Hello Everyone, Members please give your feedback to the Ministry on the link below. This concerns the welfare of your children and family members competing in martial arts. Myself along with Daryl Ireland and Jim Marinow attended a pivotal meeting with the Ministry of Tourism and Sport regarding the change of Section of 83 of the Criminal Code. The issue facing our industry has been individuals and groups hosting underground kickboxing, MMA or other fighting competitions without any regulations or oversight bodies. Unfortunately these have been happening for some time and there have been some major injuries. This is illegal at the professional level, however at the amateur level it has always been a grey area. CASK and other groups have been lobbying the government to make such non approved events illegal. We finally were able to convince a Senator to table a bill to amend the Criminal Code and last year it was passed. The next step of this challenge is to have each province to interpret and enforce the new law within their jurisdiction. The Ministry is taking feedback from the industry currently regarding how the law will be enforced in Ontario. They are soliciting feedback from Ontario citizens. All associations that work with the Ministry of Sport (ie. Provincial Sporting Organizations - PSOs) met with the Ministry yesterday to provide our feedback. It was a positive meeting and the Ministry greatly wants our input into the process. This is a critical time for our PSOs and our membership. We must make our voices heard strongly. I am asking each of you to do two important items. Both of which will only take up a few minutes of your time. 1. Go to the following link and provide your feedback to the Ministry regarding the changes. 2. Have your friends, members, parents, athletes and other also go to the link and provide feedback. The position all PSOs have taken relates to providing teeth to the new law. I would recommend that you put the following into your feedback section of the link: 1. You believe combative sports have high risks and there is a need for standards for health and safety. 2.You believe that the government must have an enforcement structure in place to keep safety and fair play standards at all competitions held across Ontario. 3. For any competition to be exempt from the new criminal code - that competition must be regulated by an enforcement structure lead by the Ministry. 4. Non compliance towards safety standards must be dealt through the new law. 5. Combative PSOs (ie. Kickboxing Ontario, Boxing Ontario, etc.) be the regulatory structures for amateur combative sport. We all believe that health, safety and fair play are critical components of our industry. The PSO structures (eg. Kickboxing Ontario) have done a great job in maintaining a safe structure for our members. Now is the time to inform the government that the new legislation must involve the PSO structures. The deadline for feedback is December 8th. WE NEED TO GET AS MANY PEOPLE TO SUBMIT THEIR FEEDBACK ON THE LINK BELOW: ontariocanada/registry/view.do?postingId=15942&language=en Our concern is that in the interest in promoting small business the government may choose to allow all combative events to be allowed in Ontario without the correct safety mechanisms that exist in PSO structures. This is currently a strong position amongst those that do not want as much regulation in amateur sport. If this position is taken by government it could result in the end of the PSO structures. Please make your comments on the comment section in the link above and if you are able to ask others that also feel strongly about supporting safe combative sports to do the same. Thanks everyone.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 20:29:34 +0000
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