Evidence of meeting #8 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 rowan's.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
Can you maybe elaborate on exactly what it is we need to learn, then, to make sure we can prevent others from going through what you did? I know it's a very difficult question, but I know you appreciate its importance.
As an Individual
It's not one I haven't been asked before.
The medical expert at the inquest into Rowan's death was Dr. Charles Tator. One of his conclusions—the one that rings with me and drives me every day—was “Rowan Stringer's death was preventable.”
When we look back with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, there were several indicators in the period of May 3 to May 8, when she suffered three hits to the head, where interventions could have been made had people known, or been able to recognize or see what was going on. She took a hit in a game on Friday afternoon. My wife and my daughter were at that game. It was a tournament. They had left, so they didn't see the event. They had left to—as Canadians do—go to Tim Hortons, and when they got back Rowan was off the field. They didn't think anything of it. It was the last game of the tournament. She had been playing all day. Nobody said anything to them. Rowan didn't say anything about why she was taken off the field. Right there, somebody could have said something. Nobody did.
The next day she had a headache. She was a kid who had headaches. This was not something that was ever unusual. She took medication—Advil, or whatever it was. The next day she was fine. Sunday was great. She was herself; she felt good. We never even considered that a concussion had happened.
She played another game on Monday with the school. Apparently, she got a knee to the head in that game. Again, the coaches didn't say anything to us. Rowan didn't say anything to us. We weren't at the game. She came home. She had an enormous bruise on her calf. Of course a concussion is invisible to everyone. Our focus was on the purple bruise on her leg. We were like, “Well, you know, you should look after that.” I said all this kind of stuff. There was no mention of a hit to the head. Nobody said anything.
On Tuesday, she took a driver's test. She failed, which was actually shocking to me. She was a very good driver. I had full confidence that she was going to go in and pass that with flying colours without an issue, but she failed. It was a bit of a shock, but kids fail their driver's tests. It happens. It was an unhappy event for her, but nothing that really rang any bells with the knowledge that we had.
During the inquest, though, it was very interesting because they called in her driver's test examiner. He had to go back in the file and pull out her results, and he said that if he looked at that today not knowing who it was for, he would have said—with his years of experience—that it was probably an elderly person who was trying to retain their licence. There were judgmental errors that would speak more to a person who lacked the ability to make good judgments on distance, sight and making good decisions, etc. That was very telling in itself.
She was texting with her friends that she might have a concussion, or wondering if she had a concussion. She didn't know. Nobody knew. One of her friends said that she'd had concussions and that if you have a concussion, you'll know you have a concussion—there's no question about it. Well, she didn't know. She wasn't sure. Other friends just said to play the next game and if it's still bad then maybe get somebody to look at it.
The education part of it is just for people—kids, friends and coaches around her, all those people—to have more education and ability to recognize. It is speaking up to somebody and just saying that she took a hit to the head so you might want to have her looked at, or saying that they took her off because of x, y or z—whatever it happened to be.
Going back over that with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, there were plenty of opportunities for intervention. One thing that happened during her final game was that the tackle was illegal by the laws of the game; it was a swing tackle. Rowan was carrying the ball. She was grabbed by her jersey and thrown, which is not allowed in the laws of the game. The girl who did the tackle did this to another player earlier in the game. The official merely gave her a warning. It should have been a penalty or possible expulsion from the game. You have rules. You need to apply the rules. You need to penalize on your rules and your laws. Had she been penalized, had she been removed from the game, there is a good chance that Rowan would not have received the same tackle that she had delivered to another player and that resulted in Rowan's demise.
Looking back, there are all kinds of areas where interventions could have been made. It doesn't lie just with other people, but ourselves. We look back at it all the time and say there were so many different times....
Excuse me.
Conservative
As an Individual
Had we known, we could have done something.
My last words to Rowan on Wednesday morning when I dropped her off at school were.... We were still focused on the knee, right? I said, “You know, maybe you should think about sitting out the game today; your knee's not looking very good.” It was the typical, “Oh come on, Dad, I've played through shoulder injuries. I'm feeling all right, and my knee will be okay” and all that stuff.
