EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
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In the fall of 1999, the Commissioner of Official Languages undertook a study of English and French in the Canadian sport system, in response to allegations that French-speaking athletes could not develop to their full potential within existing programs.
We examined the linguistic and administrative resources this country invests in high performance sport and the results obtained from that investment. During the winter of 1999-2000, our investigators met more than one hundred people with responsibility for various elements of athlete development, coach education, athlete services, and government funding programs. We also conducted a survey of athletes who receive direct financial assistance from the federal government.
We found that the sport system has made progress on a number of linguistic issues during the last decade, but that English and French are far from having equal status in Canadian sport. Sport Canada articulates clear expectations of the organizations it funds, and some sport organizations, such as Speed Skating Canada and the Canadian Figure Skating Association, are models of bilingualism. The athletes themselves show a depth of respect and intercultural understanding that underlines the contribution sport can make to national unity. However, the proportion of French-speakers among high performance athletes is well below their presence in the population, and they are concentrated in a few sports.
We believe that Canada’s national sport teams should be reflective of the whole population of this country, a philosophy which sport organizations endorse but have not been able to put into practice. More important, we believe that talented athletes should have the opportunity to compete on an equal basis, without a linguistic handicap for either official language group.
Earlier studies and media reports tend to focus on the selection process for national teams as an impediment to Francophone athletes. We found that the selection process is, on the whole, fair and transparent, and athletes of both official languages are equally satisfied with it. French-speaking athletes encounter problems long before they are eligible to compete in the final selection for national teams: in the difficult transition from provincial elite athlete to national team member, which may be complicated by conflicts between provincial and national sport organizations; and in their dealings with national sport organizations, which often cannot provide services or communicate in French. National sport organizations (NSOs) are primarily responsible for coaching at all levels of their sport, and in too many cases both the organization and the coaches cannot communicate in French.
We cannot over-stress the importance of coaching that is adapted to the athletes’ needs as a precondition for equal access to the sport system. We observed a system in which athletes must adapt to the linguistic shortcomings of the system and of their coaches. In order to succeed at the highest levels of most sports, Francophone athletes must normally master the English language as well as their sport. Aside from the obvious linguistic inequality, this reversal of priorities has the potential to deprive our national teams of talented athletes.
We also found that the sport system as a whole does not have adequate administrative structures to manage its programs in both official languages. Most national sport organizations lack clear and unequivocal policies on official languages and do not have adequate administrative support to deliver programs in both official languages, including timely translation services. At two of the national sport centres we visited, services are provided to national teams in English only. The federal government has given sport organizations a mixed message, by simultaneously cutting their funding and withdrawing from involvement in their day-today administration, while requiring them to meet certain standards regarding official languages.
The government is now increasing its funding to sport organizations and has recently announced initiatives to improve coaching services to national teams. It should ensure that some coaches on each national team can communicate in both our national languages and that sport organizations that call themselves national can do so as well.
The recommendations in this report are addressed to Sport Canada, not because the federal government has the sole responsibility to ensure that the sport system can function in both languages, but because it alone is subject to the Official Languages Act and therefore under the authority of the Commissioner. The federal government, through Sport Canada, should take an energetic leadership role in making sport organizations more responsive to athletes of both official languages, but all the organizations involved will need to do their share in order to fully meet this objective. The recommendations in this report constitute a strategic plan for change, one that we will follow during the months and years ahead. Sport Canada has already achieved significant progress in official languages since the last report on this subject 10 years ago. We are confident that Sport Canada and its partners will meet the challenge of developing a sport system which fully reflects Canada’s linguistic duality.
