I appreciate hearing that testimony.
I'm going to be switching back to the CMA for a moment, Mr. Chair.
I had the opportunity to teach martial arts professionally for 15 years and certainly I am alarmed when I hear that someone equates mixed martial arts or other disciplines to barroom brawling. To me that is an indication that my former field needs to do a lot more work to present its many health benefits. Furthermore, Dr. Reid, when you say that someone is just there, regardless of discipline....
By the way, Mr. Goguen is correct. There is full contact karate. Certain systems teach full contact karate and concussions do sometimes happen. However, to say that a player or an athlete is there simply to harm another human being, that takes away from all the tenets of traditional martial arts: respect, discipline, focus. Again, this is an athletic endeavour and that kind of equation is disrespectful, given the many things that structured sport does.
Yes, hockey, football, mixed martial arts, these sports have to improve. I simply point out that banning an activity can create an underground economy where there is very little sanctioning and oversight, and where children and young people could get into it and be harmed. I think that would be disappointing.
I also find it disappointing that we are not pointing out the specifics as to how mixed martial arts, as a discipline and an athletic endeavour, could improve its outcomes, whether that be through better sanctioning, whether that be through, as Mr. Wright said, more international standards to make it truly an Olympic or amateur sport, or through ensuring that the instructors who are currently teaching our young people are teaching in a way that emphasizes health and safety throughout.
In most martial arts schools, particularly with submission wrestling or judo, one of the first things they teach you is how to bow. The second thing they teach you, Mr. Chair, is how to tap, so that you're training in a safe environment. The importance of that is stressed. While I totally respect where the Canadian Medical Association is coming from, for you to advocate a ban without any data and put more people at risk, rather than make suggestions that can be implemented—