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The Ottawa Lions will host a Special General Meeting (SGM) on the evening of Thursday, May 23, 2019 at 7:30pm. The meeting will take place at Terry Fox Athletic Facility in the blue trailer. All members are encouraged to attend.
This meeting will serve to vote in a new Board of Directors.
A short meeting of the new Board of Directors will follow the SGM.
Details
Special General Meeting
Terry Fox Athletic Facility – Blue Trailer
2960 Riverside Drive, Ottawa, ON
7:30pm
May 23, 2019
 
Prior to the SGM, the current Board will host a Town Hall style meeting on the evening of Wednesday, May 15, 2019 at 7:30pm. The meeting will also take place in the Blue Trailer at the Terry Fox Athletic Facility.
The agenda for the meeting is as follows:
1. Welcome
2. Presentation of actions taken by the Board with respect to the harassment investigations
3. Questions and answers
OTTL Investigation Timeline

Dear Members,
In light of the recent results of independent investigations conducted by the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club and the Athletics Canada Commissioner’s Office, the Board of Directors has terminated Andy McInnis’ employment with the Club, for cause. This is effective immediately.
Sincerely,
Ottawa Lions Board of Directors

Dear Members,
The Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club Board of Directors unreservedly apologizes to the individuals who submitted sexual harassment complaints against Andy McInnis in September 2018. We should have informed the Complainants immediately that Mr. McInnis had been placed on administrative paid leave and ordered to refrain from all contact with Club members. We also regret the extreme length of time it took to conduct the investigation and our failure to provide the Complainants with regular updates on the progress in the investigation. Our intention was never to mishandle or diminish the seriousness of the complaints, but we recognize that the manner in which we conducted the investigation and communicated with the Complainants created this impression and eroded your trust in the probity of the Club’s investigatory process and the intentions of the Board. For this we unreservedly apologize.
Sincerely,
Ottawa Lions Board of Directors

Dear Members,
For over three years Ms. Maureen Moore served as Treasurer to the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club, working tirelessly and selflessly behind the scenes to ensure that the Club remained financially solvent and implemented accounting and financial management strategies that would protect the long-term viability of the organization. Ms. Moore also took on the complicated task of serving as Club Ombudsperson and Harassment officer, guiding the Club through the 2016 investigation of harassment complaints against Andy McInnis in compliance with Ontario labour law requirements as well as guiding the first four months of the 2018 investigation into sexual harassment allegations against Mr. McInnis, again ensuring the Club remained in full compliance with Ontario labour law. She was a critical member of the Board who served with integrity in a volunteer capacity out of a deep sense of commitment to the benefits the Club brings to the local community through the positive work of its dedicated coaches training over a thousand athletes.
The thanks Ms. Moore received for this selfless work was a sustained pattern of aggression and harassment from then Club President and Board Chair Ken Porter. While there was some evidence of this at Board meetings, and individual Board members did personally reprimand Mr. Porter for his conduct verbally and in writing, the Board was not sufficiently aware of just how severe the situation was in the context of the Disciplinary Committee proceedings investigating Mr. McInnis or in other interactions between the two. Ms. Moore did not deserve the treatment she received from Mr. Porter and the Board herewith offers an unreserved apology for not taking more forceful and formal action to hold Mr. Porter to account.
In her January 2019 complaint to Athletics Canada Ms. Moore makes reference to a toxic environment on the Board propagated by the behaviour and attitudes of Club President and Board Chair Ken Porter. While it will unfortunately come as cold comfort, the Board wishes to point out that Ms. Moore was correct in her assessment. The level of rancor and the heat of discussions in Board meetings dropped enormously once Mr. Porter was removed from the Board by the 25 March 2019 Athletics Canada interim suspensions. This has been paralleled by an increased move towards greater transparency, a direction that is being helpfully and constructively driven by the most recent additions to the Board. In retrospect we believe that Ms. Moore was sending signals that we had serious problems with the Board leadership that threatened to cripple the Club, and we apologize for not picking up on these signals and initiating the appropriate remedial action.
Sincerely,
Ottawa Lions Board of Directors

