Summary
Page 2 of 14
In the fall of 2002, the Commissioner of Official Languages conducted a follow-up on to a study published in June 2000, titled Official Languages in the Canadian Sports System, in which we had looked at allegations that French-speaking athletes could not develop to their full potential within existing sports programs. The purpose of the follow-up was to determine the extent to which Sport Canada had implemented the recommendations we had put forward in this study.
Our follow-up showed that Sport Canada has implemented three out of the fifteen recommendations and has partially implemented nine others. Three recommendations were not acted on. Furthermore, one recommendation directed to Treasury Board Secretariat was partially implemented.
As part of this follow-up, investigators met with over fifty individuals involved in the development of athletes and the training of coaches, at both Sport Canada and the organizations which it funds. Since our study was published in June 2000, we have noted that Sport Canada has taken a number of measures to make linguistic duality part of the Canadian sport system. During that time, Sport Canada published the Canadian Sport Policy and set standards with respect to official languages for high performance training centres. It also surveyed national sports organizations (NSOs) to determine the extent to which their services were available in both official languages. In spite of the progress achieved, however, English and French still do not have equal status in Canadian sport. In many cases, our recommendations were not implemented within the timeframe we had set out.
Among the improvements we noted, Sport Canada ensures that clearer provisions regarding the delivery of services in both official languages are included in the multipartite agreements for major games held in Canada that it signs with its partners. Some NSOs are making significant efforts to make their Web sites bilingual, translate documents, and improve the bilingual capacity of their staff. In 2002, Sport Canada and the Official Languages Support Programs Branch of Canadian Heritage provided $100,000 in additional funding for NSOs to have technical documents used for coaching translated.
Progress has been slow, however, and a consistent approach has been lacking with respect to the implementation of the recommendations. For example, Sport Canada has not fully implemented the recommendations that apply to it directly, such as those pertaining to language requirements for positions in the Branch.
The bilingual capacity of NSOs does not yet meet expectations with regard to services provided by national offices and language training for coaches. This has repercussions on the overall development of French-speaking athletes, many of whom are still being coached by unilingual coaches as part of national teams. At the two national sports centres that we visited, many services are provided to national teams in English only, notably medical services. Carded athletes whose language of preference is French and who were already underrepresented in sports overall in 2000 as compared to their numbers in the Canadian population, fare even worse today, as they make up only 17.3% of the total number of athletes. A new recommendation has also been made to Sport Canada with a view to examining this situation.
In short, this follow-up allowed us to take stock of the progress made. Clearly, however, Sport Canada and its partners must expend much greater effort in order to make linguistic duality an integral part of the sport system in Canada. We stand by the recommendations that were partially implemented and those that were not implemented, and we will continue to follow progress in this regard during the months and years ahead.
