged, were not given a fair hearing. The court confirmed that there were “serious issues to be raised in the judicial review”.
The two banned gymnasts are also “high-level athletes”, and the fact of being deprived of their training at the club constituted “irreparable harm”, argued the parents.
The judge recognized that the two teenagers could suffer “serious harm” and that their exclusion from the club would “delay their progress”. On the other hand, she clarified that this was not irreparable harm.
“We are not in the presence of athletes who are deprived of a means of subsistence, or who are deprived of the enjoyment of a right provided for by the Charter. We are in the presence of athletes who are at the high school level and who perform well in their discipline. »
Ultimately, the court sided with the Complaints Officer and upheld the suspension. He considered that the reinstatement of the 14-year-old gymnasts would have been “a situation which endangers the health, safety and well-being of the 11-year-old child, but also that of the other members as well as the confidence of these last towards the Federation”.
I contacted Gymnastics Québec to find out the latest details of the story. “An independent and impartial investigation is currently underway,” general director Josée Gélinas told me. She did not specify whether this was an investigation by the police, the DPJ or the CPI. “To ensure the rigor and integrity of this process, the details surrounding this investigation must remain strictly confidential. »
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I have written in the past, the Complaints Officer and the ICC are imperfect. A decision was so confusing that it penalized the victim more than her attacker.
Read the column “A decision that misses the target”
These criticisms and disputes are normal. After all, the Complaints Officer is not yet five years old. It remains a work in progress. Moreover, the government will replace it by next June with the Protector of Integrity in Leisure and Sport, which will have more scope and teeth. This is a good time to question certain methods raised in this case, in particular the fact of adding justifications to its decisions in retrospect.
But overall, we can be pleased that the Officer passed this judicial test. A defeat would have undermined this institution which has become essential for Quebec sport.
*A publication ban prevents us from releasing any identifying details of the children, their gymnastics club and their high school.
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