Steve Milton: Rick Westhead takes on abuse in sport in ‘Broken’ documentary
When TSN's Rick Westhead was doing research for the disturbing documentary Broken: The Toxic Culture of Canadian Gymnastics," a former gymnast now in her 30s told him about her wedding day.
She's looking at herself in the mirror, wearing this beautiful dress, and all she can hear is the voice of her gymnastics coach telling her when she was 10 years old, You're fat. You look like you have a watermelon in your stomach,'" Westhead, the Burlington native and peerless TSN investigative correspondent, recalls.
It's chilling, and revealing, that the vignette did not even make the final 90-minute cut of Broken" because there were so many other heart-wrenching incidents and issues of coaching and organizational conduct to examine.
Broken" is available on Crave and CTV's W5 will air a 45-minute version at 7 p.m. Saturday. Westhead says that on Nov. 22, Tory MP Karen Vecchio will also host an invitational screening of the documentary on Parliament Hill.
While much of the documentary focuses on coaching abuse and subsequent inaction, and undisclosed disciplinary measures by clubs and sports organizing bodies in Alberta and Calgary, in particular, it also includes numerous similar situations in several other provinces including Ontario.
We were able to pick and choose which stories we would include in the documentary because there are just so many of them, and we could have made a stop in every province," Westhead told The Spectator. Which is a sad statement on the way things are right now."
The documentary unveils a litany of alleged and proven abuses in gymnastics and boundaries which are not only crossed but smashed. Some are sexual, others deal with physical endangerment, harassment, bullying, lack of respect, abuse of power and authority, body-shaming, and other emotional and psychological mistreatment.
What I learned during this is that we need to do a better job at listening to people regardless of them going through only' psychological abuse and maltreatment," Westhead told The Spectator.
In 2019, Westhead covered the sexual assault trial of Sarnia-based gymnastics coach Dave Brubaker who was eventually found not guilty, with the presiding judge citing serious issues with the police investigation into the case.
Westhead gently told the complainant that if she ever wanted to talk about her story, to contact him. Because of a publication ban, she was then known only as Jane Doe, but the gymnast, Melanie Hunt, later successfully sought the lifting of the ban so she could go public. She is in the documentary, as is her former teammate Abby Spadafora. Both spent the majority of their successful, nationally-ranked careers in Sarnia but also spent two years in the early 2000s with Brubaker and his wife Liz, also a coach, at the Burlington Gymnastics Club.
Hunt and Spadafora were among the 11 gymnasts who later triggered a Gymnastics Canada investigation which resulted in Dave Brubaker receiving a lifetime ban from coaching in the organization and Liz Brubaker being banned until 2024. They have denied all allegations - The Spectator was unable to reach Brubaker's lawyer prior to publication - but in April, dropped their appeal of the ban.
Broken" is difficult, but necessary, viewing. In many cases, the long-term effects on victimized athletes have been devastating.
In the documentary, one says: Those years are just a blur of pain and misery." Another: When I was a kid I felt like I didn't have a voice."
Spadafora: It's changed me for the rest of my life ... in bad ways. It's not something that just goes away."
Hunt: I felt like it was my fault all this happened because I was too much of a people-pleaser, that I put my Olympic dream above my own health and safety."
Like the recent explosive revelations of Hockey Canada's handling of abuse allegations, Broken" suggests that some clubs and organizations which should be ensuring the protection of young athletes have ignored complaints, or have punished the accusers, or have not revealed to the public who has been sanctioned for violations of coaching conduct codes. And that some who've been accused are still coaching.
Even today at Hockey Canada, where they have been through the ringer, how many coaches have been banned and not allowed to participate?" asks Westhead. Answering my own question: we have no idea because Hockey Canada keeps it a secret."
He says that the parallel with past abuses within organizations like churches and youth groups is remarkable. Moving around bad actors and putting other kids at risk has played out again in sports. That's undeniable.
Until this is brought into the open light of day, until it's all transparent, until we start worrying about the rights and protection of children as opposed to the privacy of people who have been suspended and banned, then we're going to keep seeing things happen."
While Broken" focuses on Canadian gymnastics, its themes apply elsewhere and can be added to the Hockey Canada scandals, Kyle Beach's sexual assault within the Chicago Blackhawks organization, Michigan State doctor Larry Nassar's gymnastics-related conviction, complaints in soccer, recent accusations in Canadian water polo, running coach Dave Scott-Thomas's firing at the University of Guelph, and several other high-profile cases.
There's a common thread that runs through all these," Westhead contends. You have a power imbalance between coaches and athletes. If a guy like Akim Aliu can have an NHL coach call him the N-word' why would we be surprised if worse happens with 10- or 12-year-olds, whether they're hockey players, gymnasts, figure skaters, swimmers or track people?
There are so many amazing things about sport: the lessons it teaches us about teamwork and hard work and winning with class and losing with grace. These are important lessons and I wouldn't want to take them away from anybody.
I love sport but that's not what this is about. These are not stories about hockey or gymnastics, these are stories about power and power imbalances, accountability and transparency."
Steve Milton is a Hamilton-based sports columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: smilton@thespec.com