Friend of MMA Sucka Erik Magraken, a practicing litigator and partner at BC law firm MacIsaac and Company as well as a blogger on Canadian MMA law, is among the many legal experts who have concerns with federal bill S-209, which is intended to legalize professional MMA.

Does Federal Bill S-209 leave other martial arts in the dark?

One of these shortcomings is that it may inadvertantly make amateur martial arts contests, from karate to wrestling, illegal unless they are designated otherwise by a province’s lieutenant governor in council or they are in the programme of the International Olympic Committee. Mr. Magraken was also kind enough to reprint a letter from Edmonton Combative Sports Comission president Pat Reid, which says, in part,

In the past, there has been uncertainty about whether the meaning of boxing is broad enough to include MMA, kick boxing, Muay Thai and Tae-kwon-do. It appears the policy intent of the Bill in relation to professional combat sports was to remedy this uncertainty by specifically providing that other combat sports regulated by a commission were not contrary to the Criminal Code.

This broad approach is apparent in sections (2) (a) through (c) in the Bill in relation to amateur combat sports where a broad descriptive approach describing combat with fists, hands or feet is used to define permissible amateur combat sports.

In paragraph (2) (d), by specifically naming only the sport of boxing and the sport of MMA, we are concerned that the specific list excludes other combat sports, namely the sport of kick boxing, the sport of Muay Thai and the sport of Tae-kwon-do that are happening at the professional level, regulated by Canadian commissions today.

This argument is strengthened by comparison with the broad approach to defining combat sorts in relation to amateur events in paragraphs (2) (a) through (c).

Both Mr. Magraken and Mr. Reid have more to say on the subject, which you can read by clicking here.

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