A new national public registry, overseen by Sport Integrity Canada, is being populated with the names of individuals barred from participating in Canadian sport, a move intended to safeguard athletes, coaches and volunteers from hidden threats.
Gymnastics Canada has taken the lead by contributing the names of twenty‑two people who have been sanctioned, and other national bodies such as Badminton Canada, Archery Canada and Cycling Canada have followed suit, with Badminton Canada’s chief executive Bryan Merrett confirming the inclusion of referee Ian Lagden on the list.
A transparency gap persists
Hockey Canada, however, continues to operate a confidential internal record of banned persons and has refused to feed that information into the public system, insisting that it would only do so if shielded from potential defamation lawsuits, a stance that has set it apart from the majority of its peers.
The divergence has drawn public scrutiny, with Janice Forsyth, a prominent sport‑policy analyst, condemning Hockey Canada’s secretive approach as contrary to the public interest, while Secretary of State for Sport Adam van Koeverden has publicly urged all national sport organizations to cooperate with the registry.
Legal commentator Marcus Mazzucco has argued that the exposure of Hockey Canada’s list carries minimal legal risk, and Conservative MP John Nater has floated the idea of tying future funding to an organization’s willingness to share its sanctions data.
As of the latest count, the registry now encompasses forty‑three names drawn from a spectrum of sports, underscoring both the growing consensus around transparency and the lingering resistance of a few key bodies.