The Soccer Canada logo is seen on a banner during the Canadian Championships in Hamilton, Ont., on May 7.Nick Iwanyshyn/The Canadian Press
Canada Soccer commissioned a third-party workplace investigation into the women’s national team in 2023 that flagged staff concerns about spying on opponents, a finding delivered a full year before the Olympic drone scandal in Paris.
Staff raised their objections to spying with an external investigator, Ottawa lawyer Erin Durant, who noted their concerns as part of a probe focused on alleged workplace harassment, a source familiar with the report said. The Globe and Mail has not reviewed the confidential report, which was delivered to Canada Soccer in July, 2023, just in advance of that year’s World Cup. The Globe is not identifying the source, who was not authorized to speak about the internal workings at Canada Soccer.
The spying scandal erupted publicly in July when French police caught Canada Soccer analyst Joey Lombardi flying a drone over a training session for an opposing team, sparking a number of sanctions and probes. Last week, Canada Soccer released the results of an investigation it ordered after the uproar at the Olympics that described spying going back several years.
Canada Soccer acknowledged in statements that it commissioned the earlier report in 2023 but declined to identify the individuals who received a copy. Instead, it pointed to former “executives” at the organization who “fell short” of the disclosure obligations the organization is now implementing, Canada Soccer spokesperson Paulo Senra said. A review of the minutes from that time show the report was not submitted to the board, he said.
“Past disclosures to the board of directors regarding confidential workplace investigations were made at the discretion of executives at the time and fell short of the governance and oversight standards the organization is now implementing,” Mr. Senra said.
Canada Soccer’s interim chief executive officer at that time was Jason deVos, now an assistant coach with Toronto FC, the city’s Major League Soccer team. The Globe previously reported that Mr. deVos had fielded a complaint in August, 2023, from one staffer about employees being asked to spy against their objections.
In an e-mailed statement to The Globe, Mr. deVos, a former player with Canada’s men’s national team, said he could not discuss Ms. Durant’s findings because of confidentiality issues, but said they were treated with “the seriousness and diligence they warranted,” and said he introduced policy changes as a result.
“At the time of my departure from Canada Soccer in early January 2024, several of the report’s recommended changes had been made, with work to implement the remaining recommendations underway,” Mr. deVos said.
Ms. Durant declined an interview request, citing confidentiality obligations to the participants of the investigation as well as to Canada Soccer.
Mr. Lombardi was suspended by the sport’s governing body, FIFA, along with the women’s team head coach, Bev Priestman, and assistant coach Jasmine Mander, and all of them were sent home from Paris. Canada Soccer announced last week that Ms. Priestman and Ms. Mander will no longer be working for the organization. Mr. Lombardi resigned from Canada Soccer after the Olympics.
While it also examined historical spying allegations against Canada, the report by Toronto lawyer Sonia Regenbogen released last week found no evidence that Canada had spied on opponents at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, where the national women’s team won gold.
Canada Soccer also said it is seeking to discipline John Herdman, a former head coach of both the women’s and men’s teams, who the organization has alleged instituted the practice of spying on opponents. Mr. Herdman is now the head coach of TFC. He has yet to comment publicly on the Regenbogen report.
Canada Soccer’s Code of Conduct and Ethics requires employees to demonstrate “fair play, sport leadership and ethical conduct.” Nearly a third of the federation’s revenue comes from the Canadian public, through player registration fees, federal funding from Sport Canada and programs such as Own the Podium. In 2023, the organization received $3.8-million in federal funding, and in 2024 Own the Podium, a non-profit that supports athletes financially, provided it with $2.6-million.
Ms. Durant was initially hired in May, 2023, in response to allegations of workplace harassment. There’s no specific mention of drones in the report, the source said, but it did document concerns about staff being asked to surreptitiously gather intelligence on competitors.
While Canada Soccer said it could not discuss human resources matters, it said Ms. Durant’s report also found one staff member’s actions had “constituted a breach of fiduciary duty.” It declined to elaborate.
No coaching personnel changes were made after the delivery of the Durant report. Ms. Mander, who along with Ms. Priestman was one of the people accused of overseeing the spying operation, was promoted in November, 2023, from performance analyst with the women’s national team to its assistant coach.
Ms. Priestman was given a long-term extension of her contract in January, 2024, that would keep her on as head coach until after the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
A lawyer for Ms. Priestman declined to comment. A lawyer for Ms. Mander said the allegations she directed spying efforts are inaccurate, but declined to elaborate.
Kevin Blue, who began as the general secretary and chief executive officer of Canada Soccer in March, told The Globe he first learned that coaches and staff working for the women’s team were engaged in spying only when the matter arose during the Paris Games. He added: “I became aware of past HR investigations around this time as well.”
Charmaine Crooks, who was chair of Canada Soccer’s board at the time of the Durant report, did not respond to requests for comment. Kelly Brown, who was chair of Canada Soccer’s HR committee when the Durant report was commissioned, and who also commissioned the Regenbogen report, did not return several messages seeking comment.
All 14 board members, including eight who were with Canada Soccer when the Durant report was commissioned, did not respond to interview requests about the 2023 investigation.
Canada Soccer says the board did “not condone any form of surreptitious surveillance,” but acknowledges it needs to do a better job of evaluating its directors and providing them with more governance training. It says it’s working to rebuild its program with integrity, transparency and accountability at its core and vows to restore public trust.
The Regenbogen report found staff felt uncomfortable spying on opponents but “did not feel they could challenge the authority of the head coach.” This pressure to cheat was a “symptom of a difficult and unacceptable past culture within the national teams,” president Peter Augruso and Mr. Blue said in a joint statement.
The organization says the spying scandal has prompted systemic changes to the way it operates. In the future, employees will be contractually obligated to report unethical behaviour and will be able to do so through a confidential software program. It’s also introducing mandatory ethics training for all coaches and staff.
Canada Soccer says from now on, everyone who works with its national teams will undergo sport administrator training to improve their ability to establish proper controls and boundaries for coaches.