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http://www.tsn.ca/former-players-fil...t-cfl-1.300462
This took longer than I expected. I have to believe that this will eventually involve more players, and I wonder whether the conclusion will be any different. The CFL may not have been aggressively denying reality the way the NFL was, but the same medical data and safety concerns apply to both leagues.
IMO these lawsuits are out of line. Similar to long term smokers suing the tabacco companies because they now have lung cancer.
NONE of these players were FORCED to play football. (or any other contact sport), they did it willingly.
YES, now we know NOW that concussions have much more serious long term effects, than we knew in the 1970's.
People who were LUCKY enough to be a PROFESSIONAL in any sport, know that there are risks. (risk v reward = high pay)
Moving forward, all technologies MUST be used to ensure safety for all, that said, with this new knowledge, all future players KNOW the risks, and take them on willingly (as did past pro's)
Now if a doctor/coach/etc, told a player to play while injured, then go find lawyer and make your case.
If i went bungee jumping, and screwed up my back, its an assumed risk, just like playing any HIGH level contact sport. Unless your a complete melon-head, you KNOW the potential for injury.
good points.........maybe leagues should start adding a clause (to player contracts) that players cannot sue their respective league
The issue is whether the league had early knowledge of the hidden dangers of concussions and sub-concussive head injuries and withheld it from players. If so, this will probably have the same outcome as the NFL suit.
There was no malice on the part of the CFL. Do you really think that the CFL can afford teams of crack concussion experts?Quote:
Originally Posted by Wobbler
The more i think about it the angrier i get at these former players, this could kill the CFL
Where would the $$ come from? The NFL has billions floating around, the CFL cannot just cut a check for $200 million, they don't have it and the league would essentially have to fold. This is crap.
Apparently ABIII has filed a suit of his own against the league in BC, and more than 100 players and families have joined the original (Ontario) suit that I mentioned last June.
I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this.
I will be very surprised if the court does not throw out Bruce's lawsuit on the grounds of jurisdiction. As I understand it, under Cdn labour law the only recourse for someone represented by a certified trade union is to use whatever grievance procedures have been agreed to between the employer and the union. The league's lawyer has already made that argument, although its bid to have the case tossed over jurisdiction was not mentioned in TSN's report. If the judge does not accept the CFL's argument, I expect the league will appeal to a higher court, because granting Bruce jurisdiction to sue directly would seem to run counter to labour law and decades of precedent.
No argument here. But what about the substance of the claims of Bruce and of Allen+Banks? I doubt that the CFL was more vigilant than the NFL in detecting concussion issues and informing players.
No question in my mind that all contact-sport leagues are vulnerable to charges they ignored or downplayed the risks of and required treatments for concussions. But I don't think the CFL is at risk in this particular case for the reasons outlined above. Bruce could and arguably should have filed a grievance under the CBA. If, as he has apparently suggested in court, the CFLPA did not support his claim, he could have filed a labour-board complaint for Duty of Fair Representation.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wobbler
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Judge rules in favour of <a href="https://twitter.com/CFL">@cfl</a> in Alrand Bruce lawsuit. Deems it a CBA issue and not the court's jurisdiction. Subject to appeal</p>— gary lawless (@garylawless) <a href="https://twitter.com/garylawless/status/708377419212787713">March 11, 2016</a></blockquote>Quote:
Originally Posted by Wobbler
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">comment from <a href="https://twitter.com/CFL">@cfl</a> on judge's ruling in Arland Bruce concussion lawsuit: “The CFL is very pleased with the Court’s decision." continued</p>— gary lawless (@garylawless) <a href="https://twitter.com/garylawless/status/708378093610790912">March 11, 2016</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">We hope that this decision brings finality to any proceedings in the courts with respect to concussion litigation against the CFL.”</p>— gary lawless (@garylawless) <a href="https://twitter.com/garylawless/status/708378194089476096">March 11, 2016</a></blockquote>
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Well, anyone with knowledge of Cdn labour law could see that decision coming. It's kind of astonishing that the original TSN report on the lawsuit did not even mention the jurisdiction argument the league made (and ultimately won with). Might be a case of a reporter falling for the sexy angle (Arland Bruce! Concussed and encouraged to keep playing!) and failing to do the sort of legwork required in reporting on such cases.
That's not likely to work if the league is not allowing the players to make fully informed consent decisions by giving them all the information they have on concussions.Quote:
Originally Posted by matchuk
In this regard, emails just released in a NHL player lawsuit suggest the league is in trouble and would continue to be even with a player contract clause if they were not willing to be open about the risks.
Quote:
On one December night in 2011, Gary Bettman fired off an email to an NHL executive, asking for an update on that night's concussions.
Ten minutes later, Brendan Shanahan -- now president of the Toronto Maple Leafs -- reported back with some evidently good news: "Not so far," he wrote.
"Night is young!" the commish replied.
This week, those three words became the blinking neon sign which pointed the way behind the NHL's frozen curtain. On the other side lies a mountain of internal league communications, unsealed as part of an ongoing civil suit regarding the league's handling of concussions.
"Night is young" is not the most telling or objectionable of those exchanges, just among the most flippant. If everything was different, one could dismiss it as a bit of gallows humour that folks use to survive the pressure of most any business. Like layoff jokes to journalists, for instance.
But everything is not different. We are talking about a league that, like its more glistening big brother in football, has been sluggish to respond to damning research about the devastating impact of repeat concussions. In that light, it's hard to feel charitable about Bettman's quip: these are, after all, players' lives.
