Former members of Canada’s national water polo team have filed a $5.5 million lawsuit against the federation over alleged abuse

Another national sports organization in Canada is in the spotlight – four former members of the national water polo team program have filed a $5.5 million lawsuit against Water Polo Canada, alleging that the top officers, coaches and support staff of the Associations have promoted a toxic culture for more than a decade.

The lawsuit says the former players were sexually harassed, threatened, encouraged to make racist and homophobic jokes, and repeatedly warned to honor Water Polo Canada’s “Circle of Trust.”

Water Polo Canada (WPC) is an Ottawa-based non-profit organization funded by the federal government. It did not respond to a request for comment.

One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit stated that athletes are made to feel “under a microscope.”

“We have to keep improving our performance, we’re always being criticized, we’re always being criticized,” Katrina Monton told CTV News.

“And I think it’s time other players in this space … look in the mirror and acknowledge their role in the system.”

Monton was a member of Canada’s junior and senior national water polo teams for 14 years from the age of 15. She says some WPC employees have made a conscious choice to ignore abusive behavior.

“It’s a privilege not to have to think about the harm or the things that have been inflicted or done,” she said. “I think it’s a privilege not to look back at your behavior and have to adjust and change it in some way.”

The lawsuit contains allegations relating to a number of national team coaches, including one who allegedly met athletes in his hotel room in only their underwear and on another occasion pressured them to grow his back and chest hair.

Another coach reportedly threatened athletes, saying he would bring a shotgun or baseball bat to the pool to shoot or hit them if they did poorly.

Pat Oaten, who is now coach of the senior men’s national team, is accused in the lawsuit of speaking openly about his sex life with members of the women’s national team.

“We lived in a culture where everything was swept under the rug and ignored,” said Steph Valin, another former team member and plaintiff in the lawsuit. “We were pawns in a game and we were all disposable.

“It was a culture that was willfully blind.”

A 38-page complaint was filed in Ontario Superior Court on April 29 and served on WPC Thursday. The allegations have not yet been examined in court.

In recent years, numerous Canadian sports federations have faced lawsuits and allegations of abuse and rampant misconduct, including Hockey Canada, Gymnastics Canada, Rowing Canada and Canada Soccer.

This reckoning now seems to have arrived in water polo as well.

The four former Canada water polo team members claim the abuse they allegedly endured left them with emotional, physical and psychological damage, including anxiety and depression, suicidal thoughts and profound trust issues.

“I’ve dealt with depression, a lot of anxiety — post-traumatic syndrome, that’s the word I have to say out loud — my whole life, and low self-esteem,” Sophie Baron La Salle told CTV News. “Because I started playing water polo when I was nine and then 14 and I grew up in that environment.”

La Salle alleges in the lawsuit that Oaten once made her sit through an exercise in a bright and noisy pool environment, even though she recently suffered a concussion.

The fourth plaintiff is identified only as AA in court documents. All four were members of the women’s junior and senior national team sometime between 2004 and 2016.

The trainers identified in the lawsuit are not listed as defendants, but are found to have “fostered a toxic culture at WPC,” the lawsuit states.

In addition to Oaten, who coached the women’s senior team from 2002 to 2012, coaches Baher El Sakkary, Daniel Berthelette and Guy Baker were all named.

“Each adult male coach took advantage of the power imbalance between himself and the young female athletes in his care to achieve excellence at the expense of the physical, psychological and emotional well-being of the athletes,” the lawsuit states.

El Sakkary, who coached the women’s national junior team from 2004 to 2005, allegedly bullied athletes by calling them offensive names and criticizing their appearance, and behaved “sexually inappropriate towards athletes,” according to the lawsuit.

Berthelette was previously fired from the organization in 2001 after athletes and their parents complained about his behavior, according to a lawsuit, but was reinstated two years later to coach the junior women’s team. In 2007 he was hired as a technical adviser and assistant coach for the senior women’s national team, where the plaintiffs met him.

He allegedly told athletes he wanted to sleep with them to “say whether they were lesbians or not” and would threaten athletes with violence to motivate them to perform, according to the lawsuit.

“In order to establish his authority and reinforce the athletes’ belief that he would carry out these threats, Dan told the team vivid stories about his past violence and his ties to the Mafia, Hell’s Angels and dangerous gangster friends,” the lawsuit reads adding that in 2011 he was asked to leave WPC.

The lawsuit also contains criticism of some officials of the national team. Valin allegedly went to WPC support worker Daniele Sauvageau in 2013 about Guy Baker’s bullying and outbursts, and expressed her fear of working with him.

“Daniele did not intervene to protect Steph, nor did she provide Steph with psychological support to accommodate Steph’s desire to be harmed,” the lawsuit reads.

Plaintiffs are seeking $1 million in common and aggravated damages for breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract and vicarious agents for physical, psychological and emotional abuse and sexual harassment. They have also sought $4 million for past and future economic losses suffered as a result of Water Polo Canada’s alleged failure to protect them, and $500,000 in punitive damages.

In the 2021-22 season, Water Polo Canada received $2.2 million from Sport Canada, while its carded athletes received approximately $634,000, according to government records.

Water Polo Canada did not respond to CTV News’ request for comment. The lawsuit states that although parents complained about the coaches’ behavior and filed grievances with the organization, nothing has changed.