5. Population of Carded Athletes According to Prefered Language
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A starting point for our 1999 study was the under-representation of French-language carded athletes. At that time, 18% of carded athletes stated that their preferred language was French, a figure lower than the 24.6% of the population that reported French as their first official language in the 1996 Census. Today, 17.3% state a preference for French, a difference of nearly 7% with respect to the figure of the 2001 Census in which 24.1% of all Canadians said French was their first official language.
The efforts to follow up on our recommendations have not rectified this imbalance up until now and Sport Canada must once again focus on this issue to determine its causes. While certain sports have traditionally held a greater attraction for one language group or the other, we do not believe that such an attraction alone explains the imbalance or total absence of French speakers in certain sports. We realize that the participation rate of Francophones may vary from year to year and that it is not the sole indicator for assessing the “health” of the official languages in the high performance sport system. However, the persisting difference continues to give cause for concern.
In certain sports, there are few carded athletes in absolute numbers and any minor fluctuation up or down can substantially modify percentages. However, this is not the casewith sports that draw large numbers of athletes. For example, currently there are only four (5.3%) Francophones in track and field out of a total 72 athletes, while there were 7 (11.3%) in 1999 out of a total 62. Furthermore, despite soccer’s popularity in Quebec, participation of Francophone men and women is less than 13%. There are only 40 carded athletes in sailing, 5 of them Francophones (12.5%). In rowing, one athlete out of 68 is Fancophone.
There is no question that carded athletes should be selected on the basis of merit and objective criteria. But we believe that Sport Canada should commission an independent study on Francophone participation in all sports and determine what conditions are for ensuring equal access by both official language groups. In the course of this study, the group should emphasize the manner in which the location of high performance training centres might affect such representation. The study could be conducted by members of the academic or sport communities that have already conducted research on sports in Canada.
Consequently, the Commissioner is formulating a new recommendation that:
- by October 31, 2003, in co-operation with the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, Sport Canada undertake an independent study on Francophone participation in sports overall and determine what conditions are conducive for ensuring equal access by both official languages groups to high performance sports.
- conduct the study and produce a report by June 30, 2004.
