Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport changes name to Sport Integrity Canada

OTTAWA — The Canadian Centre For Ethics in Sport will changes its name to Sport Integrity Canada in January to reflect its increased responsibilities, says its board chair.

The CCES that was the country’s domestic doping watchdog for over two decades, and more recently a monitor of sports betting manipulation, had safe sport added to its mandate this year by previous federal sports minister Carla Qualtrough.

As of April 1, the centre took over managing and investigating complaints and reports of abuse and maltreatment in sport, and the administration of the public registry of people banned from sport or provisionally sanctioned, from the now-defunct Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner (OSIC).

“As part of this new mandate, we have chosen to revisit not only our strategic plan, but also our organizational approach and structure,” said the centre’s board chair Jocelyn Downie in a statement Tuesday.

“Our goal is to ensure that the organization is up to the task and well-equipped to fulfil its role as the authority on sport integrity in Canada.

“This change reflects our evolution over the past few years as an independent sport integrity agency.”

The CCES faces the same jurisdictional limitations as OSIC in that only sports bodies that receive federal funding fall under its umbrella, which leaves provincial, territorial, university and club sports exposed.

Bringing those levels of sport under the centre is an option, CCES safe sport executive director Signy Arnason said earlier this year, but requires funding to do it.

One of the reasons Qualtrough cited for the switch from OSIC to the CCES was to make the process more independent.

While the CCES receives federal government money, the government has no authority over selection or election of its board.

But the centre is also not subject to the Access to Information Act, which means the public can’t request information from it.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 25, 2025.