Toward a Restorative Approach to Sport in Canada

Abstract

For the last 30 years there has been documented evidence of wide-spread abuse of athletes in Canada. Canadian sport, now, finds itself at a crossroads due to the evidence of this systemic abuse of athletes which has persisted notwithstanding attempts to respond. In this thesis I argue that restorative justice as a relational theory of justice provides a lens through which we can better understand the problem of maltreatment and provides a pathway to transform the current response mechanisms for maltreatment into those more oriented toward wellbeing and more capable of attending to the relational nature of abuse in sport.