Dear Members,
On Monday, May 6, 2019, Athletics Canada Commissioner Frank Fowlie reprimanded the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club Board of Directors for its communication of the September 2018 suspension of Mr. Andy McInnis. The Board takes his critique seriously and agrees that the membership in the Club is owed an apology. We should not have issued a misleading statement in September 2018 that Mr. McInnis had been granted a requested leave with pay when what in fact happened was that the Board immediately suspended Mr. McInnis upon receipt of the September 2018 harassment allegations against him. Instead, we should have clearly notified the Club that it was the Board that had placed McInnis on leave pending the outcome of an independent investigation into the allegations against him. The misleading 11 September 2018 post on the Club website about Mr. McInnis’ suspension has been removed.
The information that the Board has now received through the Athletics Canada and the Ottawa Lions-commissioned independent investigation as well as separate impact statements to the Board, the Athletics Canada Commissioner, and through social media highlight that we erred in the handling of the announcement and caused distress to the Complainants as well as to the rest of the Club’s membership.
We recognize that our approach to communicating the details of Mr. McInnis’ suspension may have led to an erosion of trust in the Board of Directors among our members. It was never the Board’s intention to be deceitful to its members, but we understand this may have been the outcome. For this, we categorically and unreservedly apologize.
We are committed to working towards rebuilding the trust that has been lost.
Sincerely,
Ottawa Lions Board of Directors

While temperatures reached nearly 30 degrees yesterday in Lynchburg, Virginia, the sun wasn’t the only thing heating up the track at Liberty University. Farah Jacques posted two victories Wednesday at the Liberty Twilight before boarding a plane for Yokahama, Japan where she will represent Canada next weekend at the World Relay Championships.
The 29 year old Jacques was dominating in winning both the 100m hurdles and 200m events. Bolstered by a positive 2.8 metres per second wind at her back in the hurdles, final, Jacques won convincingly in a time of 13.09 seconds. It was the second all-conditions best for the Olympic finalist on the day after speeding to a windy 13.22 seconds in the preliminaries.
The wind grew stronger for the 200m final as Jacques won in 23.68 seconds over Kanajzae Brown of Virginia Tech while the wind registered a positive 5.1 metres per second.
Also in Lynchburg, Lion alum Alejandro Perlaza Zapata rolled to victory in the men’s 400 in 46.19 seconds before registering a 45.11-second anchor leg as his Liberty Flames came from behind to defeat Hampton in the 4 x 400 relay in 3:10.58
Jacques, who ran lead off for Canada when they finished seventh in the Rio Olympic final, is scheduled for the 4x100m heats at the World Relay Championships on Saturday, May 11 with the final set for the 12th.

Subsequent to recent media reports over the last two weeks, the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club has received complaints from its membership of sexual harassment allegations against Ken Porter. These complaints have been referred to Athletics Canada Commissioner, Dr. Frank Fowlie, for review and investigation.
The Board of Directors has also had the opportunity to review the final report prepared by the investigator retained by the Club in response to complaints made to the Club as well as the report prepared by the investigator appointed by Athletics Canada into other complaints made directly to that body.
The Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club Board of Directors has determined that Ken Porter is in violation of the Club’s Statement of Expectations as well as the Athletics Canada and Athletics Ontario Code of Conduct and Ethics Policies.
The Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club Board of Directors herewith announces that Dr. Ken Porter’s affiliation with the Club has been permanently severed as result of the aforementioned violation of the Club’s By-laws and Statement of Expectations, this will include expulsion of Dr. Porter from having any future affiliation with the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club.  
We want to assure all members that creating and maintaining a healthy, safe and secure sporting environment for all our athletes, coaches, officials, volunteers and employees is a top priority for our organization. Any actions that contravene our Statement of Expectations or Harassment Policy are incompatible with that environment and strictly prohibited.
As such, members are encouraged to contact the Club’s Ombudsperson if they are aware of any such actions. The Ombudsperson has been given the authority by the Board of Directors to investigate all complaints of violations of the Ottawa Lions Track and Field Club’s Statement of Expectations or Harassment Policy. If you wish to raise further matters with respect to Ken Porter please forward them to the Office of the Athletics Canada Commissioner [https://athletics.ca/machform/view.php?id=115817], which is the body to whom the Club is deferring in this particular case.

It was a quieter week for the Lions on the competition front, but it certainly wasn’t without its standout performances.
For the second week in a row, Josh Cassidy completed a marathon, finishing 18th at the World Para Athletics Marathon Championships in London. The 34 year old Cassidy crossed the line in a time of 1:43:41 to finish 18th overall in the field. Cassidy, who spoke of issues adjusting to his new carbon fiber chair following the Boston Marathon last week continued to experience issues.
Speaking with Athletics Canada, Cassidy said, ““I felt fine during the race, in the front running until the halfway mark during the Tower Bridge climb, where I felt the new chair position set in most,” said Cassidy. “I need to make the necessary changes and move ahead.”
Back in North America, Keira Christie-Galloway posted the fastest all-conditions 100m hurdles time by a Lion since 2017 when she topped qualifying at the Drake Relays with a windy time of 13.09 seconds. Unfortunately, for Christie-Galloway the wind was just over the allowable limit at a positive 2.3 m/s. While the Iowa State Cyclone did not start the final of the 100m hurdles, she did help her team capture the seldom run shuttle hurdle relay in time of 56.56 seconds.
On the west coast, Tim Nedow took gold in the shot put at the Steve Scott Invite in Irvine, California. The Brockville native heaved the 16 pound ball out to a distance of 20.33 metres for a nearly three metre margin of victory. Also in Irvine, Lionel Muteba posted a speedy early season run of 10.59 seconds to finish seventh in the 100 metres.
Competing at home for her Colorado State Rams, Lauren Gale dropped her personal best over 400 metres for the second weekend in a row as she finished second in a time of 53.55 seconds. This mark moves Gale into third on the all-time club list, leap frogging Ashley Purnell. Gale also finished fourth in the 100 metres in a windy time of 11.98 seconds.

