Progress Report: October 2024-March 2025

Message from Jeremy Luke, CEO

The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) is pleased to share an update on our activities and achievements from October 2024 through to the end of March 2025. The last year has been extremely eventful for the CCES. In February, we announced that we were taking on an expanded mandate that is focused on three primary integrity issues and associated programs: anti-doping, safe sport, and competition manipulation.

Following a review of our organizational strategy and structure, we are in the process of finalizing a new strategic plan that will guide our first three years as Canada's sport integrity authority. The plan has a clear focus on safe, clean, and fair sport, and describes our strategic priorities, outcomes, and objectives, and how we will achieve them. While the exercise has been ongoing, we’ve continued to move forward with new and existing initiatives that are highlighted in the report.

As Canada’s national anti-doping agency, the CCES has engaged in every phase of the 2027 World Anti-Doping Code and International Standards Update Process, providing feedback to the World Anti-Doping Agency on behalf of our national sport community.

After a year of intensive preparation, the Canadian Safe Sport Program (CSSP) launched on April 1, 2025. Administered by the CCES, the CSSP is the new place to report concerns of maltreatment involving participants who are part of national, federally funded sport organizations.

In the area of competition manipulation, we supported the Council of Europe’s preparations for the final conference of the Addressing Competitions’ Manipulation Together project, where we also delivered a presentation about the Canadian competition manipulation context and our initiatives.

You’ll find more in-depth reports about the CCES’s work in our priority areas in this Progress Report. If you ever have suggestions on how we can improve our work or bring additional value to our initiatives, please connect with us.

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Anti-Doping

Doping undermines the fundamental spirit of sport and severely damages the integrity, image, and value of sport.

The CCES’s anti-doping programs continue to offer world-class services both in Canada and for international sport. We implement a World Anti-Doping Code-compliant system for all federally funded sport organizations that protects athletes from the risks associated with doping and reinforces the integrity of sport. We’re also trusted by international sport federations and other national anti-doping organizations alike to help them reach their anti-doping goals.

The Canadian Anti-Doping Program

In the role of Canada’s national anti-doping organization, the CCES implements and administers the Canadian Anti-Doping Program (CADP) on behalf of the Canadian sport community. It's designed to prevent, deter, and detect doping and serves to protect the integrity of sport and the rights of clean athletes. We engage with the sport community to ensure they have the resources necessary to support and promote clean sport.

• The CADP has been adopted by 74 sport organizations and 15 organizations without members have signed on to the CADP covenant.
• Four sport organizations that fund their own CADP adoption renewed their adoptions: Canada Powerlifting, Cheer Canada, Dragon Boat Canada, and Orienteering Canada.
• Ultimate Canada also became a fully self-funded CADP adoptee, showing a strong commitment to anti-doping prior to the World Games in China.
• We completed annual meetings with 99% of CADP adoptees to discuss all elements of the program and its implementation.
• We prepared for the biennial doping control officer (DCO) conference that was held in Ottawa in early May 2025. The conference includes training and re-certification for all active DCOs, which is a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) requirement. Training and education are also offered for Clean Sport Educators at the conference.
• Three new doping control officers were hired and trained, adding to the existing workforce of 68 DCOs.

Anti-Doping Rule Violations

From October 2024 to March 2025, anti-doping rule violations and sanctions were announced for seven athletes, a large portion of which were for anabolic agents. Several athletes were sanctioned for multiple substances.

Substances and other violations announced for anti-doping rule violations, October 2024 to March 2025

Athlete Services

The Athlete Services team provides athletes and support personnel with the tools and resources to navigate the use of medications and medical exemptions. This function ensures that athletes can be confident in their medication choices and those who require prohibited medications can do so without fear of an anti-doping rule violation.

TUE applications received from October 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025:

• 96 received
• 47 granted

Global DRO provides athletes and support personnel with information about the prohibited status of specific medications based on the current WADA Prohibited List. The CCES is one of four partners that manages the site.

Global DRO Searches, October 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025: 

• From Canada: 81,460
• Global: 791, 849

World Anti-Doping Code and International Standards

WADA is in the process of developing the 2027 World Anti-Doping Code (the Code) and International Standards. Since their first release in 2004, these foundational documents have evolved based on experience and stakeholder consultation. WADA leads the drafting process and manages the timelines for all Code updates and the CCES leads the process of providing feedback to WADA on behalf of the national sport community throughout the consultation phases. During the second consultation phase that closed in October 2024, the CCES solicited feedback from stakeholders and offered three webinars to review the changes in the second draft and ask questions.

International Collaboration

Anti-doping is a global effort that relies on extensive collaboration and information sharing. The CCES engaged in several opportunities to learn from other organizations and share knowledge.

• Delivered a presentation at the 4th Caribbean Forum to discuss the partnership between the CCES and the Caribbean Regional Anti-Doping Organization (RADO). This capacity-building project, coordinated by WADA, is a collaboration between the CCES and the Caribbean RADO to deliver five training sessions.
• Presented at the WADA Annual Symposium on the topic of contamination in anti-doping. After several recent high-profile contamination cases, there was great interest from the community and the session was at full capacity.
• Presented at the iNADO Annual Workshop on the topic of Gender, Anti-Doping, and Beyond to give an overview of considerations and impacts of sample collection procedures for trans and gender-diverse athletes.

