Thank you very much.

I, too, am an emergency doctor. I'm also a member of the Canadian Medical Association. I echo many of the points and comments of Dr. Reid before me; however, I take a very different perspective on the health of Canadians and the health of my patients.

Conceptually, my approach is one that recognizes the concept of harm reduction. Many Canadians participate in mixed martial arts of all forms. They participate in boxing. They will continue to do so regardless of what this committee chooses to do. Therefore, from my perspective, in the vein of trying to protect the health of Canadians, I would advocate that sanctioning and efforts to improve the quality of oversight of these activities is in fact where we should be pushing our energies and where we should be focusing.

There is a difference between sanctioned and unsanctioned. There is a difference between professional and amateur. While it's true that there is striking involved in mixed martial arts, in contrast to boxing, there are also other ways to win. In fact, in amateur boxing scoring, which does not necessarily involve incapacitating the opponent per se and inflicting brain damage per se, there are other ways to win. In mixed martial arts in particular, there are submission holds and wrestling manoeuvres that do not involve injuries to the head.

Dr. Reid referred to the fight in Vancouver in June 2010. It was a professional ultimate fighting championship mixed martial arts contest. I was the lead physician ringside for the medical team at that event. She is correct in that there were injuries and there were patients sent to hospital.

I would also draw the parallel to any professional sport, particularly hockey, or football, or soccer, where there are head injuries and where there are serious injuries on a regular basis. I would ask the committee to consider whether we would ban hockey in Canada. Of course we wouldn't, but we continue to aggressively pursue ways to reduce the risk of concussions in the efforts we make to reduce the long-term effects of concussions and other head injuries in terms of equipment, playing surfaces, and rulings, and most importantly, in testing both before and after competition, and also after potential injuries occur in terms of assessing return to play.

With regard to mixed martial arts, in my judgment the best way to protect the safety of Canadians is to have proper training of referees who in fact control the action and will prevent repeated strikes beyond the point at which a competitor is able to defend themselves, and also to ensure that there are proper medical assessments before, during, and after events.

When we refer back to the 83% of Canadian physicians, I believe it was, who voted in favour of the ban on mixed martial arts, I would suggest that the vast majority of them have never been to a mixed martial arts event. Perhaps they have seen it briefly on television, but they likely have no direct understanding of what assessments are required before, during, and after in order to protect the safety of competitors. Thus, further training and education of physicians and those involved in the sport would result in reduced risks and more safety for the participants.

My experience has been extensive in both amateur and professional mixed martial arts, as well as boxing, as a ringside physician and as an advocate for safety. I thank you for the opportunity to present and to discuss this topic further.

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