Boxing Ontario didn’t properly investigate alleged abuse by Ottawa coach, boxer says | CBC News

Kaitlyn Clark doesn’t remember much about the 2017 national boxing championship. She does remember feeling so weak she could barely fight her opponent inside the ring. 

In the days leading up to the match in Quebec City, the boxer said she spent every waking moment trying to lose the more than 10 pounds necessary to make her weight class.

Clark said she stopped eating and submerged in a hot bath for hours to sweat out as much water weight as possible. At one point, she recalled losing consciousness.

“I have never felt so close to death in my life,” Clark would later write about that experience.

On the day of her weigh-in, she made sure her hair was bone dry and stepped onto the scale naked. She barely made it under the maximum 64 kilograms, or 141 pounds, to qualify in the “light welterweight” category for elite female boxers.

“I was completely pale. I looked horrible,” Clark said, referring to photos she later saw of herself after the fight, which she lost in three rounds. People who watched told her the fight was a disaster. 

Clark would win a national championship two years later, but not before this moment she calls rock-bottom — a place she says she was forced into by former coach Jill Perry.

From 2011 to 2017, Clark said she felt “controlled and helpless” while training under Perry at Beaver Boxing in Ottawa. Clark said she experienced harassment, psychological abuse and grooming and was immersed in an environment that led to an eating disorder, suicidal ideation and an Olympic-track boxing career being placed on hold indefinitely.

Now 30, Clark has filed a formal complaint against Perry to Boxing Ontario, which oversees 150 clubs across the province. CBC News has seen a copy of the complaint and dozens of emails, letters and documents that show a pattern of alleged problematic behaviour on the part of the coach. 

Perry, who as recently as last year served on Boxing Ontario’s high performance committee, has never been found in violation of any safe sport policy related to Clark’s complaints. The case against Perry is still under internal investigation.

Perry declined CBC’s requests for an interview. In an email she said “all complaints and discipline matters are confidential.”

“I can only say that everything [Clark] has claimed is demonstrably false. I am proud of my record of success as a coach and expect the process will fully exonerate me,” Perry wrote.

Now based in Kitchener, Ont., Clark is the latest boxer to come forward with allegations of abuse.

Boxing Ontario’s national affiliate, Boxing Canada, came under scrutiny in 2022 after more than 120 athletes, coaches and officials signed an open letter calling on the Canadian government to address a “toxic culture of fear and silence” within the umbrella organization.     

Officials with Boxing Ontario declined requests for an interview about “any matters which may be proceeding through our disciplinary process.”

CBC also reached out to six individuals known to be associates of Perry. While none agreed to speak on the record, one person did say there is another side to the story.

Meeting the coach

Clark began boxing when she was 18 in her hometown of Sarnia, Ont.

“The first time I sparred, I cried because I got beat up,” Clark recalled, adding she wasn’t a natural. 

Still, she loved the challenge and quickly improved. She got several fights under her belt and started winning tournaments. 

She moved to Ottawa later that year to attend Carleton University and advance her boxing career. On a former coach’s recommendation, she signed up to train with Perry, a former champion, at Beaver Boxing.

“She immediately took me under her wing,” said Clark, recalling how their relationship quickly extended beyond the gym.

Perry, who is more than 20 years older than Clark, began driving her home after training. That was when Clark said her coach’s grooming behaviour began, with Perry sharing personal details of her life.

“As a teenager in a fresh new environment where I don’t know a whole lot of people, I was very compelled to indulge in that,” she said. 

Boundaries crossed

Clark said she would soon dogsit for Perry and attend her coach’s family gatherings. The two women became so close, Clark said she stood beside Perry at her coach’s wedding.

“The line was always very blurred,” said Clark.

There were several moments when she said their relationship took an uncomfortable turn.

Perry would often share hotel rooms with her athletes while touring for matches, and Clark said Perry would share beds, too — a breach of Boxing Canada’s safe sport policy, which states a person in authority can’t share accommodations unless they’re a parent, guardian or spouse.

