Evidence of meeting #5 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 going.
A video is available from Parliament.
7:35 p.m.
Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, Lib.
We've invited the CFL commissioner to this committee, and we believe he's very likely to come. If you could ask a question of Randy Ambrosie, what would you ask him?
7:35 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Concussion Legacy Foundation
Well, I think the one issue that I've seen in his commentary is that he still refuses to acknowledge the evidence linking playing football to chronic traumatic encephalopathy. I think that's terribly misleading to the current players who are taking that risk with their brain for not a whole lot of money in the Canadian Football League, and it sets a bad example for every parent choosing when and how their child is going to get into that game. If you're going to be a pro sport and be the only group of folks who are actually making cash on this game, you have a responsibility to message the rest of the public the right way.
7:35 p.m.
Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, Lib.
The influence of professional players on younger players is there. When kids are playing mini sticks, they're Crosby or they're Malkin. Eric said that the culture of change needs to start with the younger kids. How do you cross that t? How do you get the younger kids starting to think about protection from potential concussions, while acknowledging the fact that they're going to imitate the pros?
7:35 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Concussion Legacy Foundation
You use multiple messages. For example, when pro athletes give a great quote about how they didn't rush back into the game and they're happy they were pulled out because they weren't in their right frame of mind, we try to magnify that to send that message out to the young people—that they're happy the team held them out, and they're happy to take a week or two off before they go back. That's setting the right example.
At the same time, with kids, we try to message them about how important their brain is, which is hard for them to understand. Our program, Team Up Speak Up, is one way we do it. We try to share with them interesting statistics, like the idea that you have 18 billion neurons in your head. Each one has an axon, and if you lined up all those axons end to end just in your head, it's about 500,000 miles—to the moon and back. We help them appreciate how fragile their brain is as they try to understand how a brain even functions and helps them. You have to educate from a lot of different places.
7:40 p.m.
Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, Lib.
I guess we need to have more of the top hits videos replaced by top plays videos or best saves.
7:40 p.m.
Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, Lib.
I know that when I flip through my Twitter feed, Sportsnet continuously shows the hits of the day. In fairness, TSN and all those groups show the plays of the day as well, but I think that some of the younger kids who are influenced by those pros are really excited by those hits of the day, the best hits.
7:40 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Concussion Legacy Foundation
Well, we're all still animals at heart, but I think we've had leadership in some sports that has started to emphasize the skills rather than the violence. In America, the major league lacrosse community, US Lacrosse, has actually made all hits to the head penalties. It's really championing the skills of the game, and it's doing well for its business.
7:40 p.m.
Mr. Peter Fonseca (Mississauga East—Cooksville, Lib.)
You have about 30 seconds.
7:40 p.m.
Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, Lib.
Can you give me 30 seconds on CTE connected to ALS?
7:40 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Concussion Legacy Foundation
There are many ways you can get ALS, and we haven't figured out most of them, but we know that NFL players, for example, have a greater risk of developing ALS than the regular population. What appears to be happening in some of them, according to Dr. Ann McKee, is that they're having changes in their brain due to the CTE that are overly affecting their upper spinal motor neurons, which appears to cause these ALS symptoms and motor symptoms. It's maybe one of 20 ways you can get ALS, if not more.
7:40 p.m.
Mr. Peter Fonseca (Mississauga East—Cooksville, Lib.)
Now we're back to the Conservatives and Mrs. Falk.
7:40 p.m.
Conservative
Rosemarie Falk Conservative Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK
Thank you.
I'll go back to my question. How do we successfully shift the culture with parents? Even with hockey, you have your fall camps, then your spring camps and summer camps, and then you're back into the fall. How do we shift that?
7:40 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Concussion Legacy Foundation
One thing that hurts us in our concussion and CTE prevention work is the professionalization of youth sports. You tell me that your daughter is not forced but asked to do 12 months a year of gymnastics because she's going to lose skills over the summer.
7:40 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Concussion Legacy Foundation
Who cares if she has a drop-off of skills over the summer? No child's body can take 12 months of any activity over and over again.
That is a bit of an educational issue. In the U.S., we're sort of fighting a capitalism issue. There's a group of coaches who have found that if they prey on parents' fears that their child will fall behind, or sell them on the idea of a college scholarship because education is costing too much now, they can convince them that their child has to play their sport year-round to succeed.
I'm a new parent. That's something that I'm going to have to fight, but I've committed myself to fighting it, because it's not the way it used to be and it's not the way we grew up. Now there's a financial incentive to have your child in a sport year-round and, frankly, while we need kids having exercise and all that stuff, we need to de-emphasize a little bit this chase for glory. We have to realize that 99% of people who are playing sports are never going to get paid for it. They're never going to reach the top. It's not all about that chase.
7:40 p.m.
Conservative
Rosemarie Falk Conservative Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK
I literally know no different. I was never a gym kid, so it's like, okay—
7:40 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Concussion Legacy Foundation
Well, of course, that's what everyone's doing.
7:40 p.m.
Conservative
Rosemarie Falk Conservative Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK
The thing that sucks is that she fricking likes it. When she's at home, she's walking on her hands. It's like, okay, you already do this many hours a week, so why are you still doing it?
7:40 p.m.
Conservative
7:40 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Concussion Legacy Foundation
That's the message coming from the sports medicine community about specialization and giving people rest and playing multiple sports. We need to arm parents with that information, because the capitalist side is telling them that they have to do it all the time, year-round, or they're going to fall behind. We need medical professionals saying that kids' bodies need a break. They can't do this all the time, or they are going to have consequences down the road.
7:40 p.m.
Mr. Peter Fonseca (Mississauga East—Cooksville, Lib.)
You have about two and a half minutes, Mr. Nuttall.