What is Safe Sport?
Safe Sport provides a framework to ensure that everyone in the sport of lawn bowls is able to enjoy the sport. Bowlers, coaches, umpires and volunteers have the right to participate in a safe and inclusive environment that is free of abuse, harassment or discrimination.
Bowls Canada’s Commitment to Safe Sport
Bowls Canada places the highest priority on a safe and fun environment for all of its participants and we recognize our fundamental obligation and responsibility to protect the health, safety and physical and mental well-being of every individual that is involved in the Canadian Bowls community.
Bowls Canada Boulingrin takes situations involving misconduct or maltreatment very seriously. For this reason, Bowls Canada Boulingrin is committed to enacting and enforcing strong, clear, and effective policies and processes for preventing and addressing all forms of misconduct or maltreatment.
Bowls Canada Boulingrin’s policies are intended to promote a Safe Sport environment in a manner that allows for consistent, immediate, appropriate and meaningful action should any issues arise. They are also intended to prevent issues from arising in the first place by communicating expected standards of behaviour.
Canadian Safe Sport Program
Bowls Canada Boulingrin has adopted the Canadian Safe Sport Program (CSSP), which is in effect as of April 1, 2025.
Through the CSSP Rules, the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) independently administers the Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Maltreatment in Sport (UCCMS) for federally funded, national-level sport organizations by receiving and responding to reports of prohibited behaviour, and by developing and carrying out education, prevention, and
policy activities.
The CSSP Rules clearly and publicly set out how that will be done, including defined timelines at each stage of the reporting process. The CSSP also offers support services to connect participants with help along the way.
For more information about the CSSP and the UCCMS, click here.
CSSP Participants
Bowls Canada Boulingrin will notify all designated participants who are subject to the CSSP. This includes, but is not limited to, specified athletes, coaches, officials, athlete support personnel, employees, board members, administrators, or volunteers acting on behalf of, or representing BCB in any capacity.
Everyone who is subject to the CSSP must complete the e-learning course and sign the participant consent form.
Bowls Canada Boulingrin will distribute an invitation that includes a link to sign up, instructions, and a code to access the course from the CCES online education portal. If you have questions about your education requirements, email education@cces.ca.
Safe Sport is a collective responsibility. By reporting concerns of maltreatment in sport, you are contributing to building a safer sport environment.
Bowls Canada Boulingrin’s safe sport policy and code of conduct reflect and support the CSSP.
Resources
Bowls Canada has many resources to help clubs and provincial organizations implement safe sport. To understand why your organization might want to implement safe sport, check out this short, five minute video. Learn more about Bowls Canada’s Safe Sport Policy suite by clicking here.
There are policy templates and other resources available to Bowls Canada affiliated clubs through the Members Only section. Log in to see what is available for your club or contact office@bowlscanada.com to learn more.
Please use this detailed visual to determine the mechanism and procedures you can use to report a complaint.
