Combat Sports Law

Update June 24, 2014 – The criminal charges have apparently come to end by way of conditional discharge

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Update January 30, 2014– it is now reported that Criminal Charges are being pressed as a result of this event

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Update October 15, 2013 – Marlo Pritchard, Chief of Police for the City of Weyburn, confirms this matter is still under investigation advising as follows “the Weyburn Police Service is investigating an allegation of an unsanctioned MMA event that was held here earlier in the fall. The investigation is ongoing”

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Update October 2, 2013 – Melanie Bauman, a lawyer with the Government of Saskatchewan, advises as follows:

The province is making arrangements to form a provincial commission to be operational in the summer of 2014.  As a result, if any professional events are held before the proper legislation and regulations are in place, these events will be illegal. The Saskatchewan Martial Arts Association is the body with authority to sanction amateur combative sports. If amateur events are held without SMAA sanctioning, these events will be illegal.

 Regarding the Sept. 28th Prestige event, the Weyburn City Police are currently investigating the allegation of the event being non-sanctioned.

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Update September 29, 2013 – The event has now taken place and indeed did not have SMAA sanctioning.   Today the SMAA confirms that “the event in Weyburn was never scheduled to be an SMAA sanctioned event.“.  The question now is what, if anything, will be the Province of Saskatchewan’s response.

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Update September 26, 2013 – MMASucka reports that Prestige FC President Cord Crowthers acknowledges that this event is not sanctioned and will still proceed quoting as follows “The rumors that you hear online are 95%-99% outrageous, the only thing that’s true is that our show is still a non-sanctioned show.”

He provides the following reason for the lack of sanctioning by SMAA:

The bottom line is we met with them on August 30, four weeks before the show along with the government. They absolutely felt that we could have the show sanctioned by the 28^th. They told us they couldn’t get the show sanctioned by the 28^th – we think that is absolutely untrue since they are doing a show two weeks after our show, just down the road and they have had plenty of time to sanction that show. It is a lot of he said, she said; I don’t like this person, I don’t like that person kind of thing. The SMMA needs to get off their butts, work with all the groups of Saskatchewan, stop playing favorites and realize they’re not a group; they’re a commission now. Their job is not to have me as a member, it’s to oversee my show and make sure we do things right. It’s what everybody wants, but they only want to work with their friends and their so-called partners.

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The Prestige Fight Club is advertising an event scheduled to take place in Weyburn, Saskatchewan on September 28, 2013.

As things currently stand professional MMA is still illegal in Saskatchewan and amateur MMA events can only be legally held  with regulation of the Saskatchewan Martial Arts Association.

I have been advised by  a Senior Policy Analyst for Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Parks, Culture and Sport that as of today this scheduled event is not sanctioned by the SMAA.   Unless this changes this means that this event will be, on the face of it, in violation of section 83 of Canada’s Criminal Code.

The government further advises me that they are aware of this event and that “Conversations have taken place with the local police, city council (and) justice officials“.  It is unclear if this event is still going to proceed but if it does we will all get a first hand glimpse of what the consequences of unsanctioned MMA will be in a post Bill S-209 world.