CANADA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Janie Soublière, Soublière Sport Law
Introduction The Canadian sport law sector continues to pro - vide diverse opportunities for legal practitioners of varying expertise and specialties, be it by assisting local, amateur or professional sports teams and regional or national sports associa - tions; by drafting rules and contracts, oversee - ing day-to-day legal matters and representing athletes and coaching staff at all levels; by negotiating contracts related to anything from employment and sponsorship to image rights and broadcasting rights; by assisting sporting venue and event organisation with risk man - agement and all the legal intricacies related to event planning; or by advocating or adjudicating sport dispute resolution of all kinds, be it before the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada (SDRCC), civil or criminal courts and any profes - sional league or club arbitration and grievance processes. Amateur Sport – General Trends Under the Canadian Constitution, the respon - sibility for amateur sport is shared between the federal government and each province and ter - ritory’s government. With regards to amateur sport, at the core of sport law in Canada are the various sports’ national sporting organisations, which run their sport in accordance with the rules of the relevant international federation. Inevitably, regulations need to be drafted, including team selection and athlete funding criteria, competition rules, eligibility criteria, anti-doping rules, safeguarding policies, disciplinary rules, anti-corruption and prevention of match manipulation codes of con - duct, etc. Legal experts must undertake such regulatory drafting, as well as argue any disputes that can arise out of the same.
The Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Commit - tees govern all sports in their respective olym - pic programmes and similarly will require a wide range of regulations to be drafted, implemented and overseen. This will also include sponsorship and marketing, privacy and IP rights, eligibility and classification among others. Sport organisations in Canada are generally defined as any organisation that is: • the governing body for a specific sport or dis - cipline at the national level or for its associa - tion of members in any provincial, territorial or regional jurisdiction, as recognised from time to time by Sport Canada or the SDRCC; • a multisport service organisation at the national level or in any provincial, territorial or regional jurisdiction in Canada, as recognised from time to time by Sport Canada or the SDRCC; or • a Canadian Sport Institute or Centre receiving funding from Sport Canada. Canadian Arbitration and Dispute Resolution in Amateur Sport Disputes necessarily arise during the administra - tion of national level sport in Canada. While some sporting disputes inevitably still get resolved through civil courts, and sometimes criminal proceedings, the SDRCC established pursu - ant to Subsection 9(1) of the Federal Physical Activity and Sport Act (Bill C-12 and assented to on 19 March 2003), is responsible for provid - ing to the Canadian sport community a national alternative dispute resolution service for sport disputes. To this end, the SDRCC establishes and maintains a list of arbitrators who possess recognised competence regarding sport and alternative dispute resolution procedures and have the requisite experience in conducting such matters.
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