Sport Yukon held a discussion on sport as part of the Hope on the Horizon tour last Friday evening at The Old Fire Hall in Whitehorse.

The panel discussion was facilitated by Dina Bell-Laroche, a partner with the Sport Law & Strategy Group.

Panelists included another Sport Law partner, Steve Indig, Polarettes Executive Director & Head Coach Kimberly Jones, True Sport Project Coordinator Melissa Sullivan with the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, Teslin’s Gord Reid, President of the Board of Directors of the Yukon Aboriginal Sport Circle and Sport Yukon Executive Director Tracey Bilsky.

Yukon was stop number six on their tour. They are scheduled to go to Nunavut in two weeks and finish in New Brunswick.

Manitoba and Saskatchewan are planned stops in 2024, along with at least one other event in Ontario, and there could be more.

Bell-Laroche described how she recruited her business partner Indig to come on the Hope on the Horizon tour. She related how she said to Indig “I can’t influence change at the national level. It is too complex right now. But what we can do is go where sport matters. Where people and communities, provincial and territorial leaders are actually making sport happen in communities.”

Bell-Laroche expanded on why they are doing the tour.

“I think we need realistic hope, because the next generation, they need us to be stewards of sport and that is going to call on all of our energies and convictions to make sport better.

“The current structure right now is dying … the sector needs a great reimagining.”

Each panelist spoke about why they were there.

Bilsky said, “If your family is active and they’re in sport, then your children are active in sport and then their children are active, and it continues.

“Sport to me is about community and relationships.”

Jones said, “I joined sport because I loved it. My dad was a judo coach and a rugby coach, so sport was a very high priority in our family and he shared that passion with me.”

Jones described how she ended up in Whitehorse in charge of the Polarettes Gymnastic Club. She met Catherine O’Donovan, the former head coach of the Polarettes.

“Everything she spoke about was back to what I did gymnastics for: a love of sport. The joy of sport. And I ended up in Yukon because I knew I wanted a change.”

Jones said her method is based on value-based leadership.

Another important element of sport, Jones said, is fun.

“Sport has brought me so much joy.”

Indig, a lawyer with Sport Law, said that most of the problems in sport don’t come from the kids.

He was there to speak last Saturday about hot legal topics in sport.

“Trying to get to that proactive work so the kids can have fun and we can stop arguing as adults.”

Bell-Laroche added an acronym: PBB (People Behaving Badly).

Sullivan spoke next, saying that sport “connects us. We’re all here tonight talking about sport.

“There is so much promise in sport but we have to make it accessible for everyone to really benefit from the promise that sport can have.”

Reid spoke last and began by introducing himself in his Klingit language, as is the protocol of his people. Reid immediately captured the attention of the room.

“Sports benefits our youth.”

Reid listed the holistic value of sport as mental, physical, spiritual and emotional.

“We also look at it in terms of inclusion. Participating in sports is associated with lower rates of anxiety and depression, something facing all of our communities, especially First Nation communities. Lowers the amount of stress and helps people to build their self-esteem and confidence.”

Reid pointed out that sport has a positive effect on suicide rates and curbing substance abuse as well.

He said sport also teaches leadership and athletic development to help people have positive choices that don’t lead them down the path of risky behaviour and any crime connected to that behaviour.

Reid also asked the question, “When is sport culture and when is culture sport?”

He went on to describe how Arctic sports had practical applications for Northern people.

“By building that strength, you’re building the capacity to be able to sustain yourself. We use it as an event right now, but it’s based on things that we did a long time ago.”

The assembled sports personalities were then asked to describe sports at its best.

Indig told a story about his son’s previously unbeaten basketball team losing their first game by 40 points. He asked his son what he thought of the game, thinking this would be a great teaching point for the boy. His son’s response? “I had fun.” Indig said at that point, the conversation was over. “That’s what sport’s about.”

Jones said success in sport was defined by “people working together. Positive culture” and “how much laughter and chatter was going on in our space.”

Bell-Laroche pointed out that sport organizations have to make sure their financial health is in order, and winning medals is important, but, “Maybe we should measure morals, the vibe of the culture.”

