Sir, I grew up playing soccer. I've probably had 10 occasions where my mom had to come and wake me up every hour in the middle of the night. I'd go into the hospital; they'd do the concussion check, which was not much back then, and I'd go through the night. It has not been football, and I have nothing against football at all. However, during your statement, it felt a bit like you were talking about the effects of the focus on concussion on football, and the effects of...maybe a feeling that perhaps it shouldn't be concussions we're focusing on but mental health writ large for young people, and football as a tool to help certain people struggling with mental health issues

Sir, I'm not grandstanding because I'm not running again. There's no grandstanding here, but I can tell you that I agree with you on the mental health subject. Our health committee is focusing on the mental health subject. I agree with you on team sports, especially for demographics that don't have access. It is incredibly important. That's actually where I come from.

There is a focus on this because it is a very serious issue. I'm glad to hear the CFL is making changes and has made changes in the past on these items. We're here because there are a lot of people in our ridings who are bringing forward these issues with their young ones, who have been going through this.

Concussion North is in my riding. It's basically a state-of-the-art facility, not because of the building it's in—it's not a very nice building—but because of all of the different doctors they have in place who are volunteering their time to make it happen. As we go through this process, I don't want any sports organizations to feel like they are under attack, but I do want them to take this as seriously as we are.

To me, it felt a little bit like, “Hey, this issue is hurting us a little bit. Maybe we should focus on this other thing over here”, and that's not what I wanted to hear today. I do like hearing some of the other stuff in terms of what you have done, and what you will continue to do, the constant audits, the looking at the research out of the CFL and working with the best Canadian minds. I'm all for that, but I had a real issue with that.

Alex Nuttall