Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  Thank you. I'd like to pick up where we left off. We might have our definitions mixed up. I want to go again to this belief that if you have fighting, it might deter other kinds of blows to the head. You're saying that I'm asking you to prove a negative. In fact, I'm asking you to prove a positive: that if you have less fighting, you're going to have more blows to the head.

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  How does this compare with forms of hockey where you don't have any fighting? Are you saying that there are more concussions or more head injuries and concussions in Olympic hockey?

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  Okay. It's evolving out, and that is good. I'm glad to hear that. The fact that, again, it's still there—

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  I'd like to offer a contrary opinion by a player. You said the players want fighting. This is hardly unanimous among players. Nick Boynton wrote a piece called “Everything's Not O.K.”. You're probably familiar with it.

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  He said that there's, and I quote, “a dangerous culture in the league that leaves players open to brain damage, mental illness and substance abuse”, and he connected many of these issues to head trauma suffered in fights. How do you respond to that? How do you respond to a player who says that?

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  You should have none, quite frankly. It is still dangerous—

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  Well, it's 50% as per your [Inaudible—Editor].

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  You said that the threat of fighting deters other kinds of injuries.

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  What is that based on? Is there empirical evidence that—

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  That's what they tell you—

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  —but is there any empirical evidence?

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Bettman, for coming. I'm an emergency physician. I practised for 20 years. I'm familiar with head injuries in sporting and non-sporting events. I've seen injuries in football, rugby, soccer and hockey, but hockey is the only sport I've seen where, getting back to this issue, fighting is at the very least tolerated.

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  No, sir. The players, sir, don't make the rules. I have played a number of sports. I have never played a sport where, as a player, I had any say in the rules. In other forms of hockey, like Olympic hockey, you don't see fighting. The NHL could make these rules that completely remove fighting from hockey, completely—

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  —so why don't you?

Subcommittee on Sports-Related Concussions in Canada committee  Yes.