Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  Dr. Frémont.

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  Okay, I'll let you come back to that. One of the things we see, for example, the CAHA came out with mandatory trainers for every team, so we have them on the benches. The reality is that training program sometimes doesn't provide more than basic first aid. That's a challenge when you're asking somebody who doesn't have the medical background or any type of health care background to all of a sudden assess someone who's been injured on the ice and make that decision.

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  We have a lot of primary health care practitioners—and we chatted a bit earlier about this—who set up programs and specialties within those primary health care programs. They recognize that aspect, for example, for sports injuries, in particular, when we deal with concussions, etc., not only in the assessment process but also in the treatment and the return to play process.

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you both for being here. I appreciate it. Dr. Hobden, you talked about protocols and the issue.... I think it's important that we address that because the reality is that when we're looking at people knowing the level they're at, they may not see that concussion come in until four or five days after the event, and they may have forgotten about the event.

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  I'm a big believer in education. I believe the more we can get out there to our parents, to our coaches, to our trainers such that they're aware of that.... The risk you have is that, as practitioners have seen, you'll get someone who walks in your door, and they've gone on the Internet, and they've seen something, and they have that symptom because they saw it on the Internet or their next door neighbour had the same symptoms.

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  Thank you. Thank you for your comments. I agree that in the perfect world, health care would be attached to one....and particularly in sport. We heard that from our coaches as well as sport-specific...where you could track that. We see how in rugby someone with a head injury will then play hockey in the wintertime, and there's no tracking of that.

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Dr. Zemek and Ms. Fuselli, thank you very much for coming here today. We appreciate it. I'm going to follow up on what Mr. Fisher was mentioning about the reality of rural Canada and where we deal with that. Some of the greatest hockey players in Canada came from Saskatchewan.

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  Throughout sport—and we look at hockey today, as we see hockey growing up—we now have trainers involved with sporting organizations, which is something we didn't have before. We had people on the bench who recognized.... When I was playing rugby at the University of Waterloo, the reality was that we had a trainer who was there to help us.

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Gentlemen, thank you both very much for being here today. With the two of you here, we basically have the coaching aspect and an individual sport aspect of things. Although you interact with each other, you do have separate responsibilities. I appreciate hearing your comments and I agree wholeheartedly with everything you've said.

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  In my previous life I was a regulator for the chiropractic profession in Saskatchewan as well as for Canada. We looked at things involving regulating professionals, which is where my angle on this is. Is there an avenue for you to do this? Obviously, there's a cost that would be added, but is there an avenue along those lines whereby you might see this as of value?

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  Your emphasis, then, is more on that aspect of it, in which case that might throw it to the individual sports per se to regulate their own individuals. Would you agree with that? Would that be the better way of doing it?

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  Thank you. Mr. Hunter, having been a rugby coach myself at one point, I appreciate your comments on tackling. To me, that is the most important thing. I learned the game in England when I was six years old, so I grew up learning how to tackle from that age. I found, once I came to Canada, that tackling wasn't there and that we had football players coming to play rugby and not rugby players coming to play rugby.

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  Actually, there is.

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  I'd be happy to tag team with you and do that.

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Matthew, I'm impressed as heck by you, a 13-year-old boy who's this confident and open. I thank you very much for being here. You impress me tremendously. We talked a bit about the respect for sport. My thought is that, okay, we've done a lot of things in hockey.