Question Period Note: Gender Equity and Transgender inclusion in Sport

Canadian women and girls continue to face barriers to full participation and representation in the Canadian sport system. As our government seeks to address the disparities for women and girls, we are also striving for a compassionate and inclusive approach to trans-identifying athletes that preserves fairness and safety for all.

• Our government is committed to fostering an environment where girls and women can safely and fairly engage in sport at all ages and all levels.
• Sport Canada’s Gender Equity, Inclusion, and Innovation team is dedicated to delivering the Gender Equity Strategy and supporting initiatives aimed at attracting and retaining girls and women in sport.
• Sport Canada’s mission is to enhance opportunities for all Canadians to participate and excel in sport. This includes a compassionate and inclusive approach to trans-identifying athletes that ensures fairness and safety for all.

Gender Equity
• Women and girls typically report more barriers to sport and participate at lower rates than men and boys.
• Sport Canada’s Gender Equity, Inclusion, and Innovation team has been tasked with developing, implementing, and monitoring a Gender Equity Strategy aimed at attracting and retaining women and girls in sport, at all levels, including as athletes, coaches, officials, and leaders.
• On September 27, 2017, the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage tabled a report with recommendations for the Government of Canada in six areas: 1) overview of the legal and policy framework of Sport Canada; 2) sport participation of women and girls in Canada; 3) issues relating to female coaches and referees; 4) women as leaders in sport; 5) the media and women in sport; and 6) sexual harassment and transgender inclusion in sport.
• Through Budget 2018, the Government set a target to achieve gender equality in sport at every level by 2035 and provided an initial $30 million over three years to support data and research, and innovative practices to promote women’s and girls’ participation in sport.
• Following a two-year review by the Federal-Provincial/Territorial Women and Girls in Sport Work Group, at the 2019 Conference in Red Deer, Alberta, Ministers endorsed recommendations and the vision for all women and girls to be equitably represented, recognized, and served across all aspects of Canadian sport.
• The 2020 Rally Report from Canadian Women & Sport shows that sport participation rates for girls decline steadily from childhood, with as many as 1 in 3 dropping out in adolescence and 62% of girls not playing sport at all.
• The 2021 Sport Canada Gender Equity Funding Impact Assessment prepared by Openly found that over 17,500 athletes, coaches, officials, volunteers, leaders and staff were engaged in initiatives supported through Budget 2018, which with sustained attention will increase the number of women in coaching, officiating, and leadership positions; participation of girls and women; and improve availability of research and data for decision making.
• Annual federal-provincial/territorial data reported in 2021 and 2022 suggests that the response to COVID-19 has affected the priority and progress of women and girls in sport in at least seven jurisdictions, with the majority reporting that the pandemic had a disproportionate impact on sport participation for women and girls.
• In 2021, Canadian Women & Sport and E-Alliance found that one in four girls – 350,000 girls nationally – who actively played sport pre-COVID-19 reported that they were not committed to returning to sport.
• According to the Canadian Women & Sport Women in Sport Leadership 2022 Snapshot, among national sport organizations, multisport service organizations, and Canadian Sport Institutes, women represent 47% of CEOs, 49% of direct reports to the CEO, and 41% of board members. There are also three non-binary board members.
Inclusion of trans-identifying athletes in sport
• In sport, inclusion is achieved by protecting spaces for physiologically disadvantaged populations to participate fairly and safely (e.g., age, weight, sex, disability categories). The female category offers equal opportunities for girls and women to participate and excel by excluding male advantage.
• The trans inclusion debate focuses on women’s elite categories where there are safety and fairness concerns with transwomen, who are generally physiologically stronger. However, transmen are both subject to anti-doping regulations in the female category and biological disadvantage in the men’s category. Transmen typically delay hormone therapy until after their sport careers and remain in the female category where they can be competitive and safe. They are accepted without controversy as they do not pose a threat to fairness or safety (e.g., Canadian National Women’s Soccer Team player Quinn).
• Peer-reviewed science demonstrates significant male advantage in sport, amplified through and after puberty, and that testosterone suppression in transwomen does not mitigate the legacy effects of male puberty.
• The International Olympic Committee announced on November 16, 2021 that International Federations must do their own research and develop their own sport-specific policies. The World Rugby Union and most recently the Fédération internationale de natation (FINA) held extensive and transparent consultations and evidence reviews, both determining that high performance sport must be sex-segregated to ensure fairness and safety for female participants. FINA has indicated it will explore a third open-gender category as a potential solution. Aquatics Canada voted in favour of the FINA policy, which received 71% of the vote from 152 FINA members. World Athletics and other sport federations have indicated they are working towards their own policies.
• Australia and the United Kingdom have sport exemptions in their Equality Acts that may be called upon, if necessary, to ensure fair or safe competition. Sex and gender identity are both protected in the Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA). The CHRA does not apply to International Federations or National Sport Organizations (NSOs). At this time, there is no basis for considering whether the provision of funding by Sport Canada to Aquatics Canada, or any NSO supporting a similar gender policy, engages CHRA concerns.
• The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) developed guidance for Canadian sport organizations in 2016, supporting full inclusion of transwomen into the female category based on self-identification. Sport Canada has not endorsed this policy and adoption by sport organizations is not a condition of funding.
• Sport Canada does not have an official policy on transgender inclusion. NSOs seeking guidance are encouraged to find innovative, evidence-based solutions that afford dignity, respect and compassion to trans-identifying athletes, while preserving fairness and safety for female athletes.
• Sport Canada is monitoring the issue closely and contracting research to address gaps in evidence.
• Public opinion research demonstrates that a majority of Canadians believe that sport organizations should find new ways to include transgender identifying athletes in sport that preserve fairness and physical safety for all.

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