Bill S-209 (Historical)

An Act to amend the Criminal Code (prize fights)

The enactment amends the Criminal Code by expanding the list of permitted sports under the prize fighting provisions.

The House proceeded to the consideration of Bill S-209, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (prize fights), as reported (without amendment) from the committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mike Wallace]

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, meeting number 70. According to our orders of the day, pursuant to order of reference of Wednesday, March 6, 2013, Bill C-452, an act to amend the Criminal Code (exploitation and trafficking in persons) will be in front of us today, Wednesday, and Monday of next week.

Before we begin with the mover of the bill, we have two budgets in front of us. They are both for witnesses we've had for the two previous private members' bills. One is $600 for the standing committee presentation. This was for Bill S-209, the prize fights. Would somebody move that for me?

Justice and Human Rights

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the fifth report of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights in relation to Bill S-209, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (prize fights).

The committee has considered the bill and has agreed to report the bill back to the House without amendment.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan—Coquihalla, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thank all the guests here today for their testimony.

I would like to start, Mr. Chair, by saying that there are some elements of this bill that maybe all of us can agree on, including our witnesses.

Bill S-209 proposes to extend the exemption in section 83 for amateur boxing contests to cover other amateur combative sport contests, including contests in sports such as judo, karate, tae kwon do, and kick-boxing, as well as mixed martial arts. The bill would also clarify that the exemption in section 83 that currently covers professional boxing contests would then include professional mixed martial arts contests.

To both of our witnesses, do you think the proposed changes to the legislation modernize a relatively unused section of the Criminal Code and legitimize sports such as judo, karate, and mixed martial arts?

I'd like to start with the CMA, please.

[Françoise Boivin, NDP, Gatineau, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

First of all, thank you, doctors, for being here in our extreme sport arena—better known as Canadian politics.

I think I understand. And to my mind, everyone around the table understands as well. In any case, I would have been pretty surprised to see the Canadian Medical Association giving us its official okay on

the MMA sport. I would have been in shock, actually, if you had.

But this is where we might differ a bit.

In your presentation, Dr. Reid, you made it clear that you weren't a lawyer. But what the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights is trying to determine is whether it is still appropriate for the Criminal Code to qualify the practice of a certain sport as a crime when, in reality, it is not treated as such. The criminal aspect has been completely overlooked for some time now. UFC specials have been around for a number of years. I see them on several TV channels almost every day. Spike TV airs one or two matches with no problem.

We may be dealing with some hypocrisy here. And I'm not referring to your position but to the fact that the practice is criminalized in the Criminal Code. In your opening remarks, you made a statement that also appears in the notes you provided:

For parliamentarians, and for society, the question of whether to legalize MMA under the Criminal Code therefore comes down to a choice: A choice between money and health.

That comment bothered me a bit, for the simple reason that the issue has nothing to do with that in my opinion. Nor is it a matter of legalizing something. You talk about legalizing MMA, but we're actually talking about decriminalizing an activity, not legalizing it. The provinces and territories can put certain rules in place, but that doesn't mean the passage of Bill S-209 would legalize the practice. All it would do is decriminalize an activity that, in actual fact, has not been treated as a crime for quite some time.

That is the reality of Bill S-209. As my colleague Mr. Seeback pointed out, your opposition is based on the intent of the sport. In other words, the foot and elbow strikes dealt directly to a participant's head during mixed martial arts, or MMA, matches make this activity different from other sports. My understanding, then, is whether it happens in boxing or MMA, you're against it as a matter of policy, as doctors.

However, when two hockey players decide to fight during a game, taking off their helmets and gloves so they can punch each other freely in the face, it is clear to me there's an intent there as well. Therefore, I imagine you would like to go as far as to ban fighting in hockey, adding it to your policy on boxing and MMA.

Unless I am mistaken, you're position applies to all cases where an individual uses a body part to strike another person's head on purpose. The head is the main issue for you, is it not?

[The Chair, Conservative, Mike Wallace]

Ladies and gentlemen, let me call this meeting to order. We are the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights. This is meeting number 68. According to the order of reference of Wednesday, November 28, 2012, we are studying Bill S-209, an act to amend the Criminal Code (prize fights).

