Report on hazing in sports shows disconnect between policy and reality

TORONTO — A new study finds there's a disconnect between how hazing on sports teams in Canada is perceived and the realities of toxic culture.

The Coaches Association of Ontario, with support from Hydro One, commissioned the survey by Leger and released the findings on Thursday. The CAO had five speakers address the report at a conference at Toronto Metropolitan University before hosting a series of workshops.

A thousand coaches across the province representing more than 80 sports were surveyed.

One of its most alarming findings was that 86 per cent of coaches agree that hazing in sports is a serious issue, but only 40 per cent of respondents had a clear set of standards on acceptable behaviour or will intervene when hazing occurs.

"People will often say to me about hazing specifically 'what? that's still happening?' and I will say back, 'well, who stopped it?'" said Allison Forsyth, founder of Generation Safe and a former Canadian Olympic Alpine skier. "We get stuck thinking that when we put in place a hazing policy, that suddenly the behaviour is going to miraculously disappear, but we don't educate and have respect for where that behaviour was coming from in the first place.

"I think that's what really stuck out to me, right off the bat, was the lack of understanding."

The survey also found that six in 10 coaches personally experienced hazing when they were athletes but four of 10 respondents were aware of hazing on their teams.

Forsyth, who was one of the five speakers at the CAO's conference, said that dynamic was common where coaches, parents, or volunteers will tell themselves or the athletes that a particular ritual isn't so bad because what they experienced when they were athletes was worse.

"Hazing is a spectrum from pranks all the way to criminal activity and what we need to do is not decide, as human beings with our own bias and experience, 'well, that's not bad,' because we're always going to do what's reflective of our own experiences," she said. "What we have to do is remove the conditions where really egregious things can occur."

The Coaching Association of Ontario has laid out eight core values for sports organizations to carry forward in the province: fun; skill development and learning; performance and results; fair play and ethics; safe sport and respect; athlete health, both mental and physical; participation and inclusion; as well as connection and community building.

Leger's survey, however, found another disconnect over those values.

Eighty-three per cent of coaches agreed that creating a positive sport culture is essential, yet 40 per cent did not know what values make up that culture. One in 10 coaches said that core values like fair play and athletes' health are not important to their coaching.

The survey also found that there was a wide range of definitions of what is and isn't hazing.

"What can we do from a CAO standpoint is continue to talk about what hazing is, pushing our resources that help coaches explain, define, and understand what actually comprises hazing," said Jeremy Cross, CAO's executive director. "As we dove deeper into those questions, it does appear to be unclear to coaches what really is hazing and what really isn't hazing.

"Team-building is really important so how can we give you solutions to do that but are different than maybe some of the activities that are currently happening?"

There was some hope in the report.

Until the CAO's survey was completed there was a general lack of research around the topic of hazing. Cross said the report's findings fill in some blanks, not just in Ontario but across Canada and in other countries.

"This report is building off of work that we want to do to advocate for coaches and it shows we need more support to reach more coaches, to do more things," said Cross.

"Part of having data like this, especially, gives us content and statistics to be able to say (to partners and sponsors like Hydro One) 'hey, here, look at this.' We've been asking for this for a long time. We want to do this good work. We need your support."

Forsyth said the report also shows tangible proof of ongoing issues around hazing.

"I think coaches answered honestly," said Forsyth. "A lot of times, if you think about it, people answering a survey are going to want to try to impress people.

"I think we got a lot of honest responses from coaches and I think that the positivity out of the report is that we have proof there's an issue. Now let's solve it."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 28, 2024.

John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press