The woman who blew the whistle on abuse within the Vancouver Whitecaps and Canada women’s soccer programs says the creation of a federal registry of people banned from amateur sport only amounts to a band-aid solution.
Ciara McCormack says the government has also failed to properly consult those directly affected by abuse on the plan.
“They didn’t really include the whistleblowers and survivors, per se, in the conversation, which I think is important, obviously, because I feel like we’ve been at the heart of the issue,” she told CityNews.
“I think, just on a logical level, to solve a problem, it’s really important to include people in the discussion that have been in the trenches of the situation.”
McCormack, who was the first to go public with abuse allegations against former coach Bob Birarda, was among the athletes who spoke before a Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage in Ottawa last month, pushing for a national inquiry into the abuse of Canadian athletes.
Part of my statement in front of the Canadian government’s Heritage Committee today.
Anything less than a national inquiry at this stage is complicity in the now known rampant abuse of Canadian athletes. pic.twitter.com/y59lhxYohJ
— Ciara McCormack (@ciaramccormack) April 24, 2023
She spoke about her own experiences, including the claims against Birarda, and noted how her reports and those of others resulted in no action, forcing her to take matters into her own hands.
On Thursday, the federal government...
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