We are going to have witnesses on this private member's bill until approximately five o'clock, and no later than five, as per the agenda. We have only two witnesses today. I want to thank the clerk for all his efforts over the last two weeks. We had people who were interested in coming but who couldn't make the timeframe or who then cancelled and so forth. On your table the agenda shows the Government of British Columbia, but they have withdrawn because they could not make this timeframe.

We will have two witnesses today, and then we'll go to the clause-by-clause consideration later this afternoon.

I want to welcome our witnesses. First of all, from the Canadian Medical Association, we have Anna Reid, who is the president, and Ms. Ricketts. Then by video conference from Vancouver we have Mr. Gutman, who is president of Rockdoc Consulting. Both organizations will have approximately 10 minutes to give an opening statement, and then we'll go to questions.

We'll start with the Canadian Medical Association. The floor is yours, Ms. Reid.

[Hoang Mai, NDP, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

Are you aware of other types of sport that are perhaps similar to MMA, but are still considered illegal in Canada? Is there something that is similar, some sort of illegal combat, that might then be allowed under Bill S-209?

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan—Coquihalla, BC]

Bill S-209 will extend the exemption for amateur prize fights in a number of ways.

First, it will allow any amateur combative sport event in a sport that is on the Olympic or Paralympics program. If a province chooses, it can require that the Olympic or Paralympic combative sport contest obtain a licence from that particular province.

Second, the bill will make an exception to the prize fight offence for any amateur sport contest that is placed on a list of designated amateur combative sports by the province, and the province can choose to require that a licence is necessary for a designated amateur combative sport contest.

Third, it will make an exception for any other amateur combative sport contest for which a province has chosen to grant a licence.

Mr. Wright, in your view, Bill S-209 will extend the exemption for amateur prize fights in a way that respects this provincial decision-making.

[Tom Wright, Director of UFC Operations for Canada, Australia and New Zealand, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Zuffa Canada Productions, LLC]

Mr. Chair, Madam Vice-Chair, and members of the committee, I want to first and foremost thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to you this morning.

On behalf of the UFC, our athletes and mixed martial arts fans across Canada, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today about our sport.

I'd also like to thank Senator Runciman for his stewardship in bringing Bill S-209 into the Senate, and the MP from Montreal, Massimo Pacetti, for introducing the bill in the House of Commons.

As both Senator Runciman and Mr. Pacetti mentioned, several people had the opportunity to speak to the committee in the Senate, which was addressing this issue, and there have been other opportunities for people to discuss the importance of bringing clarity to the Criminal Code and changing some of the ambiguity that currently exists within it.

I think it's important for people in this committee to understand that while my business card reads “Zuffa“, and it reads that I manage the UFC here in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, I'm actually here today representing the sport of mixed martial arts. So I have a MMA hat on and I'm trying to represent our sport, which in many ways is a very young sport compared with the other sports that we typically spend a lot of time talking about, be it boxing, which goes back into the 1800s, or hockey, football, basketball, and baseball, the traditional team sports, which are well into their second century. The sport of mixed martial arts is actually not even a teenager, when one considers its roots.

While there are thousands of professional mixed martial artists competing in Canada and many more tens of thousands around the world, there are also many aspiring athletes who want to be able to compete and to demonstrate their skills and their athleticism as mixed martial artists.

Unfortunately, the situation we have at the moment is that there's a cloud of uncertainty and there is ambiguity in the way the sport is considered municipally and provincially in many jurisdictions across the country.

The initiative to have subsection 83(2) of the Criminal Code changed is intended to bring in a more consistent regulatory environment in order to bring continuity to our sport and to eliminate the ambiguity that certainly is present in the language that was written back in the 1930s.

It's important because, as Senator Runciman mentioned, the sport of mixed martial arts is the fastest growing sport in the world, and Canada has a very unique position in this sport. It's a position of leadership, not only from the sport's perspective, but also from the regulatory perspective.

When I speak about how Canada is regarded, it's interesting that we—I'm speaking now about the UFC, the company I work with—are the largest league in the world. If you think of the sport as hockey and the league as the NHL, or the sport as football and the league as the CFL, this sport is mixed martial arts, and the number one league in the world is the UFC.

