July, 2025
*This is a working document and is updated frequently
​French Version
Monthly meeting group members;
​Alex Conway (Manitoba), Christine Guptill (Ontario), Jemma Jones (Nova Scotia), Gwen Klassen (Alberta), Jaime Martino (Ontario), David Owen (Atlantic Federation of Musicians), David Visentin (British Columbia)​
It is an unfortunate truth that the majority of classical musicians in Canada have heard of or experienced harassment from peers, mentors, and people with power. In recent years, the recounting of experiences of harassment have garnered increased attention and kindled a growing movement to change this culture. It is our imperative responsibility to learn from shared experiences and harness this momentum to better prevent and address harassment.
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In recent years, notable strides have been taken towards creating a safer and more inclusive environment in the classical music world, however, harassment is still prevalent. This is often caused by:
  • Inadequate harassment training and education for musicians, unions, freelancers, staff, instructors, and students
  • Inconsistent practices between organizations/institutions nationally 
  • The lack of policy input from musicians and their union
  • Policies that do not adequately protect the individual
  • The inconsistent enforcement of disciplinary action for unacceptable behaviour
  • Conflicts of interest present in investigations
  • The lack of an unbiased third party to intake complaints and lead investigations

Our Mission is to provide musicians and music students with better protection against harassment. To do so, Safe Music proposes an initiative outlined below, similar to Canada’s Safe Sport Program. Safe Music is currently focused on orchestral organizations and music institutions; as we move forward, it is our mission to include all performing arts. 

The Vision for Safe Music, as of July 2025, is two fold:
  1. To draft and establish a National Code of Conduct for orchestral organizations and music institutions. This would be similar to Safe Sport’s Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Maltreatment in Sport (link)
  2. To establish an unbiased, third party OmbudsGroup responsible for the intake of complaints of misconduct, commissioning independent investigations from highly-trained, trauma-informed experts on harassment, maintaining a database of imposed sanctions, providing access to support services, and providing harassment training, education, and awareness. This would be similar to Safe Sport’s Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (link)

The National Code of Conduct shall address:
  1. The inconsistent practices between organizations (i.e., training, education, policy creation, application of policy, transparency of process) - by creating one Code by which all orchestral organizations and music institutions abide
  2. The lack of musician and union input on policies - by including musicians in the policy creation process, both on the creation committee and through national surveys
  3. Policies that do not adequately protect the individual - by engaging specialized persons to create this Code with the express purpose of protecting the individual 
  4. Inconsistent enforcement of disciplinary action for unacceptable behaviour - by clearly defining disciplinary actions and how they may be enforced

By engaging an OmbudsGroup that is an unbiased, highly-trained, trauma-informed third party to intake complaints of misconduct, commission independent investigations, maintain a database of imposed sanctions, provide access to support services, and provide harassment training, education, and awareness; 

The OmbudsGroup shall address:
  1. The lack of adequate harassment training and education for musicians, unions, freelancers, staff, instructors, and students
  2. The lack of training and expertise for those leading investigations
  3. Inconsistent enforcement of disciplinary action for unacceptable behaviour 
  4. Inherent conflicts of interest when investigations are led internally or by an investigator hired by the organization/institution