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TNS Canadian Facts, Social and Policy Research 1 Linguistic Barriers to Access to High Performance Sport B. CONTEXT AND HISTORY OF THE ISSUE During hearings of the Parliamentary Sub-Committee on the Study of Sport in Canada in 1998, members raised the issue of discrimination against French-speaking athletes, in terms of both services available to them in their first official language and their opp [...] After the Sub-Committee's report was published, two members of Parliament wrote to the Commissioner of Official Languages and requested that the Commissioner examine the opportunities for athletes to develop to the highest levels of their sport in their preferred official language. [...] The teaching and coaching of soccer in Quebec, according to this interviewee, is based on the Latin model whereas the model used in the rest of Canada is the British model. [...] The emphasis on ensuring French and English linguistic capacity in a national team coaching staff is relatively recent and a direct result of the OCOL studies and the resulting work on the part of Sport Canada and the NSOs. [...] This policy should extend to the delivery of services in both French and English to athletes within the sport system and to communications with the public." The 2005 SAS conducted by EKOS Research Associates found some 22 TNS Canadian Facts, Social and Policy Research Observations and Recommendations dissatisfaction with respect to access to services in the athletes' official language of choice.