Vancouver Whitecaps whistleblower Ciara McCormack pushes for inquiry into sports abuse

Whistleblower and former Vancouver Whitecap Ciara McCormack was overcome with emotion while speaking before a Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage in Ottawa Monday.

McCormack, who was the first to go public with abuse allegations against coach Bob Birarda, was among the athletes calling for a national inquiry into the abuse of Canadian athletes.

“Online as I have watched these government hearings and seen countless athletes bravely retraumatize themselves, telling their horrific stories, I can’t help but ask myself, how many more stories will it take for those of you in government to demand a national inquiry and implement real change?” she asked.

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 went on to describe how her reports and those of others resulted in no action, forcing her to take matters into her own hands. In February 2019, McCormack published a blog post that detailed the allegations against Birarda, prompting others to also go public, adding she saw “no other options.”

Birarda pleaded guilty in February 2022 to three counts of sexual assault and one count of sexual touching involving four female players between 1988 and 2008. He was sentenced later that year to 16 months in jail, followed by four months of house arrest, and then be under a curfew for four months, along with three years of probation.

“Today Birarda sits in jail convicted of sex crimes against four former teenaged players over a 20-year period. The last victim was from 2008, the year that the Vancouver Whitecaps and Canada Soccer covered up publicly his departure as a ‘mutual parting of ways,'” McCormack said, choking back tears.

“Yet the worst of the ordeal was not Birarda’s abuse, rather it was realizing that for the decade we tried to report Birarda, the silencing we faced wasn’t born out of a dysfunctional system but rather was done with a willful precision. A system where to play sports in Canada meant and means doing so with a deliberate lack of protection from abuse, as well as a threat of retaliation speaking out about it.”

McCormack went on to talk about players who stood up against abuse who faced consequences, in some case being ousted from national sports.

“I bet you believe the heroes in Canadian soccer from the last three decades were those scoring goals and winning medals. But I’m here to tell you that the players who deserved your admiration are the ones you’ve never heard of. The ones who took a brave stand against abusive coaches … and administrators with no protection and lost everything,” McCormack continued, breaking down during her testimony.

“Their voices and their treatment matter equally, if not more, to those who stayed silent and played on, and their stories deserve to be told through a national inquiry.”

McCormack says cover-ups are taking place at every level, asking, “what will it take for a national inquiry to finally commence or will a silent complicity by our Canadian government continue?”

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• ‘Not a shred of doubt:’ Whitecaps abuse whistleblower relieved as former coach pleads guilty to sex crimes

• Former Whitecaps women’s players demand further action amid abuse investigation

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Following testimonies Monday, Minister of Sport Pascale St-Onge told reporters she is committed to a response but added she wants to determine how such an investigation would be organized.

“My goal is to have an environment that sport participants can testify and share their experiences and their recommendations,” the minister said.

In addition to McCormack, the committee also heard from several other athletes, including soccer player Andrea Neil, Olympic boxer Myriam Da Silva Rondeau, fencer Emily Mason, and Rachael Denhollander, an attorney and former gymnast who was a whistleblower against Larry Nassar with USA Gymnastics.

-With files from The Canadian Press