U SPORTS Football Athlete Suspended for the Presence of Multiple Prohibited Substances
Ottawa – September 11, 2025 – The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) announced today that Darien Newell, a U SPORTS football athlete affiliated with Queen’s University, received a six-year sanction for an anti-doping rule violation under the Canadian Anti-Doping Program (CADP).
This sanction follows the April 30, 2025 announcement by the Canadian Football League (CFL) that the athlete committed a violation for the presence of multiple banned substances under the CFL anti-doping policy, the details of which can be found in the CFL’s media release. Given the athlete is also subject to the CADP as a U SPORTS athlete, it has been determined that the athlete has also violated the CADP.
The standard sanction under the CADP for a violation involving a prohibited substance is a four-year period of ineligibility; however, given the presence of multiple prohibited substances, the CCES asserted a six-year period of ineligibility in accordance with the relevant provisions of the CADP. As the athlete failed to dispute the violation within the specified timelines, the violation and the sanction were confirmed by way of a deemed waiver. Because a provisional suspension was imposed on the athlete, the sanction ends on June 22, 2031.
During the sanction period, the athlete is ineligible to participate in any capacity with any sport signatory to the CADP or the World Anti-Doping Code, including training with teammates.
In compliance with rule 8.4 of the CADP, the CCES’s file outcome summary can be found in the Canadian Anti-Doping Registry.
The original press release can be found here: https://cces.ca/news/u-sports-football-athlete-suspended-presence-multiple-prohibited-substances