A resolute optimist might think that the league would prize those lives above all else, especially after the deaths of Rick Rypien, Wade Belak and Derek Boogard. But scouring the email trove, which The Globe and Mail posted in a searchable archive online, doesn't always show that.
Often, emails reveal league brass wringing their hands more over the NHL's brand, than emerging brain-injury science. In multiple communications, Bettman and his colleagues and acolytes bristle over unflattering questions, and issue warnings about how to handle public statements and investigations.
In 2009, TSN's Bob McKenzie sent an email to NHL general managers, asking them to complete an anonymous poll about fighting in hockey. Edmonton Oilers president Kevin Lowe forwarded the email to NHL VP Colin Campbell, recommending that GM's refrain from answering the poll.
"These types of polls could be dangerous, especially mid-season," Lowe wrote. "How would it look for the league if the GMs responded yes to taking fighting out of the game? What if the BOG's didn't feel the same way."
Campbell replied succinctly: "Agree."
What is more "dangerous" in this discussion: a league that fueled a vigorous public debate over concussions, or a league in which top brass knew at least that brain injuries from fighting could exacerbate mental illness, and chose to drag their feet on preventing it?
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/spo...374355151.html
It could well end up going all the way to the Supreme Court.
Quote:
Veteran CFL receiver Arland Bruce III — suffering from a checklist of lingering concussion symptoms sustained in a 2012 game while playing for the B.C. Lions — walked into her (lawyer Robyn Wishart) office two years ago, “still feeling as if I’d been in a car accident.”Unable to find work, pathologically given to daily rearranging the furniture in his Surrey home for no apparent reason — Bruce didn’t suspect he was on the verge of initiating a landmark case: The first claim brought against the Canadian Football League for brain damage. ...
In March this year, Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson of B.C. Supreme Court finally issued a ruling in the case: Bruce, then a member of the CFL Players’ Association, should have gone through a grievance procedure set out in the Collective Bargaining Agreement, an option both the player and the lawyer considered “a dead end.” ...
Now, Wishart and Bruce await a judgment from the B.C. Court of Appeal, which is combing through the legal aspects of Hinkson’s ruling. Even if that decision goes against the plaintiff a second time, Wishart says she’s prepared to take the case to the Supreme Court of Canada. An Ottawa lawyer has volunteered to take the ball if it comes to that. “We’re going all the way with this,” she says.
With the Bruce case as a lightning rod, more former CFL players are coming forward in a separate class-action lawsuit Wishart is spearheading in Ontario. “Right now that’s being held up by what’s happening in B.C.,” she says.
The roster of “historical players” with long-term cognitive deficiencies is more than 200 and growing. Some are ex-players who can’t publicly come forward for fear of job loss. All are players who gave up their bodies and brains to football, not knowing the risks to their emotional, physical and mental well-being.
http://vancouversun.com/sports/football/cfl/lawyer-robyn-wishart-joins-concussion-huddle-to-help-her-cfl-heroes
Andrew Bucholtz comments on Bruce's lawyer's claim that more than 200 CFLers have long-term concussive problems and how much of a problem it could become for the league.
Quote:
This appears to be the first mention of over 200 players with long-term cognitive difficulties. That would put this on par with the numbers involved in the NHL concussion lawsuit. Of course, this doesn't mean all of those players will sue or win money even in the effect of a victory, but it is a big number. It shouldn't really be all that surprising that the numbers are that high, though, given how many people have played in the CFL over the years and how many former football players (in both the NFL and the CFL) have come forward with evidence of their major cognitive struggles. The actual numbers might be even larger; the roster of "more than 200" appears to be what Wishart has found so far. This is more proof that this case isn't just contained to the few people who have been publicly-named so far, though.
Former Ottawa Rough Rider DB Rod Woodward's wife has revealed that he had Stage 4 (the most severe level) Chronic Traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Woodward's family is part of the $200 million class action lawsuit against the CFL on behalf of former CFL players.
https://www.pressreader.com/canada/v...82011852274190Quote:
Researchers at Boston University’s CTE Center relayed their diagnoses earlier in the day after months-long clinical and pathological assessments, Kay Woodward said via telephone from Vancouver.“It just confirms everything,” she said. “Even if they hadn’t said, ‘Yes, it’s CTE,’ we knew something was wrong with him and he had dementia.”Rod Woodward died last September at 72 from complications after a fall.Kay Woodward disclosed in November that the family had agreed to provide Rod’s brain tissue for post-mortem examination — the only way to diagnose CTE — at the Boston University centre.She said Monday the pathological assessment revealed Stage 4 CTE, the most severe level, with buildup of abnormal tau protein “all through his brain.”Woodward spent 11 seasons in the Canadian Football League between 1967 and 1978, also playing for the Montreal Alouettes, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the B.C. Lions.The Woodwards are part of a class-action claim in Ontario seeking $200 million in damages for head injuries on behalf of all retired CFL players who participated in games and practices since 1952.Originally filed in 2015 with former defensive back Korey Banks and former running back Eric Allen as representative plaintiffs, the class action now has around 200 participants.The claims have not been proven in court.
The CFL has now won two court rulings throwing the suit out on jurisdictional grounds:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sport...ticle34972711/
Bruce et al's lawyer indicated she will seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court. It's a crapshoot to guess whether the court might grant such leave, but IMO it is an uphill climb for them. Under Cdn labour law, it is well established that union members have to seek remedies to complaints through processes set out in collective agreements (typically grievance and arbitration) rather than through the courts. A SCOC ruling to the contrary would overturn decades of jurisprudence.