THERE IS SOMETHING ROTTEN IN THE STATE OF OSHAWA ! (from Hamlet…obviously)

 Worry not, there is nothing rotten in Denmark but there surely seems to be something dysfunctional in Oshawa at Lacrosse Canada’s headquarters.

Let’s look into it.

A very discrete annual meeting

Lacrosse Canada held its annual meeting on September 27^th and 28^th, a month ago. There was no preliminary information circulated on the website and there has been no report since.

The annual meeting is the most important meeting in the life of an association if it is concerned with governance and proper administration. The annual meeting has four functions:

Receive and adopt the annual report

Receive and adopt the audited statement

Appoint the nomination of external auditors

Elect the Board members.

That’s it. Everyone concerned should come prepared to do just that.

The people who attended the annual meeting were the presidents of the provincial lacrosse associations. There were 11 presidents in attendance (either physically or via ZOOM) who were representing Lacrosse Canada’s 52,782 registered members. Amongst themselves they carried 113 votes. 11 people were called to vote on the efficiency of Lacrosse Canada’s administration!

That’s it; that’s all there is. 11 people carry the future of lacrosse. Lacrosse Canada has a democratic process involving 11 people!!!

Who does this serve, may I ask…!

Huge red flag

At the 2025 annual meeting the members were NOT presented with an audited statement. That is always a huge red flag so often indicating that something fishy or rotten is about to happen or has happened.

There are never any good or valid reasons not to present an audited statement to the members; there are only excuses. Everyone knows the tasks and deadlines related to producing an audited statement. The external auditors are never to be blamed because they only audit what is presented to them. If it is presented to them…

Lacrosse Canada carries the responsibility for this huge failure which always opens the door to speculations and doubts. It also indicates the urgent necessity for the Association to have an elected treasurer who answers to the members and not an administrative assistant who answers to the Executive Director. In the final analysis, in this situation, and rightly so, the Executive Director carries all the blame. It’s his failure. It’s an important failure.

Lacrosse Canada could have minimally presented an ‘’in house’’ non audited statement of revenues and expenses; no member would have been satisfied but at least Lacrosse Canada would have shown some type of transparency and accountability.

It only shared information on a possible deficit ranging between 600,000$ and 900,000$dollars.

Please remain calm but ask yourself how a credible association could possibly declare such a large deficit on a 2.4$ million-dollar budget.

There are two possible explanations: first, National Teams have cost more than expected and the teams’ managements have probably been highly irresponsible; or the addition of staff members could have increased the expenses. Higher higher, hire hire! But how can you increase the number of staff members if you don’t have matching revenues?

Here again the blame rests on the Executive Director who will have a lot of explaining to do when a special meeting of members will receive, finally, the audited statement which eventually will be posted on the Association’s website. Look for it.

This situation is outrageous and I can only remember one of my mentors’ quotes of some months ago: ‘’I do not know whether to be in awe of the tremendous effort that Lacrosse Canada is putting into High Performance or sick with fear that the end result will be an implosion that puts Lacrosse Canada into bankruptcy’’.

Now might just be the time for the members to seriously look into Lacrosse Canada’s finances…

Important mistakes in the democratic process

Provinces attending the annual meeting carry votes according to the number of players registered in different sectors (box, men’s field and women’s field) and in different age groups. The formula has been in existence for years and is well accepted by the members.

Except that this year the formula and the allocation of votes were filled with errors and mistakes; this hurts the Association’s credibility and puts a black cloud on the Association’s ability to ‘operate an organized democratic process’.

If you have an opportunity to have a look at the 2025 Membership Grid Formula, officially produced by Lacrosse Canada, you will see that six (6) provinces were allocated more votes than they deserved while three (3) should have had more votes than those that were allocated to them. This is unreal!!!

Now remember there are eleven (11) associations within Lacrosse Canada; for nine (9) of them Lacrosse Canada produced wrong numbers. Hey 9 of 11 is an important mistake…

Obviously, this significant mistake ‘’invites’’ everyone to appreciate that the democratic process and the voting at the meeting were basically flawed. Maybe some Board members were wrongly elected; maybe a candidate losing by one vote might feel the need to challenge the elections; maybe some votes would have gone the other way if the democratic process had been correctly managed. If the votes had been correctly allocated.

Or maybe, also, someone can’t count at Lacrosse Canada.

Whoever, within Lacrosse Canada’s Office, was responsible for the mistakes has again embarrassed the Executive Director who, in the final analysis, is responsible for the mistakes.

Because he is in charge.

This, again, is outrageous and unacceptable.

Secretive elections of the Board members

Lacrosse Canada, in its only post related to the annual meeting, informed the website readers on June 2^nd that applications were open for positions on the Board of Directors. The deadline to apply was set at July 11^th; candidates would be vetted and interviewed in August. And that was it.

No one in Canada had any knowledge of who were the candidates running for positions on the Board of Directors up until the annual meeting (on September 27^th) when the 11 presidents in attendance, and only them, were informed of the names of the candidates running for Office.

Now if that is not a closed shop election process nothing will ever be.

Would it not have been interesting for the 52,782 members and their parents and for the lacrosse volunteers across Canada to have minimally been informed of the names of the people who were running for the highest office within Lacrosse Canada? Would it not have been politically educational? Would it not have created a debate on the direction the Association was taking? Would it not have been transparently responsible towards the members?

This again is not a ‘’oops, my bad moment’’. This is a decision to give the members as little information as possible and, possibly, to control the Association’s elections.

This also is outrageous. And, again, the Executive Director bears the blame for this lack of information, and respect, towards the members.

Outrageous and unacceptable.

And why not have an increase in membership fees

The presidents in attendance at the annual meeting were presented with a great surprise. They will have to increase their registration fees by 15$ per player per sector in order to turn it in to Lacrosse Canada. A 100% increase!

Membership fees for all registered players across Canada will go up from 15$ to 30$. This ‘’new’’ revenue is close to 800,000$ for the coming year. The members’ total contribution, in players’ membership fees only, will be of close to 1,600,00$. That is more money going to Lacrosse Canada from the members than Sport Canada’s total contribution in grants and financial support.

In practical terms, the members, who have no say whatsoever in the amounts of money they will turn over to Lacrosse Canada, are the main supporters of Lacrosse Canada.

The Board of Directors establishes the annual fees and the provinces have the onus of collecting the moneys from their registered players while trying to explain to them why they have to pay more money for an irresponsible national association who will be declaring a huge deficit in the coming days.

Did you say…outrageous? Or maybe you said ‘’unacceptable’’.

Urgent need for oversight

As stated above, something is rotten in Oshawa and someone should start looking into this before it explodes and embarrasses everyone connected with lacrosse. We have a huge problem coming up and there is an urgent need for oversight.

Only three actors can look into Lacrosse Canada’s behaviors; the members, Sport Canada or the media. Or all three together if somehow some of this becomes public.

For the moment the ball is still in Lacrosse Canada’s camp who needs to behave …to issue explanations or to be ridiculed along the way. It’s that bad.