Boxing, bobsleigh and skeleton, ice hockey, rowing and gymnastics are among the sports in Canada that have been dogged by recent scandals.

Duncan, who served as Sports Minister from 2015 to 2019, has made seven recommendations for a public inquiry when speaking to Members of Parliament at the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage

"The time is now for a national public inquiry," said Duncan as reported by CBC.

"If Canada gets it right, we can better protect our athletes, we can also be a catalyst for a long overdue global conversation on athlete health, safety and well-being."

Her recommendations include brining in an independent, comprehensive inquiry focused on the health, safety and well-being of athletes and be trauma informed with survivors fully empowered to speak.

According to CBC, Duncan also recommends for the inquiry to investigate the governance, accountability and finances of all sporting organisations in the country and to examine Sport Canada’s safe sport measures.

"My last and most important recommendation is that a thorough investigation be undertaken about whether cases of abuse were effectively resolved, were perpetrators removed from the system, or were passive enablers in place who protected the sport and the organisation over the protection of young people," said Duncan.

Duncan gave her testimony as part of ongoing Parliamentary hearings into allegations of a toxic culture across Canadian sport.

"These stories are decades old, this has been going on for decades, but if we do not have an inquiry we will not get to the bottom of this," said Duncan.

"In sport, abuse is decades old.

"It’s entrenched, it’s complex."

Duncan also claimed that there had been an "absolute resistance to moving forward on safe sport initiatives" by some sporting governing bodies.

"At that time [when I was Sports Minister] I did ask what we would be doing on safe sport going forward, and I was told that we had to get back to what sport was really about, and I said 'so not protecting children'," said Duncan.

"I think what we have seen in the past years, athletes have seen some momentum and then there was a hiatus and I think there was rightfully frustration.

"I think 2022 is the year of athlete advocacy."

Several athletes have called for an injury including footballers Andrea Neil and Ciara McCormack, boxer Myriam Da Silva Rondeau and fencer Emily Mason.

Canadian Olympic Committee chief executive David Shoemaker has also recently backed the calls, insisting an "unsafe sport system is an unacceptable sports system".

Last month, Canada's Sports Minister Pascale St-Onge ordered the creation of a public registry of people who have been sanctioned which should be created within a year.

St-Onge also said that a public inquiry was a legitimate request.