“Then she’s like, ‘Oh, well, I have to be touching somebody while I’m sleeping, so my foot will touch you,’ which just breaks that barrier of contact,” Clark said. 

Clark said Perry also frequently talked about sex, including intimate details, and asked Clark about her sex life — the discussions usually focused on how to use sex in a power dynamic.

CBC has spoken to another boxer who was present for some of those conversations and trips. While the witness did not want to speak on the record, she shared a different perspective — describing the incidents as “girl talk” and similar to a sleepover with friends. 

Clark finds these memories painful.

“From 18 to 24, like that’s such a vulnerable age group and to have somebody always discuss sex in that way, it makes you, like, associate sex with fear and power and control,” she said.

However, as a young and driven athlete, Clark said she put all her faith into Perry. When the coach told her to do something, Clark said she listened.

A toxic culture

CBC reviewed more than 30 emails that show Perry as the sender where she regularly insulted lists of people, with at least two examples that touch on race.

In one April 2016 email, the coach mentioned more than a dozen athletes and coaches she wanted to see retire, referring to one as a “bitch” and another a “creep.”

In another email sent about two months later, Perry complained about the responsibility of watching over another athlete whom she could see “running off with Gypsies.”

In a third email, Perry referenced another athlete’s South Asian heritage.

“Stay home and make your man some curry goat is my recommendation,” Perry wrote in July 2016.

In a fourth email dated January 2017, Perry called the parent of a former youth client “nuts” for sending a “12-year-old developmentally delayed undersized kid” to train at another gym.

Clark never confronted Perry about these conversations, she admits, adding she would also grow mean toward others, laughing along with Perry. 

Clark said she wanted her coach to like her, though it didn’t exempt the young boxer from similar treatment.

“It would be fun one moment and then the next moment, it wasn’t fun anymore,” Clark said.

She specifically recalls the aftermath of another trip to Quebec City, this one in 2013, when Perry became upset with Clark for not inviting the coach to lunch with other athletes. On the drive home, Clark said she needed to stop to use a bathroom but Perry refused, telling Clark to pee on the side of the road.

“To know that somebody felt OK with exercising that kind of power over you, you feel so helpless,” Clark said.

The fight to weigh less

Clark said her coach’s power and control took particular aim at the young woman’s weight, which manifested in a variety of ways ranging from unsafe nutritional practices to being yelled at for eating a “spoonful of ice cream.” 

On Perry’s orders, Clark said she was told to fight in the light welterweight class for tournaments, but staying below 64 kilograms became harder to maintain as she grew older. 

That was when Perry’s coaching took a dark turn, Clark alleged.

Clark said she began running 70 kilometres a week and training several hours per day in the gym. She said she also cycled every morning before work.

The boxer remembers one international tournament where she skipped for four hours straight wearing a sauna suit.

“It got to the point, got so bad where everything I did, I was concerned that if I ate something, Jill would yell at me or she would weigh me … and then write it on the board and scold me,” Clark said.

Diuretics ‘abused’ to lose weight

In the spring of 2016, Clark’s nutritionist raised concerns over the boxer’s plan to lose 13 pounds five weeks ahead of a tournament. 

“I am not saying we can’t get you down to your competitive weight goal, but I also do not feel comfortable having you on such a reduced calorie intake diet … This can lead to many health issues,” the nutritionist wrote after reviewing the boxer’s file.

Clark said Perry gave the opposite advice. 

“I was on a liquid diet for months at a time. I abused diuretics,” said Clark.

In the formal complaint against her former coach, Clark also claims Perry encouraged her to increase her intake of hyperthyroid medication to speed up the boxer’s metabolism.

“I took them because she was my coach and I trusted her,” wrote Clark.

Due to the ongoing Boxing Ontario investigation, Perry said she could not address the allegations, but told CBC they are false. 

Breaking point

By 2017, Clark said she had developed a full-fledged eating disorder, anxiety and panic attacks. After losing her fight at the national championships, her relationship with Perry soured.

