Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada Committee on May 1st, 2019

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

When you—

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you, Dr. Kitchen.

We're moving over to Mr. Maloney from the Liberals.

[James Maloney, Liberal, Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to thank Ms. Fortier for sharing her time with me.

Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner, thank you for being here. I enjoyed your presentation. I only have a few minutes so I'm going to get right to the point.

I'm old enough to be in that period between old school and new school. I've lived through the fighting era. I'm watching the current era. It's a polarized debate. I've always thought that maybe the best solution would be to lock Don Cherry and Ken Dryden in a room and don't let them out until they have a decision on what the rules are going to be.

[Gary Bettman]

I would pay to watch that.

[James Maloney, Liberal, Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON]

I think a lot of people would.

There's no question that you don't need to be a doctor to know that repeated blows to the head, be it from fists or other things, are more likely than not to cause long-term brain damage. Without getting into the fighting issue, one of the evolutions we've seen is in the game's equipment. When I was a kid, we wore hockey equipment as a defensive item. Now, and we've heard this discussed many times too, with elbow pads and shoulder pads, they're suits of armour. I know it's been discussed but has—

[Gary Bettman]

Yes.

[James Maloney, Liberal, Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON]

—there been any serious consideration given to changing that and going back?

[Gary Bettman]

We actually have reduced them. They got much larger, particularly the shoulder and elbow pads. We have worked with the players' association, as we must on these things, to reduce them and they have been reduced dramatically.

Going back to your point on hits to the head, I don't know if you were here when I mentioned it but the number over the last five years of concussions from fighting based on our video review has been about 2.6 a season. Any is too many, but in terms of that being a major cause of concussions, it's not.

We've mandated foam on elbow and shoulder pads as well. We shrank the shoulder pads, and for those who like more scoring, we've also been trying to shrink goalie equipment, which has been less player safety oriented and more in terms of—

[James Maloney, Liberal, Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON]

I wasn't going to get into that because I didn't think that's what we were here to talk about, but I'm happy about that.

The other thing is the director of player safety, which is a position as titled. The first person to hold that position, I think, was Brendan Shanahan—

[Gary Bettman]

Correct.

[James Maloney, Liberal, Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON]

—who I have to say is from my riding of Etobicoke—Lakeshore.

Him, Stéphane Quintal, and now the current one—

[Gary Bettman]

—George Parros—

[James Maloney, Liberal, Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON]

—George Parros are all people who were not averse to getting into physical situations. Was that a factor in the decision of appointing these positions?

[Gary Bettman]

No. Actually, they were particularly well suited to understand what goes on in the game and what is and isn't appropriate. They all knew how to play physically, but they also understood the ins and outs of the game in a way that their filters were quite good when a player was trying to explain something away.

[James Maloney, Liberal, Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON]

That's precisely why I thought they might have been chosen.

Thank you.

That's all the time I have.

[Gary Bettman]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

It's over to the NDP and Ms. Hardcastle.

[Cheryl Hardcastle, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Thank you.

I just want to go back and clarify the issue of the concussion protocol. Did I understand correctly that with all hits to the head the concussion protocol kicks in, or are there still some exemptions?

[Gary Bettman]

We look for visible signs. If, for example, you're unconscious, you clutch your head, if you look dazed—

[Cheryl Hardcastle, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

I get it.

[Gary Bettman]

—there needs to be something that gives an indication that you need to be evaluated. It's what we call the visible signs of concussion—

[Cheryl Hardcastle, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Okay.

[Gary Bettman]

—which everybody's trained for.

[Cheryl Hardcastle, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

I just wasn't understanding from previous testimony—

[Gary Bettman]

That's my fault.