Mother told ski body about Charest
Her daughter was just 16 in 1998 but Alpine Canada told her they would take care of it. “The response was for us to leave it in the hands of Alpine Canada and for us to move on with my daughter’s career,” she told the CBC. There was a suggestion that doing otherwise might impact her daughter’s ski career, she said.
The mother told the CBC that she and her family considered what they had been told by Alpine Canada and decided not to go to police. At that time Alpine Canada say they opened an investigation of Charest, and told him so, and that he then resigned his position as a national ski coach.
The mother was not identified to protect the identify of her daughter. Her daughter is not one of 11 women, all believed to have been in the Alpine Canada ski program, to come forward to accuse Charest of sexual misconduct during the years 1991 to 1998.
At various times Charest, 49, coached the Canadian national junior ski team, Team Quebec, Team Laurentians and the Mont Tremblant ski team. The charges against him include sexual exploitation, breach of trust and sexual assault and the offences allegedly occurred in Canada and the U.S. and in Austria, France and New Zealand.
Arraigned last week, on Friday Charest was denied bail and awaits the beginning of his trial in jail. He hung his head down during most of the proceedings; his girlfriend was in the courtroom.
Alpine Canada conduct under scrutiny
Should the statements to Radio-Canada from the skier’s mother prove true, then in addition to the investigation of Charest, police should also look into Alpine Canada. Why would a national ski body advise a parent not to go to police when one of their instructors may have committed as serious an offence as sexual assault? Was it to protect their reputation?
It seems there may have been an ethical breach here but, to be fair, Alpine Canada claims to have spoken with the RCMP in 1998 about Charest and potential sexual misconduct on his part, though there has been no confirmation from the RCMP of that.
For that matter, what did the RCMP do at the time if they were informed of the mother’s accusations? Did they then open an investigation? If so, why did they not pursue it?
As a body funded by Canadians, we need to be certain Alpine Canada operated first and foremost with concern for the young girls under their charge. And that they operated with concern for girls who in future would cross paths with Charest, who, before his arrest was teaching children under 12 to ski in the Laurentian mountains.
Both the CBC, CTV and the Canadian Press report asking Alpine Canada to comment on the mother’s version of events but as of this writing none had received a response.
