Rowing Canada Aviron (RCA) is committed to being a leader in Safe Sport initiatives and practices in Canada. Part of that pledge includes ensuring the harmonized Safe Sport policy package that was rolled out in 2021 will continuously evolve in response to feedback and changing societal and legal influences. There is an ongoing commitment that the policies, and related safe sport initiatives, will continue to serve the needs of the rowing community in Canada.
 
RCA’s Pan-Canadian Safe Sport Policy Working Group has been working over the past year to compile and implement the feedback provided by the rowing community in the survey completed in the fall of 2023.
 
The main area of focus was working on the policy manuals for the national, provincial, and community level organizations that comprise Rowing Canada Aviron’s membership (with the exception of member organizations located in Quebec), and we are pleased to share a draft of that updated manual to rowing community leaders for your ongoing feedback.
 
Some of the major changes you will see resulting from what we heard from rowers during the 2023 survey includes:

• Protection Policy – we have changed the name to better reflect that our efforts are to protect coaches, umpires, volunteers, athletes and the sport of rowing, not only athletes
• Screening Policy – significant changes to this policy to increase understanding with clarity related to terminology, renewals
• Simplified appeal process with removal of Request for Reconsideration, which had not been utilized
   

Additionally, please note that there is some new terminology at the national level and more that will be changing again before the final version of the policy manual is released. The changes in terminology will not impact the implementation of any policies, simply new names through changes as required by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport.
 
We want to recognize that many things have not changed in the manual.  The policies contain legal language written to protect everyone involved in rowing and provide clear direction in the case of a situation arising. The language choices and details of processes is there to support organization leaders. Each legal entity requires their own complete policies and Rowing Canada Aviron, with your Provincial Rowing Associations, are here to support your organization.
 
As part of the review, to better account for all perspectives on the safe sport policies and to ensure we produce the best possible policy manual, we are asking the leadership of each rowing organization, outside of Quebec, to review the attached package, and as an organization, provide feedback.
 

We are presenting the proposed changes in the following attached documents:

• A chart outlining, by policy, the key changes – view HERE
• Full proposed policy manual – view HERE
• Full proposed policy manual that shows the tracking of the proposed changes – download HERE 

Please use the following form to provide feedback. Please click HERE to download the English form, or click HERE to download the French.
 
If you have questions about the documents or require any of the linked documents in French, please reach out to Lisa Roddie at  lroddie@rowingcanada.org.

Please return your feedback form to the Working Group c/o Lisa Roddie at lroddie@rowingcanada.org before the end of day on Tuesday April 15th, 2025. If your organization wishes to comment and requires additional time, please let Lisa know prior to April 15^th.