An Update on Rowan’s Law

In previous blog posts, we wrote about Bill 149, otherwise known as Rowan’s Law, which established the Rowan’s Law Advisory Committee to assist with implementing 49 recommendations made on concussion safety. The recommendations were made in response to the death of 17-year-old Rowan Stringer, who died after sustaining multiple head injuries playing amateur rugby.

Part of the recommendations urged the Ontario government to implement concussion safety legislation.

The legislation, which focuses on concussion prevention, awareness, and management, was recently passed in 2018 and came into effect as of July 1, 2019.

In general, the new law mandates that:

1. All sports must implement a Concussion Code of Conduct for players and coaches in accordance with prescribed regulations
2. Annually, all players, coaches/trainers, and match official must review the Concussion Code of Conduct and the Ministry’s concussion awareness resources upon registering or serving in a sports organization 
3. All sports must establish removal-from-sport and return-to-sport protocols for when a player is suspected of sustaining a concussion

The legislation also declared the last Wednesday of September as “Rowan’s Law Day” to raise awareness around concussion safety.  

All sports organizations are affected by the new legislation, including Rugby Ontario. It is hoped that the legislation will help prevent future concussion-related tragedies such as Rowan’s death. Thus far, Ontario is the only Canadian province to pass concussion safety legislation.

Daniel & Partners assists with personal injury matters, including concussion-related injuries. Please contact us to arrange a free consultation.

Blog post written by Sarah Maude

Photo taken by Jim Monk, licensed under the creative commons (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).