Sheehan has competed twice in the world trampoline championships.

She and Kim Shore, who has appeared before the Status of Women committee and also appeared on Monday, are co-founders of Gymnasts For Change Canada.

Sheehan said a national team therapist groped him when he was a teenager.

“He put his hands in my tracksuit and underwear and groped my genitals twice,” Sheehan said.

When he notified a coach and a complaint was filed in 2019, Sheehan said Gymnastics Canada told him the matter was no longer under his jurisdiction because the therapist was no longer an employee.

The Canadian Center for Sports Ethics ordered GymCan to launch an investigation.

Sheehan knows of four other people who have disclosed their experiences with therapists.

“This guy has never been sanctioned by GymCan,” said Sheehan.

After recounting his abuse and grief at the Canadian Gymnastics surrender in a social media post in 2021, Sheehan said conversations with the organization’s welfare officer Gretchen Kerr made him feel suicidal.

“He claims I’ve never filed a formal complaint so I have no reason to be upset, and if I’m careful with what I post, there will be an outcome that will both please him and me,” Sheehan said.

“The organization that my family and I have entrusted for my physical and mental well-being for two decades, can’t even do anything to investigate my case except coerce it and then try to silence me.”

Kerr, a University of Toronto professor specializing in sports abuse, appeared at a Legacy committee hearing last week.

Sheehan criticized Kerr’s position that Canada does not need a judicial or national investigation into sports abuse.

“Now with the opportunity to support a national inquiry, Gretchen Kerr is against – a researcher who doesn’t want anyone else to take a closer look at corruption in sport,” Sheehan said.

Kerr did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Monday, but she told lawmakers last week that the judicial inquiry would waste valuable time on making sport safer.

“We will lose time and money and we will lose progress,” Kerr said. “We have all the information we need to move forward.”

Shore strongly disapproved of Monday.

“Opposition to a national inquiry needs to be scrutinized in depth,” Shore told the assembled lawmakers.

“Willful blindness, power imbalances and undeclared conflicts of interest need to be exposed and resolved. Adults must stop choosing to protect their heritage over children.”

Others questioned Monday by lawmakers included Paralympic basketball player and AthletesCAN board member Bo Hedges and Western University assistant professor MacIntosh Ross, who represents Scholars Against Abuse in Sport Canada.

“We cannot move forward with preventing future abuse unless all stakeholders in the sports system are educated about what it really means and the obligations that everyone needs to have to prevent this form of behavior,” Hedges said.

Athletes, coaches, high-performance directors, technical and medical support staff, chief executive officers and board members all need to be better informed and trained in safe sport, he said.

“We can’t just rely on it being achieved through e-learning and resources people can quickly check their listings with the click of a button,” he explained.

“Compliance needs to be ensured in all of these initiatives with checks to ensure NSOs are held accountable. We can no longer rely on the honor system in sport to ensure these actions are taken by all involved.”

More than 100 members of Scholars Against Abuse in Canadian Sport want a nationwide investigation, said Ross, who appealed to Prime Minister Trudeau for it.

“Sports administrators are not equipped to drive the meaningful sustainable change this system requires,” Ross said. “The current abuse crisis and that of Canadian sport cannot be resolved by existing mechanisms. This is a human rights issue in sport.

“Both I and the Prime Minister are boxers. I wish Mr Trudeau was in the corner of the Canadian people. Throw in the towel at this exercise system and save himself. It’s not an act of surrender. This is not an act of judgment on those involved. It is an act of love, love for athletes, coaches and officials who need you more than ever. Throw in the towel.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on March 27, 2023.

Donna Spencer, Canadian Press