Ontario proposes new bill to protect young athletes from serious head injury

January 09, 2018, Kitchener, Ontario

Posted by: Robert Deutschmann, Personal Injury Lawyer

I wrote about  playing rugby in 2013. After an inquest found that she had played through several concussions before dying, recommendations were made to enact a law to protect young athletes.

On December 14, 2017 the Province of Ontario introduced legislation which should help prevent young athletes from getting their first concussion playing sport. It will also track young athletes and head injuries, and will required sporting bodies to adopt codes of conduct to attempt to eliminate dangerous play in sports. The law will be called the Rowan Stringer Law – Bill 193 honouring her loss.

Following Rowan’s untimely death there was a great deal of pressure from inside government, from parent groups, and from sporting associations to do something that would protect children playing sports.

The legislation has passed first reading. It will require coaches, parents and players to review concussion materials annually BEFORE playing the sport. It will require codes of conduct in each sport. It also established the annual Rowan’s Law Day in September annually.

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