By: Jonathan Yue
Four Canadian athletes are set to compete at the WPA World Marathon Championships on Sunday, April 28, looking to use their vast experiences in the marathon to their advantage in a challenging London, England, course.
“The London Marathon is a very technical course,” said Brent Lakatos, who will be competing in his second London Marathon. “I have spent a lot of time studying the course to prepare. There are a lot of places throughout the race where you have to be extremely aware of the course and your position within the peloton, as a simple slip up can mean getting dropped by the peloton.”
A team with an array of experiences, Lakatos will join marathon veteran Joshua Cassidy, 2018 Commonwealth gold medallist Alexandre Dupont and fellow 2017 newcomer Tristan Smyth.
The London Marathon will serve as a 2020 Paralympic Games qualifier, giving each athlete the opportunity to solidify their spot on Canada’s Paralympic Team. This weekend’s programme will also mirror that of Tokyo 2020, therefore, folks in London will see some of the world’s best marathoners take on the course. With experience racing in the streets of London, Lakatos and Cassidy expect a great atmosphere and will be looking to feed off it, both having top five finishes in their sights.
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Twenty five years ago “The Sign” by Ace of Base topped the music charts, “Forest Gump” made it’s debut in theatres and the world was enamored with Netscape Navigator as a way to get around the early days of the internet. It was also when Leslie Estwick set a club record in the women’s long jump with a leap of 6.27 metres at a competition in Prince George, BC.
Flash forward to 2019 and Divya Biswal, who was barely 18 months old when Estwick set the standard, added 3 centimetres to the mark with her 6.30 metre leap to finish second at the Bryan Clay Invite in Azusa, California. It was a breakthrough performance for the 26 year old Biswal as all four of her measured jumps were in excess of her previous best of 6.01 metres.
“Records are made to be broken,” said Estwick when asked about Biswal’s performance. With a smile on her face, she also quipped, “Just give me credit for having held [the record] for 25 years.”
Not finished with her record breaking ways, Biswal returned to the runway an hour later to contest her specialty – the triple jump. Despite feeling the affects of competing for nearly four hours in the California sun, the St. Lawrence University grad bounded her way out to a new lifetime best and club record of 13.31 metres on her third attempt. Unfortunately, she would pass her final three attempts due to cramping.
Despite the long record setting day, Biswal came right back the next day the Beach Invite in Long Beach to set yet another record, again in the triple. She wasted no time, adding a further seven centimetres to her record as she broke the sand at 13.38 metres on her first attempt. Just like that, victory belonged to Biswal as she won by more than a foot over Ja’la Henderson of the University of Wyoming.
Also in Long Beach, shotputter Tim Nedow set a new outdoor lifetime best en route to finishing third. The two-time Commonwealth Games medalist heaved the 16 pound ball out to 21.18 metres to add 16 centimetres to his previous outdoor best set last summer. While an outdoor best, Nedow’s mark was still short of his club record 21.33 metres set in 2016 at an indoor competition in Stockholm.
In his debut performance at 10,000 metres, Farah Abdulkarim set the track on fire with a scorching performance of 28 minutes 39.66 seconds to finish fifth at the Mt. Sac Relays and move to the top of the Canadian rankings. The performance puts third on the club’s all-time rankings and also surpasses the standards for this summer’s World University and Pan American Games.
Also occupying a spot atop the Canadian rankings is Stephen Evans. The USports champion over 600m carried his speed outdoors as he posted a new lifetime best of 1:48.90 at the Bryan Clay Invite to move to eighth in Club history. Evans promptly followed it up the next day in Long Beach with a time of 1:49.58.
Also posting all-time ten performances this past weekend were Colorado State freshman Lauren Gale and Washington sophomore Shona McCulloch. Also running in Long Beach, Gale placed second over 400m with a time of 53.60 seconds to move to number four all-time. Up the coast in Palo Alto, McCulloch dropped 18 seconds from her previous best in the 3000 metre steeplechase as she shot up to third on the club rankings.