This year alone we will be holding approximately 33 events around the world, and three of them will be held in Canada. Of those 33 events, 13 will be what we call pay per view—big, large, global events—and Canada will be hosting three of them. A week and a half ago we were in Montreal for UFC 158. We will be going to Winnipeg, Manitoba for the first time for UFC 161 in June, and we will be back in Toronto for UFC 165 in September.

That's three out of 13 global events, and these events are opportunities not only for our sport to be showcased but our athletes to be showcased around the world.

We compete with other cities not only here in Canada but around the world to host these events. In the past 12 or 14 months we've held events in Tokyo, Japan; Sydney, Australia; Macau; London; Rio de Janeiro; and of course we've held them across Canada in the cities I've mentioned, but also in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Chicago—major metropolitan areas.

It's an interesting tribute to our sport that Canada on a per capita basis is the largest consumer of mixed martial arts in the world, and we are home to some of the most famous athletes. Georges St-Pierre—we've all heard of his name—represents not only the province of Quebec but also the country of Canada so very well. He is an eight-time defending world welterweight champion. He was one of the individuals who ended up filling the Bell Centre last Saturday for UFC 158 in Montreal. Not only was Georges St-Pierre on that card, but there were a total of eight Canadians.

Our athletes come from coast to coast to coast. From Nova Scotia, T. J. Grant is one of our top 10 ranked lightweights, and he is from Cole Harbour. We could think of other athletes from Cole Harbour. I guess T. J. Grant would be number two from Cole Harbour, given that he's not quite Sidney Crosby yet. There are others from across the country.

It's important that not only have we been a leader with regard to our sport globally from a business point of view and from an acceptance point of view, but also from a regulatory point of view. At the heart of this initiative to bring clarity to the Criminal Code and eliminate the ambiguity is the goal of providing a consistent framework for regulation across the country and the necessary safety and health protection environment for all of our athletes to compete in.

I bring this up in particular because I recall a question being asked about how this impacts provinces versus municipalities. One thing that is really important to remember—and again I'll have my mixed martial arts hat on, not my UFC hat—is that the importance of having consistent regulation is to make sure that every single organization, be it a large professional organization that has offices around the world, like the UFC, or a local professional mixed martial organization that may only conduct its business in Alberta, British Columbia or Nova Scotia, be held to a specific rigour and a specific standard when it comes to the health and safety of the sport.

In the absence of regulation, in the absence of this continuity, you run into the potential issue that other organizations will not be held to that standard, and it is so very important. While the UFC may be the largest organization in the world, and while I personally would love to see us go to the territory of Yukon and take an event there, the chances are that we will not be able to take an event to the Yukon. That doesn't mean other professional mixed martial arts organizations should not be provided with that opportunity, and if they are, that organization or any other organization needs to be held to a specific and a strong, certain rigour in the regulatory standards that are in place, again to protect the health and safety of the athletes.

Senator Runciman spoke to the importance of pre- and post-fight medical testing. We also do pre- and post-fight drug testing. You want to make sure that there is a level playing field for these athletes. You want to make sure that weight classes are respected. You want to make sure that the officials are properly trained. You want to make sure that the sport is regulated, as other sports around the world and around our country are properly regulated.

In the absence of the clarity that we're seeking and that Bill S-209 provides, you run into the risk that some provinces won't sanction it and that some provinces may adopt a different perspective. It's the consistency that's so very important to allowing a sport such as ours to continue to grow and allow our country to continue to have the leadership position that it has.

I can tell you that now that I and our company and my team in Toronto are responsible for the UFC's operations in Australia and New Zealand, when I go into those countries, not only do I represent our sport, but they are anxious to understand what the regulatory environment is like in Canada.

Again, we provide a level of leadership when it comes to taking our sport forward and making sure it is provided with the foundation and the consistent regulatory environment to allow the sport to continue to grow safely, in a healthy manner, and in such a way as to make sure that the athletes' health and safety is protected at all times.

With that, Mr. Chair, I'm happy to take any and all questions.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

I have a couple of notes.

