Justice Committee on March 27th, 2013

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Wright, for your presentation and your answers to questions.

I have a question with respect to provinces. You've mentioned that some of the provinces might not actually go forward. Can you tell us about the provinces that have gone forward with having mixed martial arts regulated, or have just gone forward with events, and also about those that have not or don't want to have them in their provinces?

[Tom Wright]

I'll answer the question this way. It's not that they don't want to; they haven't addressed it yet, perhaps. I have not necessarily spoken to every single province. The provinces where the sport is regulated in Canada and an oversight by a provincial commission exists are Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia, and we believe the Northwest Territories. The sport is regulated on a municipal basis in British Columbia, Alberta, and New Brunswick. There are only three provinces where the sport is yet to be sanctioned and regulated on a provincial basis or a municipal basis, and those would be Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador. In the case of Yukon and Nunavut, those territories would be similarly situated.

In the case of Saskatchewan, I can tell you that the province is considering this right now. I met with sport minister Kevin Doherty in Regina last Tuesday, or it might have been Monday. It's considering the regulation of our sport, trying to decide whether to do it provincially or municipally. I have not had the opportunity to go to Prince Edward Island yet, and I have not had the opportunity to go to Newfoundland and Labrador. In the end, I suspect I would.

Our goal is to have our sport sanctioned and regulated in all ten provinces and all three territories. I've stated the goal here in Canada. I've stated it to the people I report to in Las Vegas, because I want our country to be a leader not only in the business of our sport but in the regulation of our sport.

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

Before your sport was as popular as it is now, were there cases in which, for instance, something would be considered a criminal offence, and there would be convictions or anything like that?

[Tom Wright]

I have not heard of any convictions. I don't know about before I joined, but I'm virtually positive there have never been any convictions.

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

What about other countries? Are they still considering...? You mentioned that you want Canada to be a leader on that front, but are there other countries that have gone the whole way in terms of decriminalizing it, or taking it out of their criminal code, or something similar?

[Tom Wright]

My understanding is that Canada is the only country with a specific section in its Criminal Code that determines or states that this activity is actually illegal.

For instance, in the United States, back in 2001 when our organization took over the intellectual property of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, our sport was sanctioned and regulated in only two states, New Jersey and Nevada. As of now, we're in 46 out of 48 states that have athletic commissions—only Connecticut and New York remain unregulated—and there are two other states, Wyoming and Alaska, that don't have athletic commissions. But I don't believe there was a section in whatever the United States equivalent of the Criminal Code is that makes it illegal in that sense.

[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?

[Tom Wright]

I am not aware of any, not that I've looked for any.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mike Wallace]

Thank you very much, Mr. Wright.

Our next questioner is Monsieur Goguen.

[Robert Goguen, Conservative, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Wright.

That's fine. I take note of your statement that you'd like to have MMA sanctioned in every province and, of course, in every territory. I understand that currently it's not sanctioned in Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, or the three territories. In British Columbia, I heard you say, and perhaps in Alberta, it's sanctioned by the municipalities.

That concerns me on two fronts. You talked about the need for a consistent regulatory framework. It seems to me that giving it to a municipality is perhaps not as airtight as giving it to a province, which would have a more uniform framework. That's my first concern.

The other thing is about the lay of the land. This bill proposes to give the province the option to opt in or opt out. They won't have to offer the sport. It will be their call. I think they would be better suited than would a municipality to get the lay of the land politically as to the acceptance of this type of sport.

I wonder if you could comment on that.

[Tom Wright]

I would be in violent agreement with you.

I believe fervently that mixed martial arts should be regulated on a provincial basis. One of the reasons we've worked as closely as we have and have supported the efforts of the British Columbia government in Victoria is to that end. I mentioned earlier that Bill 50 was passed in June 2012 in British Columbia. It called for the appointment of a provincial athletic commissioner. That work is going along and has been going along for the past eight months.

We've also started to have similar conversations in Alberta. In Alberta there's a Calgary Combative Sports Commission, which we dealt with for UFC 149. There's one in Edmonton as well, which we would have dealt with when we held an event there in June 2010. We as an organization would much prefer to deal with those on a provincial basis, like for the work that's going on in Saskatchewan, which I met with them on just eight or nine days ago.

Again, it's not my decision. I think that ultimately the Province of British Columbia decided to abdicate that responsibility in favour of the municipalities. You'd have to ask them why they did. I don't know why. We obviously felt that it was very important for the regulatory environment to be consistent across the province and within the context of a consistent Criminal Code environment across the entire country.

[Robert Goguen, Conservative, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

I guess your willingness to deal with the municipalities, provided that framework was provided by them, is a stopgap measure to permit the sport to gather more universal acceptance, pending the provinces perhaps buying in.

[Tom Wright]

In the case of Alberta, it was the only thing there, so we didn't have an option. It wasn't as if I could have gone to an Alberta athletics commission. You would go to Calgary or you would go to Edmonton, and I'm not sure what other municipalities in Alberta have an athletics commission. Lethbridge might, but I'm not sure.

[Robert Goguen, Conservative, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

Thank you, sir. That answers my concerns.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mike Wallace]

Thank you, sir.

Mr. Wright, I have no other questioners on my list.

Does anybody else have a question for Mr. Wright?

I see none.

If you can provide the information to us quickly, meaning tomorrow, the clerk will do whatever he can to get it translated and circulate it. It will be translated, and you may not get it all if it's not translatable. Websites are impossible.

[Tom Wright]

I wouldn't know how to translate a website.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mike Wallace]

No, you don't have to worry about that. You have to send it in. That's the clerk's job, not your job.

[Tom Wright]

Okay.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mike Wallace]

Madame Boivin.

[Françoise Boivin, NDP, Gatineau, QC]

All materials that are presented to the committee should be in both languages so those that are not—not to be difficult, but if somebody has a specific interest, maybe you can deal directly with Mr. Wright, no problem, but if we start this we go against our rules of bilingualism, and I would not be happy.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mike Wallace]

Thank you.

We need unanimous consent for that.

[Kyle Seeback, Conservative, Brampton West, ON]

I would not be happy.

[The Chair, Conservative, Mike Wallace]

Mr. Wright.

[Tom Wright]

In terms of these websites, which obviously I can't translate, how—

[The Chair, Conservative, Mike Wallace]

All we would like you to do, Mr. Wright, is send the information to the clerk. The clerk will then decide what he can and can't get translated, and we'll circulate it. If a committee member would like to see what you sent and it is only in one language, English, they could approach the clerk directly as an individual member of the committee and look at it that way.