With Bill S-209 now in force the legislative floodgates are opening with regional governments passing laws addressing mixed martial arts and other combat sports. Alberta’s Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (Fort McMurray) is the latest to enter the fray with the City Council having just passed a Combative Sports Commission Bylaw.
The new bylaw received Third Reading on June 25, 2013. The local commission will be tasked with regulating and licencing professional “combative sports events” which are defined as follows:
“Combative Sports” means any sport that holds contests where opponents strike
each other with a hand, foot, knee, elbow or other parts of the body, including, but
not limited to, boxing, wrestling, full contact karate, kickboxing, martial arts,
mixed martial arts and muay thai;
These events will be regulated by the Commission and with this will be brought into legal compliance with section 83 of Canada’s Criminal Code.
The Commission will not regulate amateur combat sports events but these will be permitted so long as they are overseen by “one or more amateur bodies“. Amateur Contestants and Amateur Events are defined as follows:
“Amateur Contestant” means anyone who participates in a Combative Sport that
is governed by one or more amateur bodies and does not receive any money or
other gain from such participation;
“Amateur Event” means a Combative Sports competition that is restricted to
Amateur Contestants and is governed by one or more amateur bodies;
You can find the Bylaw here – fort mcmurray combative sports commission bylaw
Here is the video feed of the Commissions Deliberations and Vote
http://woodbuffalo.siretechnologies.com/sirepub/mtgviewer.aspx?meetid=222&doctype=agenda&itemid=3342
Combat Sports Law 