I attended the "Emerging and Key Legal Issues in Sports" CPD hosted by the Entertainment, Media, and Communications Law Section on February 13, 2024. There was a multitude of topics discussed by a skilled panel of speakers. The first part of the event was a peek into the journeys of those on the panel into the area of sports law and how they were able to build it into their practice. A few tidbits of information on this topic that stood out to me personally were as follows:
- In the field of sports law, you will wear many hats and there are many avenues in the matrix of sports law.
- You could be conducting arbitrations, negotiating contracts, dealing with labour and employment issues, human rights etc.
A few of the key issues that were focused on were:
1. Safe Sport – addressing abuse, harassment and maltreatment in sport.
How has sports culture changed? There is more awareness to these issues based on a greater amount of training. There is more a more consistent definition of harassment so that these issues can be dealt with sooner.
For instance, the Safe Sport complaint process – an independent third-party process that is set up (see https://athleticsontario.ca/safe-sport-information). On a national level, there is a program called “Abuse Free Sport” (see https://abuse-free-sport.ca/). Their code of conduct can be found here: https://sportintegritycommissioner.ca/files/UCCMS-v6.0-20220531.pdf
The provincial level faces issues that are different from those at the national level as many provincial sports run on volunteers.