Fee-For-Service Testing

Testing at international events held in Canada included:

• IIHF World Junior Ice Hockey Championships
• ISU Short Track Speed Skating'
• ISU Speed Skating
• FIL Luge
• World Rugby 7’s (HSBC SVNS) 

Safe Sport

Everyone has the right to train and compete in safe, respectful, and supportive environments. We believe Canada’s sport system should prioritize the safety and well-being of everyone involved.

The Canadian Safe Sport Program (CSSP) was launched on April 1, 2025 and provides a new place to report concerns of maltreatment involving participants who are part of national, federally funded sport organizations. Administered by the CCES, the program provides a safe, timely, reliable, and procedurally fair environment for anyone involved in a report of maltreatment.

CSSP Rules Development

The launch of the program followed 11 months of consultation, drafting, and review to finalize the program and its structure, the CSSP Rules, and updates to the Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Maltreatment in Sport (UCCMS).  

The CSSP Rules, a crucial component to our program, were developed following several rounds of consultation with external experts and researchers across sport, law, trauma-informed, regulatory, disability, human rights, gender equality, sexual violence, intersectionality, and social and racial justice practices. 

Before March 31, 2025, the CCES held individual onboarding meetings with all 90 federally funded national sport organizations, national multisport organizations, and Canadian Sport Institutes that adopted the CSSP and are implementing the requirements.  

In the lead up to April 1, the CCES shared five CSSP updates to keep them informed about program areas such as reporting, participant requirements, and case management. We also provided adoptees with a communications toolkit to support onboarding the new program and built out a new section of our website, including the report form, support services, and FAQs.

A team of 15 full-time CCES staff was formed to support the program across four departments: Intake and Assessments, Investigations, Support Services, and Program Policy and Quality. Together, the leadership within these areas has a combined 75 years of experience working in maltreatment with families, victims, and survivors, using trauma-informed processes, and managing various reporting mechanisms. Additionally, the team has over 40 years off combined experience working in sport integrity issues.

Our team is now accepting and managing reports that are submitted online and by phone. Everyone connecting with the team will be treated with respect, dignity, and compassion. The CSSP follows a trauma–informed practice as a foundation for all correspondence and interactions with those who interact with it. We also developed a system for support services and established a partnership with the Canadian Centre for Mental Health and Sport (CCMHS) to provide independent mental health services. In addition, firms were retained to manage investigations that result from reports. 

A mandatory e-learning course was developed for all participants to inform them about the CSSP Rules, the UCCMS, and their role in safe sport, and an untracked version is provided for participants in designated national-level events. Now that the program is live, we are focused on connecting with individuals involved in the reporting process and meeting the timelines at every stage, as outlined in the CSSP Rules.

Learn more about all elements of the Canadian Safe Sport Program.

Competition Manipulation

Competition manipulation is a major threat to the integrity of sport on a global scale and without measures in place to manage sport betting and corruption, it will continue to grow. 

The CCES leads the creation and implementation of a national program to address competition manipulation. The program fulfills the requirement of article 7 of the Council of Europe’s Macolin Convention, is fully consistent with the Olympic Movement Code on the Prevention of the Manipulation of Competitions (IOC Code), and ensures Canadians have an understanding and awareness of the issue in Canadian sport. 

Domestic Progress

Following a final round of consultation with interested parties, and in close collaboration with the Canadian Olympic Committee, the Canadian Program to Prevent Competition Manipulation (CPPCM) is in its penultimate draft. The CCES is working towards making the CPPCM available for adoption and implementation by sport organizations. 

International Engagement 

The CCES assisted the Council of Europe with preparations for the final conference of the Addressing Competitions’ Manipulation Together (ACT) project, held April 2-3 in Gatineau, Quebec. At the event, Jeremy Luke, CCES CEO, delivered a presentation about the Canadian competition manipulation context and our initiatives aimed at addressing the issue, engaging interested parties in discussion about the Macolin Convention and roadmap for ratification and implementation in Canada. 

We continue to participate as an observer to the Group of Copenhagen, an international working group on competition monitoring, and participate in multiple working groups, including the GROUND working group that assesses education and awareness-raising strategies.

About the CCES 

The CCES is an independent, national, not-for-profit organization that works to protect the integrity of sport and manage unethical issues in Canadian sport. Through the administration of its programs, including the Canadian Anti-Doping Program and the Canadian Safe Sport Program, the CCES strives to ensure sport is fair, safe, accessible, and inclusive for all Canadians. 

Mission: To work collaboratively to address unethical behaviours and promote a values-based approach to sport to ensure positive sport experiences for all. 

Vision: Sport is safe, inclusive, fair, clean, and accessible. 

The CCES acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada through Sport Canada and the Department of Canadian Heritage.