Ian Moss out as Gymnastics Canada CEO after athletes name for his resignation

OTTAWA — Ian Moss is out as chief government officer of Gymnastics Canada, a transfer that comes amid requires management change on the embattled sports activities group.

The governing physique mentioned in a launch that it’s shifting ahead with “substantive adjustments in management” after months of requires Moss’s resignation from Gymnasts for Change Canada, an advocacy group made up of a whole bunch of former and present gymnasts.

The gymnasts wrote an open letter to Sport Canada final March calling for a federal investigation into the tradition of abuse of their sport.

“Now we have heard loud and clear the cultural and behavioural wrongdoings which have harm people and our sport. We acknowledge and respect the ripple impact of those wrongdoings and we’re shifting forward — right now,” interim board chair Bernard Petiot mentioned within the launch.

Gymnastics Canada’s transfer comes after the Jan. 27 launch of a 277-page report by McLaren International Sport Options following an impartial evaluation into “the tsunami of unfavourable criticism and egregious allegations of abuse which have been levelled on the governance of gymnastics in Canada.”

The report discovered the “lack of built-in nationwide requirements and management to be the Achilles heel of Canada’s gymnastics’ ecosystem,” and beneficial steps towards accountability and selling athlete well-being.

Three days after the report was launched, Moss appeared at a Standing Committee on the Standing of Girls listening to on security of ladies in sport and was questioned by MPs about allegations that he knew of complaints of misconduct from athletes in opposition to coaches Alex Bard and Scott McFarlane, however allowed them to proceed working.

Moss mentioned McFarlane’s was a legal case that GymCan had no involvement with. He argued his arms have been tied with Bard.

“There have been a number of allegations (in opposition to Bard),” Moss mentioned on the listening to. “That’s the purpose. Now we have to do due diligence when it comes to info to easy as that.”

Bard was named in 2018 to Canada’s teaching workers for the 2020 Olympics regardless of allegations of maltreatment. Moss mentioned the formal code of conduct criticism led to his termination in 2019, though GymCan’s press launch mentioned Bard was resigning for “private causes.”

McFarlane, in the meantime, was acquitted on all sexual assault-related expenses in November of 2022 related to his time teaching at a Mississauga, Ont., fitness center. He was charged in 2018 for alleged involvement with a 15-year-old gymnast.

He initially confronted expenses of sexual assault, little one luring of an individual beneath 16, sexual interference of an individual beneath 16, making sexually specific materials out there to an individual beneath 16, and indecent publicity to an individual beneath 16.

“Now we have a lot work to do,” Petiot mentioned. “New management positions and renewed governance are necessary steps in shifting ahead. The McLaren Report has given us a framework for change and an elevated dedication to accountability, transparency, and excellence in Secure Sport.”

Gymnastics Canada mentioned it should work with Moss on making certain a “easy transition” towards bringing on a brand new CEO.

The group can be on the lookout for a brand new chair for its board of administrators after Jeff Thomson resigned earlier this month and was changed by vice-chair Petoit on an interim based mostly.

The adjustments in management comply with earlier steps by Gymnastics Canada to deal with its tradition, together with signing an settlement to affix Abuse-Free Sport, the brand new federal program to forestall and deal with maltreatment in sport.

Gymnastics Canada additionally introduced Thursday the addition of Kacey Neely as protected sport director. The group says she will likely be liable for growing its protected sport framework and can work with golf equipment and exterior companions on a nationwide security technique.

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