Ottawa, June 11, 2003
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Official Languages in the Canadian sport system: more effort required to finally reach the podium
Despite some progress over the past three years, English and French still do not enjoy the same status in the Canadian sport system. That is the principal conclusion of the Commissioner of Official Languages, Dr. Dyane Adam, in a report published today. The report follows up on Sport Canada's implementation of a series of recommendations issued by the Commissioner in 2000, as part of a study on official languages in the Canadian sport system.
The Commissioner's recommendations formed a strategic plan to eliminate the barriers to the participation of Francophones in high performance sports. Dr. Adam concluded today that Sport Canada has fully implemented only three of the fifteen recommendations. Nine other recommendations have been partially implemented and three recommendations are still on the drawing board. "With a result like this, Sport Canada is still a long way from reaching the podium. Despite its good intentions, its performance has been less than stellar," stated the Commissioner.
"I recognize that Sport Canada, along with its partners in the sport system, has made considerable efforts, but it has been very slow in implementing the recommendations and in meeting the deadlines set three years ago. Sport Canada is still working on its choreography while it should be on the ice at this point fine-tuning its performance. This slowness and the lack of a consistent approach in addressing the issues have a direct impact on our athletes who are forced to adapt to the linguistic shortcomings of the sport system," stated Dr. Adam.
High performance athletes whose preferred language is French were already under-represented in 2000 (18%) in all sports disciplines in proportion to the representation of both official language groups in the country. Data collected this year show that their representation is somewhat lower today (17.3%). As this continues to be of concern to the Commissioner, she has issued a new recommendation:
That by June 30, 2004, Sport Canada produce an independent study on Francophone participation in all sports and identify the conditions conducive to equal access to high performance sports for both official language groups. The study should also examine the impact that the location of high performance training centres may have on this participation.
Dr. Adam believes that while this report shows that progress has been made, Sport Canada, like our high-performance athletes, must set the highest possible standards for itself and assume greater leadership on this issue. "Sport Canada must help the Canadian sport system to find a second wind in order to reach the finish line as soon as possible," she said. The Commissioner is counting on the full cooperation of the Secretary of State for Amateur Sport who is committed to stepping up efforts. Dr. Adam will continue to monitor developments in this matter very closely over the coming months.
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IMPLEMENTATION OF RECOMMENDATIONS (2000)
OFFICIAL LANGUAGES IN THE CANADIAN SPORT SYSTEM
The recommendations made in 2000 by the Commissioner of Official Languages fell into three major categories:
- implementing administrative measures to ensure that national sport organizations and national sport centres are able to provide an adequate level of service in both official languages;
- improving the bilingual capacity of national team coaches; and
- improving Sport Canada's program management.
Among the positive results she found in her follow-up, the Commissioner noted that:
- The new Canadian Sport Policy of May 2002 states that linguistic duality is one of the essential features of the sports system and that all persons, regardless of language or culture, should be able to participate in this system;
- Sport Canada has developed clear official language standards for high performance training centres;
- Sport Canada has strengthened measures to integrate English and French into the staging of major games;
- Sport Canada has conducted a survey of national sport organizations to examine the extent to which their services are available in both official languages;
- Canadian Heritage is making considerable efforts to ensure the translation of technical manuals for the education of coaches;
- Some national sport organizations are making considerable efforts to make their Internet sites bilingual, to translate documents and to improve the language skills of their staff.
Among the shortcomings that still have to be addressed, the Commissioner noted that:
- Sport Canada has not fully implemented all the recommendations directly concerning it, especially those relating to language requirements for its branch positions;
- Overall, the bilingual capacity of many national sport organizations still fails to live up to expectations, and a number of them are unable to provide quality services in both official languages;
- A number of French-speaking athletes are still being trained by English-speaking unilingual coaches on national teams. This situation affects the overall development of Francophone athletes;
- Not all national sport organizations have developed a complete and satisfactory policy statement on the availability of services in both official languages;
- Two national sport centres that were visited still provide most of their services to national teams in English only, namely medical services (physiotherapists, psychologists and physicians) and support to athletes.
