Ciara McCormack, Myriam Da Silva Rondeau among individuals testifying for Status of Women study

CTV National News: Preventing abuse in sports Canada’s minister of sport Pascale St-Onge announces new regulations to prevent abuse and maltreatment in sports. Heather Butts reports.

OTTAWA — Soccer player Ciara McCormack and boxer Myriam Da Silva Rondeau will have the floor today in Ottawa.

McCormack and Da Silva Rondeau are among the women testifying before members of Parliament today as the Standing Committee Status of Women continues its hearings on the safety of women and girls in sport.

McCormack is a former Vancouver Whitecaps player and the whisteblower against Bob Birarda, a former Whitecaps and Soccer Canada coach.

Birarda was recently sentenced to two years less a day for violating the "sexual integrity" of four players, three of whom were under 18 at the time of the offences, which occurred between 1988 and 2008.

Da Silva Rondeau, a member of Canada's Olympic team in Tokyo, was one of the dozens of boxers who wrote an open letter to Sport Canada several months ago calling for the resignation of high performance director Daniel Trepanier. He stepped down four days later.

The status of women study comes after an outcry from hundreds of athletes in several sports such as gymnastics and bobsled and skeleton about the toxic environments in their national federations.

Testimony began last week, with the prominent theme being the need for a national judicial inquiry into sport.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 1, 2022.