About 

IMPORTANT PROGRAM UPDATE:

The Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner (OSIC) was responsible to administer the Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Maltreatment in Sport (UCCMS) from June 20, 2022 to July 31, 2025. 

By order of the Minister responsible for sport in December 2023, the OSIC is no longer operating. The information available on this website therefore only applies to complaints/reports that were previously investigated under the authority of the OSIC.

For all other matters at the national level, please consult this link to access the new Canadian Safe Sport Program.

How it began

The Abuse-Free-Sport’s first initiatives were funded by the Government of Canada in 2018-2019, when the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada (SDRCC) resolved to help and guide the sport community in addressing maltreatment in sport.

In September 2018, the SDRCC announced the creation of an Investigation Unit, a group of qualified investigators made available to sport organizations in Canada needing their professional expertise and services. Members of the Investigation Unit operated under a set of pre-established guidelines and agreed to provide their services at an affordable hourly service rate to national sport organizations. Less than four years later, the SDRCC Investigation Unit served as the foundation for what became the Investigation Unit of the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner in 2022.

In March 2019, a second initiative launched with financial support of the Government of Canada was the Canadian Sport Helpline, operating 12h/day and 7 days/week, as a bilingual listening and referral service for Canadians at all levels of sport. It was later rebranded the Abuse-Free Sport Helpline, but closed its operations on March 31, 2025, due to loss of federal funding. It had operated during 2,211 consecutive days without any breakage of service, and even on statutory holidays, because sport does not have office hours.

Between 2020 and 2021, the SDRCC also collaborated closely with the Government of Canada to set standards for mandatory safe sport education and to set standards for independence criteria for safe sport complaint service providers retained by federally-funded sport organizations.

What it still offers

Abuse-Free Sport is an independent program that is part of a growing national movement to prevent all forms of harassment, discrimination and abuse in Canadian sport.

Despite the discontinuation of its helpline and of the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner  (OSIC), including some of the support services to individuals involved in OSIC’s complaint management process, Abuse-Free Sport pursues its efforts through the SDRCC Resource Centre to prevent maltreatment at all levels of sport across Canada through education, training, research and other programming.

Prevention and education resources offered on this website will be moved to the SDRCC Resource Centre’s webpages to continue to be available to all sport participants and sport leaders in Canada, no matter what the level of their involvement.

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