The City of Saskatoon and Sask Lotteries have rescinded a grant for Young Athlete Saskatchewan (YAS) basketball camp.
An email from a camp account to parents of children enrolled in YAS this summer stated the camp’s board decided to “withdraw” all YAS basketball camps scheduled for this summer in Saskatoon.
A former employee said she’s relieved.
“I can’t even put it into words. I’m so happy that it’s cancelled this year,” Silvia said.
Silvia is not her real name. Global News is identifying her with a pseudonym.
A year-long Global News investigation previously reported that Silvia alleges her former boss, Dennis Robert Hall, sexually harassed her in 2002 when she was working in his home office. She said he told her “light cleaning wouldn’t be the only thing I would get you to do to repay me,” which she took to mean he wanted sexual favours from her.
She was 18 at the time. He was 56.
Global News also previously reported there are no regulations preventing someone convicted of committing sexual offences against minors from being involved with private sports camps in Saskatchewan. Hall was convicted in 1981 on two counts of having sex with girls between the ages of 14 and 16 and two counts of indecent assault against two other adolescent girls.
The investigation by Global News showed Hall appears to have been involved with YAS since it was founded in 1983, and that the camp has received funding from government-sponsored organizations.
Multiple media outlets have reported Hall received a pardon in 1994 for his earlier convictions.
Global News reached out to Hall on several occasions, calling and emailing contact information found on the YAS site and through emails provided by Silvia’s father. A person only answered the phone four times. Twice someone who did not identify himself hung up, once someone said they couldn’t hear and once a person denied being Denis Hall and hung up.
Silvia reported Hall to Saskatoon police in 2003. Internal documents show officers felt there wasn’t sufficient evidence to warrant investigating further or to lay charges.
Hall has used both “Dennis” and “Denis” spellings for his first name, though neither appear on the YAS website or in recent corporate filings.
An email from a YAS camp account to a parent in 2020 states Hall hasn’t been involved with the camp for years, though pictures on the camp website appear to show Hall was there as recently as 2020.
The 2021 YAS email informing parents the camps are being “withdrawn” says the YAS board took the decision because of COVID-19. The email, which was sent on June 24, also stated any players registered for the withdrawn camps may transfer to camps in Regina.
An email from the City of Saskatoon media account stated Sask Lotteries notified the city on June 17 and the city informed YAS on June 18.
A YAS 2021 brochure states the camps would run from July 5 until Aug. 27 in Regina and Saskatoon.
Global News reached out to YAS and asked if the camps were being cancelled because the city and Sask Lotteries rescinded their support. Global News also asked why camps in one city were cancelled because of the pandemic but not in another city.
No one from YAS responded by deadline.
YAS has received money in the past from the Sask Lotteries Community Grant Program, which provides financial support to municipalities to fund non-profit organizations.
The YAS website has emblems for the City of Saskatoon and Sask Lotteries. Spokespeople for the city and Sask Sport, the provincial federation for amateur sport which operates Sask Lotteries, have explained the terms of the grant require recipients to display the logos.
Mark Rogstad, a City of Saskatoon spokesperson, previously told Global News the city is not a sponsor and that a volunteer committee adjudicates applications.
He also previously stated YAS received funding in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
An email from a media relations account in May stated YAS was awarded $6,000 through the grant adjudication process for 2021.
Jeff Bohach, a Sask Sport spokesperson, wrote that “Sask Lotteries has reviewed the funding with the City of Saskatoon and has decided to not provide a grant to YAS.”
The Sask Lotteries website states proceeds are dedicated to sport, culture and recreation organizations.
An email from the City of Saskatoon media account stated the grant was rescinded at the request of Sask Lotteries, “who is the funder.”
“Further, information that has circulated in the public domain raised questions about the operation of YAS and led the City to ask YAS to clarify some of its information previously provided to the City,” the email said.
“The City was not satisfied with the answers received.”
The email stated the city does not have a rental contract with the camp and is not prepared to rent any facility to YAS in 2021.
The YAS brochure states the camp would have been held at the Cosmo Civic Centre, a City of Saskatoon facility. Global News obtained receipts issued by the city to YAS for renting the Cosmo Centre in 2019. Those receipts, obtained through freedom of information legislation, were issued to Denis Hall.
Global News asked the city media staff if the city will require community grant recipients to undergo anti-harassment training or be screened for criminal history.
An email repeated a statement the city previously issued, saying, “we would expect that any organization that rents facilities from the City to act within the law.”
As mentioned above, no law or regulation prevents someone convicted of committing sexual offences against minors from being involved in private sports camps in Saskatchewan.
Bohach previously told Global News it is impractical to require all grant recipients to undergo anti-harassment training, giving the example of a quilting club that requires a few hundred dollars to quilt on weekends.
Silvia said she was hoping for more. She said the city and Sask Lotteries should require anti-harassment training and check if any staff on organizations that receive grants have a criminal history.
“Taking those extra precautions and extra steps to make sure that the kids in our community are safe … it should be a priority,” she said.
“Would it be extra work? Yes. Is it important? Yes.”
An email from a YAS account, sent to parents of children enrolled in the Saskatoon camps, the 2021 brochure and the YAS website state the camps in Regina will be held at École Monseigneur de Laval, a French school.
A Regina Leader-Post article from June 22, 2020, reported YAS camps were being held at the school and that Philippe Bosse coached them.
The article and the website of the school board, the Conseil des Écoles Fransaskoises (CÉF), state Bosse is a Grade 2 teacher at the school.
He did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Global News.
There is no allegation or evidence of wrongdoing by Bosse.
Previous statements from the CÉF stated the Association Canadienne-Francaise de Regina (ACFR), a French cultural group, handles all rentals of school facilities during the summer.
“CÉF has no connection with Young Athlete Saskatchewan,” a spokesperson wrote on May 5. They also stated the CÉF has not authorized rentals of its facilities due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On June 25, the same spokesperson, Claude-Jean Harel, wrote that “CÉF and ACFR are two distinct entities with separate mandates. CÉF has no control over the organizations to which ACFR rents facilities.”
He also said the CÉF hadn’t authorized any community partners to rent facilities this summer to any external organizations.
When asked about the brochure and the YAS website, which also says the camp is being held this year at a CÉF school, Harel said the board has no control over what YAS publishes.
Harel said, via email, that no one is renting the school, “inside or outside.”
The president of the ACFR, Kymber Zahar, previously stated the organization had been renting gym space to YAS for more than 15 years.
Global News contacted the ACFR and asked if it had reviewed its association with the group and if it was helping YAS secure further gym space.
Zahar said they didn’t have anything reserved for the camp because the CÉF hasn’t allowed them to rent any space. She said the ACFR would discuss YAS at their upcoming general meeting.
Silvia said she believes minors could be in harm’s way if Hall is involved with the camps in Regina.
“If he’s still running (a camp) in Regina, then there are still families and youth at risk.”