I just want to thank the committee for having me. As colleagues I think it's a great honour to be in front of committee. I've done this a few times and it is a bit intimidating, but I understand that from your point of view you don't want to hear me for too long.

I'm just going to go through a couple of points. I already spoke in the House on this. I have a couple of points that I am going to make in French, so not to repeat what the senator just said.

I would just like to highlight a few points.

The goal of this bill is to legalize certain combative sports that are currently illegal but tolerated. Bill S-209 will enhance our ability to monitor combative sports in order to protect participants by reducing their risk of injury.

Some will ask why we should even allow such sports. With proper oversight, combative sports, like mixed martial arts, become much less dangerous for participants than other very common sports like hockey or boxing. Underground fights increase the risk of injury and generate unreported earnings. Not only are mixed martial arts competitions such as the UFC's extremely popular in Canada, but they also represent considerable income for our economy.

The purpose of this bill is to update the Criminal Code. Amending the Criminal Code is an important step towards eliminating any ambiguity regarding the legality of combative sports in Canada. And the popularity of those sports is growing. The Criminal Code currently defines a prize fight as an encounter or fight with fists or hands between two persons. The Criminal Code provisions on prize fights haven't been amended since 1934. Back then, combative sports were primarily limited to boxing and wrestling. The Criminal Code needs to include other combative sports such as karate and tae kwon do.

This bill will help prevent illegal underground fighting. Updating the Criminal Code will legalize combative sports such as mixed martial arts and tae kwon do, while standardizing the regulations. Because the Criminal Code doesn't specifically allow certain combative sports, some Canadians organize underground fights, putting participants at significant risk. This bill will give provinces the extra tools they need to better regulate the practice of combative sports.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[Senator Bob Runciman]

Thank you to the committee for inviting me to speak about Bill S-209. This bill updates the definition of “prize fighting” in section 83 of the Criminal Code, a definition that hasn't been changed in nearly 80 years. When the current offence of prize fighting became part of the code, the only exception allowed was for a boxing match held under the jurisdiction of a provincial athletic board.

As we all know, a lot has changed since then, and that's why the bill is necessary. Other combative sports have increased in popularity in the intervening decades, particularly at the amateur level.

Mixed martial arts is the fastest growing professional sport in North America, yet technically all these sports, including some Olympic events, are illegal. Provinces are forced to skirt the law when they allow these competitions to go ahead. I describe it as creative interpretations of the Criminal Code.

Bill S-209 updates the definition of a “prize fight” to include an encounter with fists, hands, or feet, and expands the list of exemptions to the offence to include amateur combative sports that are on the program of the International Olympic Committee or the program of the International Paralympic Committee, other amateur sports as designated or approved by the province, and boxing contests and mixed martial arts contests held under the authority of a provincial athletic board, commission. or a similar body.

In all exemptions, provincial permission is required and the contests are supervised by provincial or municipal regulators. Most of the provisions of this bill are identical to those in former Bill C-31, from the second session of the 40th Parliament, provisions that were the result of extensive consultation dating back more than a decade among the federal government, the provinces, and national sports organizations. The only change from Bill C-31 is the addition of the words “or mixed martial arts contest” in paragraph 1(2)(d).

Regulators at both the provincial and municipal levels support this bill. Ken Hayashi, who is the long-time athletics commissioner of Ontario, and Pat Reid, the executive director of the Edmonton Combative Sports Commission, both testified at the Senate committee about the need to update the Criminal Code. These are people, I can tell you from my experience as consumer minister in Ontario, who take their job very seriously, who want to ensure all the rules are complied with, and that athletes' health and safety are protected.

Their job is more difficult when the law they enforce no longer reflects reality. I know that for members of Parliament the top-of-mind concern will be safety of the athletes. Regulators require physicians to be at ringside during combative sport competitions, and competitors are subject to extensive pre- and post-fight medical tests and examinations, examinations that are conducted and supervised independently, unlike other sports.

The Edmonton Combative Sports Commission has compiled 10 years of evidence comparing injuries in mixed martial arts and boxing, that demonstrate that boxing is in fact more dangerous than mixed martial arts. They examined 556 boxing matches and found 9.5% of the fighters suffered concussions. They looked at 1,119 mixed martial arts bouts, and they found that the concussion rate was at 4.9%, just over half of that of boxing.

