MISTRUTHS, LIES AND HARD FACTS

 By Pierre Filion pierrefilion@bell.net

We have been writing often about the mistruths that characterize Lacrosse Canada’s information system; the information is out there (often times hard to locate) but it is so often incomplete, biased or inaccurate that we need to highlight our point with a series of examples, that illustrate the point; our point is that Lacrosse Canada creates its own problems.

HOW MANY PLAYERS ARE MEMBERS OF LACROSSE CANADA?

Now that is a simple question and there is a simple answer. In 2025 there were 52,782 registered lacrosse players in Canada.

What is beyond understanding is why is it that Lacrosse Canada does not simply come out and share that information with its readers on the website? Nowhere will you find a statement indicating clearly the real number of registered lacrosse players in Canada. Nowhere. Yet Lacrosse Canada has that information in November every year. It collects it from the provinces and shares it discretely with AGM delegates. That’s as far as it goes.

You will remember that Lacrosse Canada once boasted that there were 85,000 ‘’participants’’ in Canada. That is what can be called a mistruth.

You will also remember that some weeks later it claimed that there were now 60,000 participants in lacrosse. Another mistruth. But never, never does Lacrosse Canada comes out with a clear statement of membership.

Would it not be interesting for lacrosse volunteers to know what the size of their community is? How many players do play the game; and where they are from. How many play two or three versions of the game and are counted twice or three times? How many coaches and officials are involved in the game and members of Lacrosse Canada? A clear and public answer to those simple questions would be called…the truth. But please, start somewhere and tell everyone why that simple fact is withheld from the members. If Lacrosse Canada does not act here then everyone will be asking …what is Lacrosse Canada hiding?

WHERE ARE THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ MINUTES OF MEETINGS?

A democratic association functions in such a way that the decisions that elected members come to are public and made available to the members; that is what we refer to when we talk about accountability. Leaders and deciders must be held accountable.

One way for the members to hold their leaders accountable is to be aware of their decisions and discussions. At Lacrosse Canada this is impossible because the minutes of meetings are not available to the members IN FUNCTIONAL TIME. They are available on the website MONTHS AND MONTHS after the meeting and at that time are irrelevant to anyone interested in action following the meeting. An interested member would see the minutes of a March meeting appear in January of the following year. This year, for example, the minutes of the meetings held in September, October and November2025 all appeared on the website, at the same time, in January 2026. So much for any attempt at accountability.

Lacrosse Canada will argue that minutes cannot be published quickly because they have to be approved before being made public; and they are only approved at THE NEXT BOARD MEETING….in a few months!! Carved in stone; unmovable; how comfortable! ‘’WE decide and YOU wait until we approve the minutes of our meetings’’.

A simple solution for any association interested in democratic processes or even accountability would be to organize a Board meeting and an email vote on the minutes a few days after their production. A three minutes meeting, at most. Now that will only work if leaders are really interested in accountability and, obviously, if the minutes are produced quickly.

If Lacrosse Canada does not act here then everyone (including Sport Canada) will be intitled to ask…what is Lacrosse Canada hiding here? And why?

HOW CAN THE MEMBERS FOLLOW THE MONEY?

The members through their membership fees (and other fees imposed upon them) generate about 1 million dollars per year in revenues to Lacrosse Canada. That is just about 50% of the revenues for this fiscal year (July 2025 to March 2026). One can say that they are generous contributors and somehow someone should report to them on the management of their money. Any democratic association would want to responsibly report to its members.

Well, at Lacrosse Canada that’s not quite the case. In fact, it’s the total opposite.

Lacrosse Canada’s website produces the audited statement of the fiscal year ended in June 2024, eighteen months ago. In the last few days, and only in the last few days, it produced the June 2025 financial statement. There were no notices to indicate that it was now available on the site; if you navigate daily you might have found it; if not, well, that’s life at Lacrosse Canada.

‘’It’s there’’ Lacrosse Canada will tell you; ‘’nothing is hidden from the members’’. And that is factually right. But nothing is done to facilitate the membership’s knowledge of the existence of the 2025 audit; nothing is done also to endeavor to minimally explain why the deficit was of 850,155$.

One would have expected Lacrosse Canada’s president to write a memo to the paying members and to explain to them what has happened with their money; why the Association drove the car into the wall and mostly what will be done next year to correct past behavior.

No information; no explanation. Nothing; simply nothing. But the numbers are there…

Lacrosse Canada is plainly and simply acting is such a way that its members have the smallest possible knowledge of the financial situation of the association. Now, you tell me; how do we call such action? Gaslighting? Misleading? Manipulating? Screwing around? Ignoring the members? Despising the members? You tell me! I’m a French guy and I don’t have the correct English vocabulary to address such issues! The only words I would have in French would be ‘’Une estie gang de crosseurs’’. However, please don’t ask me how that would be translated to English.

ICE COMES TO CANADIAN LACROSSE

Yes, the Canadian version of ICE; Imposed Commissioners Expertise! (ICE)

Lacrosse Canada has on January 26^th informed its readers, on the website, of the names of the five National Commissioners charged with the task (the responsibility) ‘’of overseeing all provincial matters within their respective areas of the game’’. Initially in the 2025 July 31^th post indicating opening for the positions Lacrosse Canada was looking for four commissioners; they hired five. Great people have been selected; that is not the issue however. The Imposed Commissioners will deal with SR A, SR B, JR A and JR B box lacrosse and with Women’s U22.

According to Lacrosse Canada’s ‘’discrete’’ 2025 registration grid 8915 box lacrosse players will come under the ICE jurisdiction; those players are playing in different leagues; 2 SR A leagues; 5 or 6 SR B leagues, 3 JR A leagues and 8 JR B leagues; in women’s U22 796 players from 4 provinces will come under the ICE jurisdiction. Three provinces (Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario) seem to have enough players to justify the existence of a league.

The imposed commissioners will have very uneven tasks; some with many leagues and players; some with less; hey, different strokes for different folks. Each, however, unless changed without public information, will receive a 7500$ ‘’honorarium’’.

I fear that the upcoming debates between the provinces and the National Association will concentrate more on the specifics of the mandates of the imposed commissioners rather than on the political significance of the basic existence of national commissioners; they will be acting clearly within provincial responsibilities with two justifications; national norms and power of the purse (federal money collected from the provinces).

Clearly this is a smooth takeover of the land. Lacrosse Canada is giving itself governance mandates in provincial territories and paying for it with provincial funds.

Not a single province has suggested that supervisors from Lacrosse Canada step in and ‘’oversee all provincial matters’’; yet in February 2026 this is happening. One would expect, minimally, that Lacrosse Canada would explain publicly what the problem is with provincial governance and also explain why it is investing 37,500$ in search of a solution (7500$ x 5 imposed commissioners= 37,500$). Keep in mind that there are also nine imposed RICs in charge at 7500$ each and you’ll see 67,500$ of the members’ money invested by Lacrosse Canada to supervise provincial officials. In total over 100,000$ invested for IMPOSED COMMISSIONERS and RICs.

The fundamental reality is that the provinces, at their own costs, will be ‘’supervised’’ in what is the responsibility that THEIR OWN MEMBERS have given them. The provinces have political legitimacy to govern the game provincially; Lacrosse Canada does not have the political legitimacy from its members to walk in and exercise oversight responsibility.

Look for some provinces to fight this tooth and nails; look for others to sleepwalk through the process and not even see what is happening.