Dryden on concussions: ‘We have a problem’
TORONTO • Big bad Soviets? Broad Street Bullies? Boston Bruins?
Throughout the 1970s, Ken Dryden famously protected Team Canada and Montreal Canadiens 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, he’s tackling at all levels the threat posed by concussions.
The Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender and former Liberal cabinet minister on Wednesday will tell a parliamentary subcommittee studying sports-related concussions in Canada that the problem is no longer awareness.
Rather, per a copy of his planned remarks obtained by Postmedia, Dryden will tell the subcommittee that 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 nonpartisan working group last month, for the purpose of developing recommendations on how to make sports safer to better protect Canadian youths from mild traumatic brain injuries.
Some 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 that Canadians understand that scientists ultimately do not make sports’ concussion safety rules. “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.
In March, Ontario became the first province to pass concussion safety legislation aimed at protecting amateur athletes and educating coaches and youth sport leaders regarding safest practices pertaining to prevention, treatment and return to play.