Roundeyesamurai
08-23-2005, 13:15
I recieved this in an email. Although it pertains mostly to martial
arts, it also relates to essentially any form of combatives training.
Please take a few moments to read this and forward around, this one is important.
----------
I thought that everybody who has any interest whatsoever in any
discipline of martial arts should be aware of this. It was taken from http://www.mixedmartialartsexpo.com/ . Anyone interested in the original PDF document on the site it is alongside the right hand side of the web page where it says "Federal Petition - IMPORTANT INFORMATION" and the actual petition is "Federal Petition - Section 83". I would strongly recommend people to forward this information on and to take action. The text of the information is as follows:
Feel free to copy/paste/distribute this e-mail text to EVERYONE that you know who supports martial arts.
My apologies for the length of this e-mail...but this is potentially a huge issue and VERY IMPORTANT.
It has come to my attention that when Parliament reconvenes on
September 26, 2005, the Federal Government under the direction of MP
Dr. Irwin Colter, Minister of Justice and Attorney General, will table revisions to Section 83 of the Criminal Code. Section 83 is a vague piece of legislation designed to prevent prize fighting in Canada.
Initially you might not that think that this affects you. However, most surprisingly, this legislation has the potential to have a
significant negative effect on every martial arts school
owner-operator, practicing martial artist, or parent or supporter of a martial artist, and here's why.
In Layman's Terms:
- Section 83 of the Criminal Code of Canada appears by virtue of the
definition of "prize fight" to deem all martial arts and all martial
arts competitions and contests to be "prize fights" and therefore
illegal in Canada - i.e. no more tournaments; even sparring within a
club could considered illegal.
- Owner-operators, students and spectators of these martial art
events, amateur or otherwise, are even now engaging in illegal "prize
fight" activities and could be charged.
- For some reason, boxing is exempt. On the positive side, this
demonstrates that exemptions are indeed possible.
Currently, Section 83 actually reads as follows:
[Engaging in prize fight]
83. (1) Every one who
(a) engages as a principal in a prize fight,
(b) advises, encourages or promotes a prize fight, or
(c) is present at a prize fight as an aid, second, surgeon, umpire,
backer or reporter, is guilty of an offence punishable on summary
conviction.
[Definition of "prize fight" ]
(2) In this section, "prize fight" means an encounter or fight with
fists or hands between two persons who have met for that purpose by
previous arrangement made by or for them, but a boxing contest between amateur sportsmen, where the contestants wear boxing gloves of not less than one hundred and forty grams each in mass, or any boxing contest held with the permission or under the authority of an athletic board or commission or similar body established by or under the authority of the legislature of a province for the control of sport within the province, shall be deemed not to be a prize fight.
Current Activities Underway:
- Mr. Steve Pritchard, Sport Services Manager of the Alberta
Government confirmed that the Federal Government is rewriting Section
83 to state that all martial arts are illegal. The Alberta government
made a proposal for changes to Section 83 but Mr. Pritchard was not
able to offer more information.
- Mr. Brian Ozorio of the Ministry of Tourism and Recreation of the
Ontario Provincial Government confirmed that he forwarded
recommendations to the Honourable Irwin Cotler that exemptions be
increased to include karate, judo, kickboxing and muay thai when
redrafting Section 83 in August 2005.
- Calgary MP Lee Richardson will present a Petition from the CALGARY
AMATEUR KICKBOXING & MUAY THAI ASSOCIATION (CAKMTA) on September 27,
2005 at the House of Commons.
- CAKMTA will continue to circulate their Muay Thai and Kickboxing
Petition but they also encourage all clubs, competitors, coaches,
promoters, etc. to pass a similar petition along to any and all clubs
and gyms as this legislation will affect all martial arts in Canada.
- The initial Petition from CAKMTA addressed Kickboxing and Muay Thai
only, as they did not feel it was appropriate for them to speak for
all other martial art disciplines.
