House hearings feature Dryden on head injuries

Big, bad Soviets? Broad Street Bullies? Boston Bruins? Throughout the 1970s, Ken Dryden famously protected hockey nets from those imposing threats.

Now he’s on a mission to fight a far more serious threat on behalf of young Canadian athletes in all sports and at all levels: concussions.

The Hockey Hall of Famer and former Liberal cabinet minister will tell a parliamentary subcommittee studying sports-related concussions Wednesday the problem is no longer awareness. Rather, per a copy of his planned remarks obtained by Postmedia, Dryden will tell the subcommittee there is “plenty of awareness. The problem is sports decision makers who don’t take this awareness and act. “We have a problem: A knee that limps is one thing. A brain that limps is another.”

The House of Commons standing committee on health formed this non-partisan working group last month for the purpose of developing recommendations on how to make sports safer to better protect Canadian youths from brain injuries.

About 210,000 concussions are reported in Canada annually, according to the subcommittee. Wednesday kicks off witness hearings involving representatives of all stakeholders, from amateur and professional athletes, to families, national sports organizations, coaching groups, researchers and key members of the medical community. Dryden will say it’s crucial Canadians understand scientists ultimately do not make concussion safety rules for sports. “Sports decision makers do. You as decision makers in your sport have the authority over your game.”

The subcommittee intends to table its report on findings and recommendations by June.