Code of Conduct
The Board implemented a new Code of Conduct on May 20, 2025. It applies to all members, players, guests, and visitors; in short, to anyone who walks onto the RDTC grounds.
The actual content of the Code of Conduct, and the manner in which the Board implemented it, raises significant concerns about the intended use of this Code. In fact, as of the publication of this webpage on Sept 3, 2025, it has already been:
- weaponized against at least two Directors who disagreed with actions of the Board majority, and had their access to entitled membership benefits threatened or reduced as a result.
- breached severely - on multiple counts - by the family members of one Board Director without any consequences of which we are aware.
These events underscore our concerns that the Code of Conduct will be used by this Board to silence dissenting voices and that it will not be applied consistently to everyone, especially not to themselves.
The circumstances around the creation and approval of the new Code of Conduct also reinforce the concerns we have already raised in this website about the Board’s lack of transparency, lack of due process, and lack of accountability.
For a full review of our concerns with the Code of Conduct, please read our newsletter issues of May 15 and May 17, 2025.
What is a Code of Conduct?
The core idea of a Code of Conduct is to set expectations for its users about behaviour.
The stated goals of this Code of Conduct are commendable; they are “to ensure a safe and positive environment ... in which all Individuals are treated with respect” and to set the expectation that club users show “integrity, and fairness to all”.
We appreciate these goals; they align with the values we have stated on this website.
Will this Code of Conduct allow the RDTC to move closer to this goal? We do not think so. Let us review our concerns with the Code of Conduct.
Concerns with the Code of Conduct
We have concerns both with the content of the new Code of Conduct and with how it was implemented.
1 - Process Concerns
First, it is worth commenting on how the Board rolled out this document.
The new Code of Conduct is essentially a membership agreement; it contains clauses that can result in the suspension or termination of membership and in being dismissed or banned from the grounds. This makes it a significant document for everyone who plays there, or even visits the grounds. To introduce such an agreement with existing players and members should have included a robust consultation process with those members. Such a consultation process did not happen and we find this to be problematic.
The Board circulated the 5-page draft Code of Conduct on May 12, 2025 to the club’s distribution lists. They gave people 6 days to review it and provide feedback, with the deadline for feedback being Sunday, May 18 (right in the middle of the May Long weekend). Despite the short turnaround time, many people submitted emails and letters raising numerous substantive concerns, including us (read our letter here). Two days after the deadline for feedback, on May 20, the Board approved the Code of Conduct basically unchanged. To our knowledge, none of the feedback submitted received a reply from the Board even acknowledging receipt, let alone any desire to consider the concerns raised.
This short and superficial consultation process - and with all feedback being ignored or dismissed - demonstrated to us that the Board did not have any genuine intention of seeking input or buy-in from their members or players. It also casts doubt on their intentions to achieve the stated goals of the Code. We are concerned that it was implemented to give the Board more power over its members and players rather than to generate a shared understanding of what behaviour would create a safer environment at the RDTC.
2 - Content Concerns
The key elements of the Code of Conduct that raise concerns include:
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The role of the Board (“rules for thee but not for me”)
The Board retains explicit authority to waive or modify the Code, “in its sole discretion”. They have also appointed themselves the enforcers of this Code, as per their new amended Bylaws (read our concerns about the amended bylaws here). So far, they have failed to respond to requests to clarify whether they, themselves, will be bound by this Code. (Given the refusal of the Board majority to sign their own Code of Conduct in October 2024 and their difficulties in following their own rules, as captured throughout this website, we have our doubts.)
Our concerns of this Board failing to apply their rules to themselves seem validated by a recent incident that took place at the Junior Provincial tournament on July 10, 2025. Family members of one Board Director accosted Bruno Simon in what we would describe as - and several impartial witnesses from outside the club have attested it to be - an aggressive, and harassing attack, representing breaches of at least 4 clauses of the Code of Conduct. As of the publishing of this webpage on Sept 3, 2025, the Board has failed to respond to our repeated requests to ask whether the Board is investigating this incident or taking any action against the perpetrators.
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Lack of due process
Throughout the Code, there’s a complete absence of any mechanism to assess breaches of the Code, to investigate concerns, or to explain or correct behaviour. The Code is silent on: 1) which types of behaviours will result in which types of consequences, 2) who is deciding when the Code of Conduct has been broken and what the punishment will be, and 3) whether any investigation or appeals process exists, and what those might look like.
Without any clarity on criteria or processes, how can members or players be confident that the Code will be applied fairly and consistently to them? Especially in a context where investigations, in our experience, have not been conducted fairly or impartially on several accounts by this Board thus far.
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Lack of clarity around behaviours and consequences
Terms like “harassment” and “abuse” are not defined in this Code. There are existing challenges around how these words are understood at the club; for example, anonymous racist threats did not motivate much concern among the Board majority and yet our letters of concern about this inaction were called “harassment”. With unclear descriptions of problematic behaviours and no clear connections between conduct and consequences, there is a concern that this lack of clarity will lead to selective enforcement of this Code by this Board.
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Surveillance culture
Section 9 of the Code details the Requirement to Report someone you observe to be breaching the Code or to risk sanctions yourself.
We believe it is important to stand up when you see injustice or discriminatory behaviour (hence why we published this website in the first place!). However, the lack of clarity around which behaviours are problematic and which aren’t, the lack of correlation between behaviours and consequences, and the lack of processes around investigation makes the reporting requirement more concerning.
In addition, the lack of consultation process undermines the validity of this requirement; why should people be put in a position to enforce a Code that they didn’t have any input into? For instance, some elements of the Code are trivial (such as warm up and cool down requirements) and some are contentious (such as the prohibitions on electronic devices that make sending a text in the change room or taking a casual picture of your child playing tennis violations of the Code).
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Lack of trust in Board leadership
The lack of details around which behaviours will result in what consequences, and what process will be used to investigate concerns and by whom, in addition to there being no options for discussion or appeal, are all the more worrisome in light of the concerns we have identified with the current Board majority.
This is a Board where multiple Directors refused to sign their own Code of Conduct at the beginning of their term and that has yet to confirm that this Code applies to them (and, in fact, seems to have already demonstrated that it does not). We have raised our concerns in this website that several Board members have behaved in ways that we would describe as aggressive, intimidating, and bullying, and yet those behaviours have not resulted in known reprimands or sanctions when left up to the Board to address. If they do not believe that they need to follow rules, why would club members and players trust them to be the arbiters of appropriate behaviour in others?
Why should we care?
In our opinion, this Code of Conduct is not being used to create a safer, more friendly community club. Nor do we believe it to be a legitimate response to the threatening and harassing notes left for Rene Simon over the past 3 years.
Rather, this Code of Conduct seems to us to have been created as a tool for this Board to entrench its dominance over the club and to silence anyone who dares to question their decision-making. In our view, this is not a leadership approach that is compatible with a not-for-profit community club, run by elected Directors who should be accountable to the membership. In particular, it is not a leadership style that supports community engagement, safety, or fairness.