Female ski jumpers launch official complaint

VANCOUVER -- The federal government must be forced to pressure the International Olympic Committee to include women's ski-jumping in the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver -- or fund a parallel event for the female sport, says a complaint to the federal human-rights arbiter.

"We believe that the exclusion of women from an Olympic facility [the ski jump] and an event [ski jumping] in Canada, with major funding coming from the Department of Canadian Heritage, constitutes a discriminatory practice," wrote Jan Willis, mother of 15-year-old Katie Willis, Canada's top female ski-jumper and ranked sixth in the world.

The government of Canada, through the Department of Canadian Heritage, has spent $310-million to cover infrastructure and legacy costs, some of which is being used to build a ski-jump facility in the Callaghan Valley, near Whistler.

The complaint about that funding was filed with the Canadian Human Rights Commission, which hears complaints of discrimination in areas of federal jurisdiction. The commission now has the option to dismiss the complaint or to mediate between the parties.

If mediation is unsuccessful, the commission sends the case to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, a quasi-judicial body whose rulings can be enforced by federal court.

It's unlikely that the court would have jurisdiction over the IOC, but the international body's actions in Canada can be served with a cease-and-desist order, and an order to correct the practice.

That order could take the shape of an alternative competition, said Nina Reid, who is counsel to Ms. Willis and the other female members of Canada's nine-member national ski-jumping team: Atsuko Tanaka, 14, Nata DeLeeuw, 15, and Zoya Lynch, 15.

"It would allow the women to compete there, and have a venue," said Ms. Willis in an interview. "All these girls want to do is compete and have a chance at a podium. It's hard to want to jump and be told that you can't."

Spokespeople for the Department of Canadian Heritage, the International Olympic Committee, and the office of David Emerson, the minister responsible for the Olympics, said they would not comment until they had more time to examine the filing.

A senior official with the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games rejected the idea of a parallel competition. "It's very unrealistic to think they would be able to host any kind of event during the Olympic period," said Tim Gayda, vice-president of sport for VANOC, adding that decisions about which sport to include are made at least three years in advance, and that those decisions for the 2010 Games have already been made.

Last year, the international governing body for skiing, FIS, recommended that female ski jumpers be included in the 2010 Olympic program. Last fall, VANOC also wrote a letter in support of the women's inclusion. But in November the IOC's program commission cancelled the initiative.

"The IOC knowingly put the federal government in the untenable position of funding an event that unjustifiably excludes women," wrote Jan Willis in the filing. "Such exclusion is a prohibited ground of discrimination."

The filing also hints that the acceptance of women in sport has been slow to evolve, quoting the current FIS president, Gian-Franco Kasper, saying that ski jumping "is not appropriate for ladies from a medical point of view." The filing acknowledges that Mr. Kasper is now supportive of the inclusion of women jumpers.

Olympics that take place in Canada have to accord by Canadian law even though it's the IOC that decides which events are included, said Canada's representative on the FIS Council, Patrick Smith.

It is not clear what jurisdiction the tribunal will have, said Mr. Smith, who is also an Ontario Superior Court judge. "Nobody knows about this for sure -- it's new territory."

The real strength of the jumpers' court action may likely be political, he said. The FIS council will examine this action at its next meeting, he said, and depending on the outcome could appeal the matter to the IOC directly.

JONATHAN WOODWARD. Special to The Globe and Mail, February 05, 2007.