Safe Sport Funding Activities and Funding provided to Hockey Canada since 2019-2020

Hiring of a safety sport officer to fulfill the objectives of:

• Delivery of mandatory training on harassment and abuse to athletes, coaches, officials, athlete support personnel, employees, contractual workers, administrators and volunteers, or other individuals affiliated with the organization
• Develop or adjust internal policies to create a workplace and environment free from harassment, abuse or discrimination and ensure communication/availability of relevant policies
• Ensure and promote access for members to an independent third party framework to address allegations of harassment, abuse, and discrimination
• Advance work in the areas of concussion Awareness (e.g. messaging and dissemination); Prevention (e.g. policy development, changes to rules of the games/training methods and behaviours); Detection/Management (e.g. measures and protocols to recognize and treat concussions); and, Surveillance (e.g. development of tools to track incidences of concussions). Ensure alignment on these areas with Provincial/Territorial Sport Organizations.

Director of Sport Safety Position

Reporting to General Counsel, the Director of Sport Safety will provide leadership and expertise in safeguarding best practices, and risk management considerations in the hockey ecosystem through leading and engaging the development of quality sport safety strategies that ensure organizational compliance to its safe sport policies, protocols and relevant legislation. The Director will respond to the needs of Members in the identification and delivery of safe sport training, policies and processes, to foster a safe environment within which participants, athletes, coaches, and all those involved have positive hockey experiences. The Safe Sport officer will: Develop, lead, and manage the successful implementation of an all-encompassing Safe Sport strategy Responsible for relationship management with Hockey Canada Members and within the Canadian Sport System to ensure proactive identification of best practices and ensure required compliance.

Develop policies and resources related to Safe Sport practices.

Develop, monitor and execute annual action plans and critical paths for the Safe Sport strategy and ensure ongoing adherence to deadlines and key deliverables.

Build on and develop robust education and training programs to support the Safe Sport Strategy which can be deployed at all levels and roles in hockey including; the implementation of knowledge transfer strategies to Members, establishing metrics/assessment of the effectiveness of educational initiatives and audits that support national reporting.

Develop, monitor and execute compliance requirements linked to mitigating risk to the organization as it relates to safe sport; criminal record/VSS checks, safety checklists, and monitoring mandatory training.

Host Training Session for Members specific to Hockey Canada Rule Book - Section 11 - Maltreatment and the Safe Sport Initiative

In a special meeting of the Members held on June 22, 2021, Hockey Canada and its 13 Members unanimously approved the adoption of "Section 11 – Maltreatment" in the Hockey Canada Rulebook starting in the 2021-2022 season, which includes bringing all forms of maltreatment under one section of the rulebook and providing guidelines for escalating penalties based on the severity of the inappropriate behaviour from players and team officials. This initiative will support the implementation of this rule by offering training/awareness sessions to the Members. Hockey Canada also continues to grow the Safe Sport Initiative in the organization including cascading the information to the Provincial Members. In February of 2022 a policy template was sent to the Members to allow them to review their existing polices and determine ways to improve policies specific to Safe Sport and the Universal Code of Conduct.

Hockey Canada Safety Program Update

The Hockey Canada Safety Program is an on-line safety education program created by Hockey Canada that contains modules around concussions including prevention, identification and responsible removal and return to play. As a side note it also contains a module on the prevention of bullying, harassment and abuse. The full program including the concussion module need review and updating to ensure the information is accurate. This includes assembling a workgroup of experts in various areas including concussions. A portion of the funding will also go towards the identified changes being written into the current platform by the e-learning company.