The community sport sector in Ottawa has pulled together to continue to support each other this year, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

The #MeToo movement and recent media attention on abuse in sport has highlighted the need for all sporting organizations to pay attention to creating a safe space for their players. There have been many instances over the past few years of coaches acting inappropriately with athletes, causing them feel uncomfortable playing their sport and reflecting badly on the sporting organization. These incidents have happened at the national, provincial and local level of sport. At the local level, often community sport organizations have not received information on how to deal with safe sport issues which can cause serious harm to their athletes and other staff members.

With the government shut down in March, all recreational facilities were closed and both amateur and professional sporting events were cancelled. According to an analysis done for ESPN by Patrick Rishe of Washington University, the NBA, NHL, Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer together have lost more than $5 billion due to COVID-19. For the first time in history the Olympics were postponed until 2021 (and there are valid questions whether that is going to happen).

Today, the Ottawa Sport Council is launching a community-wide return to play roadmap aimed at inspiring confidence, reassuring families and supporting Ottawa’s active return to sport. The Ottawa Return to Play Roadmap establishes a community-wide resource that will be continually updated to reflect how Ottawa-area sport is impacted by the easing of COVID-19 restrictions.

The final step in the implementation of Rowan’s Law will come into effect on July 1, 2020.