Top Court won’t hear Bruce’s concussion suit against CFL

disputesthatarisefromtheir collective agreement.

Bruce’s lawyers argued the CFL’s collective agreement is unusual because athletes individually negotiate their pay, have no long-term disability insurance plan, are excluded from occupational healthandsafetyregulations and aren’t entitled to workers’ compensation.

As usual in decisions on leaves to appeal, the SupremeCourtgavenoreasons for refusing to hear the case.

“I’d by lying if I said I wasn’t saddened and surprised,” said Robyn Wishart, Bruce’s lawyer. “I’m surprised because I thought (SupremeCourtofCanada) would hear it.

“Youdon’tgetanyreasons for it ... you can’t answer the ‘Why?’ And that’s hard for me because so many families were waiting for this and obviously that’s the first question they have, but this isn’t over.”

Wishart said she’ll take Bruce’s case to arbitration.

“We’ll file Monday and have his injuries looked at through arbitration,” she said.“That’sobviouslyaprocess that isn’t necessarily to his advantage ... but we’ ll run with arbitration and see how it goes.”

Predictably, the CFL was happy with the ruling.

“The CFL is very pleased with the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision,” it said in a statement. “We hope that this decision brings finality to any proceedings in the courts with respect to concussion litigation against the CFL.”

Bruce, 40, had originally named neuroscientist Dr. Charles Tator, the Krembil Neuroscience Centre of Toronto, the Canadian Football League Alumni Association and its executive director, Leo Ezerins, in his suit. But action was discontinued againstthemastheyweren’t bound by collective agreement.

Bruce played 14 seasons in the CFL (2001-2014) with Winnipeg, Toronto, Hamilton, B.C. and Montreal, winning Grey Cups with the Argonauts (2004) and Lions (2011). Bruce filed his lawsuit in 2014.

In court documents, Bruce says he sustained “permanent and disabling” repetitiveheadtraumaasa playerandcontinuestosuffer post-concussive symptoms, including depression, paranoia, delusions and other medical issues.

“All I can say is we took on a fight many people thought we shouldn’t start in the first place.” Wishart said. “Our definition of a win has always been the public needs to know so if we look at it from the definition of what our goal was, to have people understand what’s happening, we win.

“Do we win in the world of law? Not right now. But do we win in the world of life? I can’t tell you how much we’ve changed people.”