Reid noted that barriers exist to all playing sports, and they need to find ways to reduce those barriers.

“As a result, our communities get stronger and healthier.”

Bilsky said collaboration between sports bodies also defined success. She went on to state how many organizations have expressed interest in using the old Polarette facilities once their new ones are built and how those organizations were willing to work with each other to make that happen.

“I think that when sport is at it’s best, we’re not competing against each other. We’re finding our commonalities.”

A discussion on the challenges faced by Yukon sports organizations followed. Those challenges included burnout, volunteer coaches who may have minimal training, finding professional coaches willing to come to the Yukon and stay, and dwindling interest in sport volunteering in younger generations due in part to economic pressures. In other words, leaving a sport legacy for future generations.

Belligerent, bullying parents were also mentioned as a huge threat to volunteer participation.

Reid pointed out a problem with volunteers coming to the outlying communities, running a program, then leaving.

“So it’s that question of building capacity, and how do we do that?”

Reid said building resources and partnerships were solutions to the challenges.

He mentioned a spirit of cooperation that exists at Arctic sports that doesn’t exist in “contemporary competitions.

“Fellow competitors or other coaches coming to a person during a competition, helping them to be the best that they can be.”

One coach described the contrast between Whitehorse and the communities.

“When I coach in Whitehorse, people show up, they leave their kids, they head off,” whereas in the communities “all the parents showed up with the kids and stayed. And then we had a big dinner. And everybody invited me around. And everybody was nice and they were stoked to be there.”

Another coach mentioned the difficulty of setting up events in the communities.

A sport coordinator said they have a different approach: getting the communities to run their own programs and helping them obtain the resources to run them.

“Instead of going out and trying to get programs going, it’s like, ‘No, they have great people out there.’ Everyone, when they’re new to something, they feel very out of water, they don’t feel confident, so what I’m trying is to get the wonderful volunteers out there confident and passionate about the sport so that they can grow that program and I don’t have to completely take it on myself and burn myself out.”

Reid suggested it would be good to have the communities’ sport organizers attend the meeting as well.

Someone else in the crowd who’d lived in the communities said it is very difficult to free up time to come to meetings like these.

Bell-Laroche pointed out that the new “Rule of Two”, which says an athlete cannot be alone with one coach or parents (that athlete has to be accompanied by two responsible adults) is not realistic for northern sports organizations that have shortages of volunteers, especially when travel expenses for extra volunteers are taken into account.

Bell-Laroche then asked the panelists to state what they are most hopeful for regarding Yukon sports.

Sullivan said she wanted to focus on building relationships with Sport Yukon and other sport organizations.

“That’s how positive work happens in collaboration.”

Indig said, “My wish for the weekend is to have all of you recognize that you’re not alone … to be able to share ideas and answers and also to let you know there are people, like this panel, who may have an answer for you.”

Jones said they need positive diverse, female and male role models for the youth.

“I hope that these conversations and the workshop tomorrow can help make sure that the next generation of youth wants to be involved in sport.

“I’m not sure it’s true that the next generation doesn’t want to be involved or they don’t want to volunteer. I think there’s just some hesitation and we need to think about how we’re showcasing this and engaging them.” Reid mentioned a friend who medaled in kayaking in 1984, Alwyn Morris, a Mohawk.

“He is shown in a role model poster holding up an eagle feather at the Los Angeles Olympics with a quote, ‘If you have it in you to dream, you have it in you to succeed.’ To me, he continues to be a role model.”

Bilsky said she hoped that they would share and learn from each other, but leave there with some energy and inspiration.

“We can express our frustrations but find some small solutions, some small steps forward.

“We can teach the responsibilities of new regulations, where we’re at risk, but also some visions of hope on how to move forward with some answers.”

Bell-Laroche added, “We want to go in with our eyes wide open, but also our hearts wide open. The kind of challenges that we’re grappling with, it’s not just in sport … we want to be able to thrive because of the system, not in spite of it.

“We also want to understand your lived reality, how we can make those small incremental adjustments.”

See related story on p. 37.