Regulators and competitors say the lower incidence of brain injuries in mixed martial arts is due to the nature of the combat and the various ways a fight can end, including the tap-out, which is a form of voluntary submission. Thirty per cent of UFC bouts end with a tap-out.

Mr. Chairman, I'm not going to sit here and tell you and other members of the committee that there are not significant risks of injuries in combative sports. There are. The question is, how do we best mitigate that risk?

In my view, proper regulation and supervision is crucial. Regulators want a more secure legal framework in which to operate. Bill S-209 is part of that process. By updating the Criminal Code to reflect modern reality, we are giving regulators one of the tools they need to keep athletes safe.

Again, I thank the committee for inviting me and look forward to any questions you might have.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mike Wallace]

Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to get started five seconds early. I'm using BlackBerry time, so there it is, 3:30.

Thank you for joining us today at the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, meeting number 67, pursuant to the order of reference of Wednesday, November 28, on Bill S-209, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (prize fights).

We're fortunate enough to have the sponsor with us, from the Senate, the Honourable Bob Runciman, senator.

Massimo Pacetti, the MP for Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, has just arrived.

While they're getting comfortable, I will just let you know that late yesterday afternoon the clerk got a call—and he called me—from the British Columbia government, their department of sport or whatever it is, wanting to be a witness on this bill. My thought was that I would bring it to committee to say that instead of doing clause-by-clause today, the Monday we come back we'll put the first hour aside for any further witnesses because we only have one, other than the movers of the bill. We have only one witness today and I think it's appropriate that if there are others who would like to come and see us on this private member's bill that they do so. I'm putting that out for discussion for the group, and then we'll go right to the piece.

Monsieur Goguen.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mike Wallace]

I call this meeting to order. I am using my BlackBerry time, not the clock at the back.

This is meeting number 64 of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights. The orders of the day are, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), a study of expenditure plans for Justice Canada in 2012-13. This is in regard to the supplementary (C)s, which I've brought with me if anybody wants to look at them. We are fortunate to have Justice officials here for half an hour.

At four o'clock we will go to Bill C-394. The mover of that bill, Mr. Gill, the member of Parliament for Brampton—Springdale, will be here for an hour. We should be done at about five o'clock.

For future reference, next Monday, a week from today, we will have witnesses on that bill, and then in the second half of the meeting we will do clause-by-clause consideration. On Wednesday we will have the minister here to speak on the main estimates for the upcoming year. That meeting will be held in Centre Block, so remember that it won't be in this room. The minister will be here for the first hour, and then we'll have officials for the second hour.

Next, I've had some preliminary discussions, but I have yet to speak to the Liberals. Massimo is sponsoring Bill S-209, which is the fighting bill, as I call it. We may deal with that on the Wednesday before the break; that would be a week Wednesday. We may do it all in one meeting if we get permission from everyone. We'll have the sponsor of the bill in this case, because it comes from the Senate, and some witnesses, and we may do clause-by-clause study on the same day.

That is the plan for the next two weeks, ladies and gentlemen.

With that, Mr. Pentney, I'll turn the floor over to you. The officials have a few opening remarks, and then we'll go to questions.

The House resumed from November 23 consideration of the motion that Bill S-209, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (prize fights), be read the second time and referred to a committee.

Criminal Code

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the bill is basically a housekeeping bill to bring this section of the Criminal Code more up-to-date with today's times. The last time this section was updated was in 1934.

This change will affect close to 100,000 Canadians who practise combat sports, not necessarily all at a professional level. Some are at the amateur level. We are not only talking about mixed martial arts. Some of the sports are recognized by the International Olympic Committee, such as karate, judo and tae kwon do. The bill tries to ensure that participants in all of these sports will be governed under a safe environment so that they will not considered to be doing so illegally under the current provisions.

I am hoping that Bill S-209 will merely correct this oversight so that Canada can effectively regulate acceptable combat sports openly. Seeing how the bill is not controversial and is a sensible piece of legislation that clearly addresses a blind spot in the Criminal Code, I look forward to seeing the bill passed and sent expeditiously to committee.