Sports including boxing, bobsleigh and skeleton, ice hockey, rowing and gymnastics have all been hit by recent controversies in Canada.

Several governing bodies have joined the Abuse-Free Sport independent programme, which was developed by the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada aiming to prevent and address mistreatment through education, training, and research.

However, 91 university-based scholars have written to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau demanding an immediate independent judicial enquiry into endemic abuse within Canadian sport.

The Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner (OSIC) serves as the "central hub" of Abuse-Free Sport, but the scholars argued it "lacks the necessary independence, capacity, authorities, expertise, and mandate to conduct an inquiry of the breadth and depth required".

National governing bodies risk losing Federal funding if they have not signed to the OSIC by April 1, with 43 of the 70 currently having done so.

A Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Status of Women has heard testimony from numerous athletes about the abuse they endured.

The Canadian Government committed CAD16 million (£9.8 million/$12 million/€11.2 million) to safe sport over the next three years, but St-Onge faced accusations that the Federal Government was "passing the buck" when she appeared at a hearing of the Committee.

She denied those suggestions.

"The reality is that the sports system touches multiple jurisdictions and I can't fix it alone," she said, as reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

"There needs to be a coherence in this system, and what we're seeing is that there is no coherence right now.

"And that's part of the things that we need to work on."

She said that the Federal Government was responsible for around 3,700 elite athletes, but most abuse cases happened at local level.

"The vast majority of cases of abuse and maltreatment happen outside the federal scope," St-Onge said.

"They happen in local clubs, leagues and gyms, all of which are within the responsibility of provincial, territorial and local authority.

"This harsh reality was recently pointed out by an extensive investigative report from CBC.

"Canadians all over the country are asking us to fill that gap."

St-Onge stressed the need to move away from an emphasis on sporting results and pressure to win medals in favour of a greater focus on athletes' wellbeing.

"The discussion is truly about how do we define excellence," she said, as reported by the Canadian Press.

"In previous mandates, I would say it was about medals and podiums.

"Now we need to take into account the excellence of the organisations themselves, how they take the wellbeing of athletes into a holistic approach."