September 2017

The Honourable Eleanor McMahon,
Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport

Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport
9th Floor, Hearst Block, 900 Bay Street
Toronto, Ontario M7A 2E1

Dear Minister McMahon,

It is my great pleasure to present this report of the Rowan’s Law Advisory Committee. It has been a year since we first came together, a disparate group of health providers, athletes, coaches and educators. Our Committee was created in the name of a girl, Rowan Stringer, who died as a result of concussions she suffered playing rugby—more specifically, she died because she played after sustaining two concussions, and then suffered another head injury. Her death led to a coroner’s inquest, and the jury recommendations arising out of that inquest shone a very bright light on concussion practices and protocols—or the lack thereof—in amateur sport in Ontario.

Our Committee was struck to provide advice to government on the best ways to implement the coroner’s jury recommendations. Over and above that, we were to look at the concussion landscape, in Ontario and in Canada, and ensure that what we were proposing made sense in that broader context. We were all very aware, as we worked on this report, that our aim was to encourage safe participation in amateur sport, something all our members believe is tremendously important.

I believe I can speak for every member of our Committee when I say that the year of work that we put in was both challenging and rewarding. Challenging, because we had an extremely important job to do, a short time in which to do it, and we felt a great deal of pressure to get it right. Concussions are usually short-lived and resolve on their own, but they do have the potential to result in long-term effects, even death, if not managed correctly. Amateur sport has not always been an environment, or a culture, in which these consequences of concussion are properly understood and acknowledged. It was our job to try to find ways of changing that culture.

The reward was that we enjoyed working together, and we believe we did our work well. Building on the recommendations from the coroner's jury — every single one of which is addressed in this report — we were able to craft a set of recommended Actions that, if adopted, will build a solid foundation for world class concussion prevention and management in Ontario. It is our profound hope that the province will move forward with what we have proposed, and that the country will use what we are doing here as a model. We would like to see Rowan's Law, and the accompanying guidelines and protocols, set the standard right across Canada.

I'd like to extend my heartfelt thanks to every member of the Rowan's Law Advisory Committee. We were, as I noted above, a group of people from diverse backgrounds and perspectives, most of whom might never have crossed paths had we not been selected for this work. But we all had one thing in common — a strong passion for encouraging safe participation in amateur sport by creating the best concussion awareness and management system in the world. It was a pleasure working with each and every member of this Committee, and I believe they would all echo that sentiment. I believe also that they would agree with me when I say that our inspiration — our determination to get this right — was the memory of a 17-year old girl who loved playing rugby.

Finally, I’d like to thank one member of the Committee in particular. Gordon Stringer is Rowan’s father. He was an inspiration simply by virtue of the fact that he was there, but he was also an extraordinarily important member of our Committee because he worked so hard, so thoughtfully, and with such courage. He reminded us of our purpose. He challenged us to be bold, and I believe we have risen to that challenge. It was an honour to work with him.

Sincerely,

Dan Cass BSc, MD, FRCPC
Chair, Rowan's Law Advisory Committee