There were a lot of potential interventions there. Had people had the knowledge, the insight and the education, the outcome could have definitely been different. What came out of the inquest were a lot of recommendations that deal with that. Rowan's Law speaks to a lot of those, particularly the education, awareness and prevention pieces.
There needs to be a cultural change. What I've learned over the last six years is that we're not going to get leadership from the professional levels of sport, unfortunately. Rugby has done quite a good job at the player level, and Rugby Canada in particular. The work of Paul Hunter and the folks at Rugby Canada has been extraordinary since what happened to Rowan, but they're not finished. They're constantly looking to better themselves.
I can't say that about a lot of the other sports. I think they're making small steps in the right direction, and I hope that Rowan's Law in Ontario will influence bigger steps, but it really does need to be a cultural change that comes from the ground up. This is why I have such a strong affinity towards getting it into the education system, getting it into the community sports.
The kids are going to drive this as time goes on. They're going to go through a system that says that it's important to look after your brain, that these are things you have to look out for—for yourself, for your teammates, for your family and for your friends—and to speak up if you see something happen.
It's the same way they drove programs like recycling. The kids were the ones who were coming home and saying, “What are you putting that in the garbage for? Put it over there in the recycling.”
They're going to drive it, but that's a long-term game. In the short term, we need to get everyone educated. As we said at the advisory committee, it really takes a village in this case. Everyone has to be on board: parents, administrators, officials, coaches, trainers, athletes and friends. Everyone has to be on board with this, participate actively and be forthright.
You cannot rely on the brain-injured athlete to self-declare that they have a problem. Their judgment, as was seen in Rowan's case, is not necessarily right. They're not necessarily going to have the faculties about them to make that decision for themselves. They need someone else to speak up for them.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
Thank you for sharing. I know that no matter how many times you've had to do it before, it's not easy. That means a lot, and I think it makes a difference, so thank you.
Conservative
Conservative
The Vice-Chair (Mr. Robert Kitchen) Conservative Robert Gordon Kitchen
You have time for a couple of questions. We'll swing it with this one.
NDP
Cheryl Hardcastle NDP Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
I appreciate that.
You know, Gord—if I can call you Gord—your conviction is so admirable. I don't want to get choked up, and we're going to try to keep it up here, but we get it. Also, as you know, Rowan's story and your passion for this really have motivated this a lot. It's a huge part of what we're doing here in talking about the federal role.
If we could just kind of riff on that a bit, as you did very well a minute ago, what do you think is the federal role? Should each province have its own Rowan's Law to roll something out regionally and provincially and then have a federal...? I'm just assuming, because you mentioned your professional career, that you must have some bureaucratic insights on where we should be maximizing what we do as we move forward.
As an Individual
I think the steps that have been taken, particularly with the FPT work that has been ongoing on concussions, are a really good first step. Getting all those national sports organizations, the NSOs, involved in this and buying into something.... It has to happen. They have to be the drivers of this. My concern is about the trickle-down from there and how effectively and efficiently that happens. What I've noticed in Ontario, from my perspective at least, is that the provincial sports organizations seem to have a better mechanism to get things down to the community level. Relying on national sports organizations may not be the best bet at this time, but they definitely have to buy in and at least monitor what their PSOs are doing and ensure that their PSOs are getting the messages out.
As far as the federal role is concerned, because of the jurisdictional divisions, I really do feel that having something in each province and territory is probably the best way to go. Having some kind of overarching 30,000-foot view, or whatever, from the federal government as to things they would like to see happen and encourage to happen would probably be a good idea, but I think we will probably get more bang for the buck if we actually get each province and territory on board, either with some kind of replica of the existing Rowan's Law or with something similar, however they may want to implement it at their own levels.
I see a federal government role—for example, public service announcements. If you're going to have a week, or if you're going to promote sport, have that as part of the sport promotion piece; have it as part of a health promotion piece; have a federal portal where people can get the best and brightest information on this. Support from the federal level into research, I think, really needs to happen. We're fortunate that Dr. Michael Strong from Western University is now at CIHR. He was a huge and very important advocate for work in the concussion area. I hope he will carry that over into his role at CIHR and we'll see increased funding in that area or better targeted funding.
