LACROSSE CANADA IS SLOWLY FADING AWAY FROM ITS VALUES

 by Pierre Filion   pierrefilion@bell.net

Surely you all remember the Hockey Canada scandal of a few years ago.

Some will remember it because of the spicy details in the recent trial of pro hockey players.

Some will remember it because of the Board of Directors’ total lack of vision, involvement and knowledge.

Some will remember it because of the total control orchestrated by the Executive Director over the Board of Directors.

Some will remember it because people involved in governance were quick to state that clearly Hockey Canada had lost its credibility because it had faded away from the values it professed…or claimed to profess.

I fear Lacrosse Canada is going down that route and is slowly fading away from the values it professes.

Lacrosse Canada values accountability and declares:  ’’We operate with integrity and transparency’’. It also values team work and states: ‘’We achieve more working together in a climate of collaboration and trust’’.

Let’s look at Lacrosse Canada’s accountability towards its paying members and towards the provinces. The track record is horrendous to the point where some may ask if Lacrosse Canada is not simply toying with the provincial associations.

On its website Lacrosse Canada states that it is ‘’committed to transparency and accountability in ALL AREAS OF GOVERNANCE. We provide access to the official minutes from meeting of our Board of Directors, committees and working groups. These documents offer INSIGHT into the discussions, decisions and direction that guide the growth and development of lacrosse in Canada’’.

Since January 1st 2025 NONE OF THIS HAS HAPPENED. There are no minutes available to the members from any and all LC committee. Not one word. Not one report. Not an iota of minutes of any kind.

Other than the Board of Directors who was scheduled to meet 4 times between January 15th and July 16th there are 8 working committees who were altogether scheduled to meet 18 times before August 20th.

One must come to the obvious conclusion that Lacrosse Canada has no interest whatsoever in allowing the members (and the provinces) to have any kind of INSIGHT ‘’into the discussions, decisions and direction that guide the growth and development of lacrosse in Canada’’.

Sure, there are probably many sophistic justifications or bureaucratic reasons to support the absence of minutes on the website but the reality, from the members’ perspective, is that there are no minutes at all, no way for the members (and the provinces) to have an insight into LC’s discussions. There is no way for the members to appreciate the efficiency of its elected members, both at the Board of Directors and at the standing committees.

A democratic association rests on many pillars, but one for sure stands out and it’s the members’ capability of making good decisions based on verified facts and sound circulated information.

Lacrosse Canada is slowly fading away from its professed value of accountability (and transparency). This is not a ‘’oops moment’’; my bad! No, it’s a strategic and voluntary path that Lacrosse Canada is on. No insight for the members. No insight whatsoever for the members who give to Lacrosse Canada, this year, 979,605$ in membership fees.

Let’s not forget that one of the values that motivates Lacrosse Canada is ’’to treat everyone with dignity and fairness’’. Then the question begs to be asked; are the members treated with dignity and fairness or are they voluntary ignored when it comes to insight into the discussions and decisions that guide the growth and development of lacrosse in Canada?

Let’s now look at Lacrosse Canada’s claim about team work. The performance is just about as bad as in terms of accountability and transparency. Huge lack of respect for the provincial associations and the paying members.

Let’s first remember what Lacrosse Canada is saying: ‘’We achieve more working together in a climate of collaboration and trust’’. That is outright very clear. Yet Lacrosse Canada did the exact opposite some days ago when it posted on its website, on July 31st, information pertaining to the search for national commissioners to ‘’oversee’’ SRA SRB JRA and JRB provincial lacrosse leagues across Canada. It also posted a search for National Officials in charge to work in different provinces in Canada. Go to Lacrosse Canada’s website (www.lacrosse.ca)  locate the posts pertaining to the National commissioners for provincial leagues and National Officials in charge in provincial territories.

It is obvious that Lacrosse Canada is stepping directly into provincial jurisdiction. With no shame! And is spending 60,000$ of the members’ money in order to support its invasion. And it is doing it without expressing publicly what is the ‘’major problem’’ generating such an intervention. No data pertaining to the ‘’problem’’ was supplied to anyone to support this surprising ‘’coup’’.

Lacrosse Canada did this without ever consulting the provincial associations, the commissioners of the different SR and JR leagues in Canada and the Referees in charge of lacrosse in each province. Everyone across Canada was ignored!

Nowhere in the 2025-26 budget adopted by the Board of Directors on December 8th 2024 does an expense (60,000$) of this nature appear.  Yet the search for candidates was started on July 31st, one month into the fiscal year which runs from July 1st 2025 to March 31st 2026.

The provincial associations and Lacrosse Canada met in Fredericton for the semi-annual meeting from May 6th to 10th. No one, there, was informed of Lacrosse Canada’s intent to search for National commissioners for the SR and JR provincial leagues along with National Officials in Charge to oversee officiating in each province. The project was not presented to the members, was not discussed by Lacrosse Canada or the members. As if it did not exist. The very brief reporting coming from Lacrosse Canada after the SAGM was the following: ‘’the focus was clear; how we can work together to move the game forward across the country’’. Was the SAGM not a good opportunity to present the project to the provinces and discuss it…Lacrosse Canada chose not to say a word about it.

Lacrosse Canada’s mission statement does not even indicate that LC has any mandate to govern the game in Canada. The mission statement calls for LC to ‘’promote, develop and preserve the game of lacrosse’’. It never mentions ‘’to govern the game of lacrosse’’. Yet Lacrosse Canada decides that it will govern SR and JR provincial leagues in provinces who have mandates to govern the game in their own provinces.

Sadly, this latest coup against the provinces is a clear example that Lacrosse Canada has no real interest in working with the provinces; its intent is to control the provinces and, in some way, decrease their levels of influence into the governing of the game within their own provinces.

Everyone was caught by surprise. Elected league convenors or commissioners, elected by their member teams, will now be supervised by a National non-elected Commissioner who, coming from above, and anointed by the National Association will baby sit the presidents of Canada’s box lacrosse SR and JR leagues. Clearly, a smooth takeover of the land.

Remember…’’we achieve more working together in a climate of collaboration and trust’’.

The ball is now in the Board of Directors’ camp; before it’s too late the Board members need to have a look at themselves, at their value system and at the operations that are carried out in their name. If they remember the Hockey Canada sex-scandal they will remember that the Board members were totally out of touch with the reality of the scandal and with the camouflaged operations which were carried out on their watch. And they all resigned in shame and are nowhere to be seen now!

The provincial associations also have a clear-cut responsibility here before they are totally invaded. Will provincial championships be ‘’supervised’’ by National Commissioners? The Ontario Festival? Provincial elections? Provincial budgets? Associations’ Board minutes? You name it. Anything can come under the umbrella of a need for national norms all over the place!

But remember: ‘’We operate with integrity and transparency;’’

                             ‘’We achieve more working together in a climate of collaboration and trust;’’

                             ‘’We treat everyone with dignity and fairness.’’

Lacrosse Canada is doing the exact opposite of what it claims to do. And that is the first step towards major problems.