Evidence of meeting #11 for Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was players.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Doug Eyolfson Liberal Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
I'm going to have to cut you off because I have very little time here.
Liberal
Doug Eyolfson Liberal Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
You said that the threat of fighting deters other kinds of injuries.
Liberal
Doug Eyolfson Liberal Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
What is that based on? Is there empirical evidence that—
Commissioner, National Hockey League
It's what the players tell us, and in fact—
Liberal
Liberal
Doug Eyolfson Liberal Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
—but is there any empirical evidence?
Commissioner, National Hockey League
Yes, well, I'm going to tell you in a second.
Well, I'm not sure how you would study that, but in a poll that they did about four or five years ago with the players, 98% of the players who were polled, which was I think roughly half of the players who play in the NHL said that they did not want to see a change in the fighting rules.
Liberal
Doug Eyolfson Liberal Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
Well, I understand that.
What I am saying is, whether or not.... Again, we're going on assumption that what they're saying is true, that this deters it.
I could bring you probably several thousand people who don't believe in vaccination because they will all tell you that vaccination gives their children autism, when science tells us that's not true. So the fact that players are saying that doesn't make it true.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
Dr. Eyolfson, thank you.
Commissioner Bettman, thank you.
Commissioner Bettman, I do have a request. As you know, hockey is near and dear to all Canadians' hearts, and from coast to coast to coast, as I understand right now, this is being captured live on CBC, so would you indulge the committee for a number of more minutes of questions, 10 or 15 extra minutes?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
Excellent. Thank you, Commissioner.
That moves us over to Dr. Kitchen once again.
Commissioner, National Hockey League
Can I just answer that question, now that we've agreed to go a little bit longer?
Commissioner, National Hockey League
Okay.
You're asking, honourable member, that we prove a negative, and the fact of the matter is that we have 700-plus players a year who earn their livelihood playing in the NHL, and they have a great deal to say about how the game should be played.
It's not something that we can do unilaterally, but the threat of other types of contact, without the threat of fighting, has people believe it's an important thermostat in the game. Would you rather see, in an emotional moment, a cross-check to the head or an elbow to the head or a hit from behind? The threat of fighting makes it clear that a level of conduct that is expected should be complied with.
There is only so much that we can do with supplemental discipline and penalties because, as I said, overwhelmingly you have roughly 50,000 man games played in the course of a season, not including the playoffs. The incidence of fighting and the incidence of inappropriate conduct are really a tiny, tiny part of the game.
Liberal
Doug Eyolfson Liberal Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB
Well, it's 50% as per your [Inaudible—Editor].
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Peter Fonseca
Thank you, Dr. Eyolfson. You'll get another chance.
Now we're just moving over to Dr. Kitchen from the Conservatives.
Conservative
Robert Gordon Kitchen Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
Thank you, Chair.
You mentioned, and I agree with you, that for your referees it's a thankless job and it's the toughest job they'll ever have. In my years of coaching—and I coached up to midget AA—ultimately when my son became a referee, my respect for referees changed immensely and my attitude on the bench changed immensely as I came to understand how it was.
Conservative
Robert Gordon Kitchen Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
Very much so, in understanding how it was.
Conservative
Robert Gordon Kitchen Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
We heard earlier from Mr. Stringer. I'm not sure if you're aware of Mr. Stringer, but his daughter Rowan died, unfortunately, from a concussion after playing rugby—and in Ontario we now have Rowan's Law.
One of the things Mr. Stringer mentioned when he was here was that during that rugby game, when a certain individual was actually injured with a high tackle, the referee let it go and did not suspend the person and throw her out of the game, which the rules call for. That same individual did the same type of high tackle to his daughter.
That's a big, challenging thing for a referee to do during a game, and it's a momentary thing that does happen. In the NHL we see referees, again, who will make calls or miss calls. What steps are you taking to ensure that when those rules are missed, the referees are accountable for those actions and the NHL follows through with that? For example, if there is a hit to the head, is the referee admonished, fined or whatever it may be, such that there is protection for those players?
Commissioner, National Hockey League
All of our games are monitored out of a centralized facility in Toronto and every call and non-call an official makes is being logged. They are being constantly reviewed and critiqued by supervisors, including the head of officiating. Those who don't perform well don't get to work long. Those who don't perform well don't get to work the playoffs Those who don't perform well early on in the playoffs don't get to continue working in the playoffs.
We have a true merit system on officiating. We hold the officials accountable by their job performance and how much they get to work. How much they get to work affects their compensation. They are constantly scrutinized. They are constantly being sent videos of their and other officials' performance so that they can study exactly what they should be doing and what they're missing or getting wrong.