We have an embarrassment of riches in Canada when it comes to research in this area. We punch way above our weight in the world in concussion research. We have such incredible people doing work here—the folks in Calgary, Western, Toronto, McGill, Laval. It's incredible what Canada is doing in this area. If you look at the attendance and the memberships on committees that were at the Berlin consensus conference, you'll see that Canada is in there well beyond what anyone would expect from a country of our size, at least population-wise. These people are doing incredible work and they need to be supported.
A telling factor is that the NFL recently made a huge grant to the people in Calgary to do some work. The fact that they got the second-biggest grant out of that from the NFL speaks volumes as to the quality of work that's being done here in Canada. It really needs to be supported, because there are so many unanswered questions, but we can be the leader on that. We are leaders in a lot of the areas now, and we can continue to be.
Conservative
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Stringer. I couldn't do what you did.
The template is there. You say you're working with other provinces. What's your success rate? Have you talked to Nova Scotia?
As an Individual
No, I have not talked to Nova Scotia, although I know there is interest there.
As an Individual
I've been working—I can't say closely—with people in Manitoba. Dr. Michael Ellis is driving a lot of the stuff there. They did have legislation tabled; I don't believe it has moved beyond first reading. My understanding was that they were waiting to see how Ontario did with Rowan's Law. I'm hoping there's going to be new impetus now for them to move forward.
I've started with some folks in Alberta. I know there's grassroots interest in B.C., but the government doesn't seem to be receptive to it.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Are you happy with Rowan's Law as it is written? Are you happy with the recommendations and the 21 action items? Are you happy with the way it's rolled out, notwithstanding the fact that the government has changed from when it started to when it's in the process of implementation? Are you happy with the progress that's been made to this day?
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
So that's a template that we want to send across the country.
As an Individual
I believe it's worth a lot of consideration. I was gobsmacked at the recommendations that came out of the inquest. These five people on the jury were just people from Ottawa. What they produced was so insightful that you could tell they were really engaged and paying attention. The support at the provincial level from the legislature, again, was incredible. I would love things to move faster than they do all the time.
As an Individual
Having my history in government, I know that things take time. The unanimous support in the legislature was huge, and it carried over from the change in government. The first Rowan's Law Day fell under the first year of the new government there. From all indications that I've had so far, they are moving on this file. Last Rowan's Law Day, I had the opportunity at Queen's Park to meet with the premier. He gave me his word that this would be acted upon, and from what I can see it is being delivered. Not as quickly as I would like, of course, but it's happening.
I believe the action items address a lot, if not all, of the issues that need to be addressed with respect to legislation, awareness, education, prevention, management, treatment and surveillance. All those pieces are there. It's going to take time to implement all of them. That's fully understandable; it couldn't be rolled out overnight. But I believe that if you look at the report, much of what needs to be addressed outside the research piece is spoken to here, and it's spoken to in a way that will really get to the crux of the issues that are there.
Conservative
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
I couldn't even touch on this in 15 seconds.
Thank you, sir.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair (Mr. Robert Kitchen) Conservative Robert Gordon Kitchen
Thank you.
I'm next in the rotation to ask a question. I'll ask a very quick one, and then we'll move on. Thank you for your testimony.
You talked about Rowan and about people missing steps during those four or five days. One thing we heard from a lot of people at the committee was about data collection and an app that might collect that data. The challenge with that, just going by my own old age, is that the computer is only as smart as the person who puts the information in the computer. An organization called Complete Concussion Management has an app that allows for that input of information right away and allows for trying to protect privacy issues. For example, if someone has a concussion in rugby, it's entered. The privacy is protected, but the coach for the hockey team now can access that program and find out that this person had that concussion in the rugby season as they now enter into the hockey season.
To me, that's a valuable piece, but how do we protect privacy to make certain that we don't get someone's private information being pushed and stepped on when that happens?