As we all know, On June 14, 2021, the Ontario Government released its “Plan for a Safe Return to Sport”. As part of that plan it identified a group of “elite athletic organizations”, which did not include the OUA and OCAA.
Six months later, when the Ontario Government, on January 3, 2022 moved to a “modified Step 2 of the Roadmap to Reopen” and allowed those organizations designated as “elite athletic organizations” to continue training, the OUA and OCAA were excluded, meaning student-athletes in the OUA and OCAA had to stop training until January 26, 2022.
The problem with this was that the OUA, on December 17, 2021 decided to “pause” sports (originally scheduled to resume January 6th), until January 24th., and OCAA until January 21st.
With the government suspending training until the 26th, the OUA and OCAA’s plans to resume sports on the 21st/24th …would not happen.
On January 4th the Canadian Student-Athlete Association spoke via email with representatives of the Ministry Responsible for Sport in an attempt to get them to designate the OUA and OCAA as “elite athletic organizations” so that student-athletes could resume training, and more importantly, in a timely fashion so that sports could resume on the 21st/24th.
When we were told that the Ministry was “…working with our counterparts in the Ministry of Health to consider this matter further”, we were hopeful that it might happen.
When we presented the Ministry with our petition asking the Ontario Government to designate the OUA/OCAA as “elite athletic organizations” signed by over 7,500 supporters, we were hopeful it would have an impact.
Sadly, the Ministry has gone silent and have not responded to our follow-ups on the matter. As a result it appears training will not be allowed to resume until January 26th at the earliest (if restrictions are not extended further).
The Canadian Student-Athlete Association asks, how did it come to this?Student-athletes should be asking the same question.
This is why there is a need for student-athletes to have a voice. That voice is the Canadian Student-Athlete Association. Whether you are a student-athlete or a supporter of student-athletes, go to the Canadian Student-Athlete Association website and join today (its free and even if you are not a student-athlete you can join as a "supporter"! Give student-athletes a voice!
There is strength in numbers.