Clark said Perry encouraged her to quit boxing. 

For the last year, she realized her relationship with Perry no longer felt safe. Clark began training with another coach. 

Perry continued to harass her, Clark alleged. The boxer has shown CBC a screenshot of a Facebook notification where Perry tagged Clark in a photo as “donkey.”

In November of that year, the boxer decided to move back home to Sarnia. By this point, she felt completely defeated and even suicidal.

“I remember when I left Ottawa, I called my mom and I said, ‘You need to come pick me up. I need to move back to Sarnia cause I feel like killing myself is the only way to get away from Jill [Perry] and get away from this,” Clark said.

Clark said she attended therapy and slowly began to heal.

She made a return to boxing in her hometown and eventually fought and won a national title in 2019.

Perry continued to badmouth Clark long after their coach-athlete relationship ended, according to one witness. Erin Forsyth, a coach from Mississauga, Ont., recalls a training camp she attended in the fall of 2021 in Montreal where both Clark and Perry were present.

“Jill spent the entire time, I would say, on a character assassination of Kaitlyn [Clark],” said Forsyth.

Forsyth said Perry told other coaches that Clark was a dangerous fighter. She also recalled watching Perry make comments about the boxer needing to lose weight, requesting others to weigh Clark multiple times, when other athletes only had to step on the scale once. 

The complaint

According to Clark, she shared details with the former president of Boxing Ontario in 2021 of her relationship with Perry.

Clark said nothing ever came of those conversations. Early in 2022, she submitted two formal complaints to the association: one against Perry and the other against the former president for failure to report the abuse.

“It was scary,” said Clark. “I knew that it was going to be an uphill battle because Jill [Perry] is so ingrained in boxing and you know, she’s in positions of authority.”

What followed, she said, has been a frustrating and fruitless process. Clark and former Boxing Ontario vice-president Michael Williamson believe the complaint was never properly investigated.

“The complaint was submitted with a significant amount of evidence,” Williamson told CBC, referring to emails, text messages and witness statements provided by Clark.

The board called a special meeting and Williamson said he was overruled in the decision to “follow suit and suspend” Perry.

Williamson said the board defended the coach, maintaining her position on the organization’s high performance committee and “actively campaigning to keep Jill Perry in a position of power, regardless of the complaint.” 

“I tried to push the association to make the right decision and essentially I was blacklisted from the board,” he said.

Williamson chose not to run for the board the following year.

Officials with Boxing Ontario declined to comment, citing the ongoing disciplinary process involving Clark and Perry. 

The organization has hired ITP Sport, an Ottawa-based company that serves as the independent third party to handle sport complaints and to investigate the case, as required by the federal Heritage Department for continued funding.

“We encourage anyone with concerns about maltreatment or other inappropriate behaviour within our sport to contact our independent third party,” wrote Jennifer Ogg, the current president of Boxing Ontario in an email to CBC.

Unresolved issue

Williamson and Clark said months have passed with no updates. The issue remains unresolved and Perry is still coaching high-level boxing in Canada.

Clark said the process has added to the trauma and anxiety she experienced over the last 10 years. Since filing her complaint, she started experiencing psychogenic, non-epileptic seizures her doctor said are likely caused by stress.

A medical note from the urgent neurology department of a hospital visit last year, which CBC has seen, suggested Clark should also turn to psychiatry to address her “PTSD-like symptoms.”

“I wasn’t able to work. I got my licence taken away. I wasn’t able to box. I could hardly live my day-to-day. My life was drastically impacted by it,” she said.

Clark’s boxing career is currently on hold.

She said she had to walk away from her opportunity to go to the Olympics. With her complaint still unresolved, the boxer said she’s been left in a yearlong holding pattern.

She still hopes Boxing Ontario will properly investigate Perry, not only for her sake, but to keep other athletes safe.

“I’m just continuing to move, to push it forward and make sure that people know about this because this is a big deal. Safe sport is a big issue and we should be able to do sport and be abuse free,” said Clark.