With CAKMTA's awareness, I have
modified their Petition so that it now includes all martial arts.
Alternatively you could create one for your discipline only.
- A copy of the revised Petition (covering all martial arts) is
available as a download from the HOME page of www.MixedMartialArtsExpo.com.
Moving Forward:
We have no idea how the legislation will be rewritten, but we must act immediately to ensure that the voice of the martial arts community across Canada is heard loud and clear BEFORE Section 83 is rewritten inappropriately, for once passed by Parliament it will be almost impossible to change.
If you are in ANY WAY involved in, or in support of, martial arts in
Canada, it is extremely important that you take the following action now:
- Download a copy of the petition from www.MixedMartialArtsExpo.com.
Make and distribute as many copies as you need.
- Assertively pursue the acquisition of as many signatures as possible
- martial art students, family, friends, neighbours, co-workers. Give them additional blank copies to distribute as well.
- Mail as many completed petition forms as possible to your Federal MP before August 15th, 2005.
- Note these Petition Rules:
o The petition must contain a minimum of 25 valid signatures, each
with the address of the petitioner.
o Each petitioner must sign (not print) his or her own name directly
on the petition and must not sign for anyone else.
o The petitioner's address must be written directly on the petition
and not pasted or reproduced.
o The petitioner may give his or her full home address or simply the
city and province.
o Aliens not resident in Canada cannot petition the House of Commons
of Canada.
You can use this link to locate your MP:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/people/house/PostalCode.asp?lang=E&source=sm
arts, it also relates to essentially any form of combatives training.
Please take a few moments to read this and forward around, this one is important.
----------
I thought that everybody who has any interest whatsoever in any
discipline of martial arts should be aware of this. It was taken from http://www.mixedmartialartsexpo.com/ . Anyone interested in the original PDF document on the site it is alongside the right hand side of the web page where it says "Federal Petition - IMPORTANT INFORMATION" and the actual petition is "Federal Petition - Section 83". I would strongly recommend people to forward this information on and to take action. The text of the information is as follows:
Feel free to copy/paste/distribute this e-mail text to EVERYONE that you know who supports martial arts.
My apologies for the length of this e-mail...but this is potentially a huge issue and VERY IMPORTANT.
It has come to my attention that when Parliament reconvenes on
September 26, 2005, the Federal Government under the direction of MP
Dr. Irwin Colter, Minister of Justice and Attorney General, will table revisions to Section 83 of the Criminal Code. Section 83 is a vague piece of legislation designed to prevent prize fighting in Canada.
Initially you might not that think that this affects you. However, most surprisingly, this legislation has the potential to have a
significant negative effect on every martial arts school
owner-operator, practicing martial artist, or parent or supporter of a martial artist, and here's why.
In Layman's Terms:
- Section 83 of the Criminal Code of Canada appears by virtue of the
definition of "prize fight" to deem all martial arts and all martial
arts competitions and contests to be "prize fights" and therefore
illegal in Canada - i.e. no more tournaments; even sparring within a
club could considered illegal.
- Owner-operators, students and spectators of these martial art
events, amateur or otherwise, are even now engaging in illegal "prize
fight" activities and could be charged.
- For some reason, boxing is exempt. On the positive side, this
demonstrates that exemptions are indeed possible.
Currently, Section 83 actually reads as follows:
[Engaging in prize fight]
83. (1) Every one who
(a) engages as a principal in a prize fight,
(b) advises, encourages or promotes a prize fight, or
(c) is present at a prize fight as an aid, second, surgeon, umpire,
backer or reporter, is guilty of an offence punishable on summary
conviction.
[Definition of "prize fight" ]
(2) In this section, "prize fight" means an encounter or fight with
fists or hands between two persons who have met for that purpose by
previous arrangement made by or for them, but a boxing contest between amateur sportsmen, where the contestants wear boxing gloves of not less than one hundred and forty grams each in mass, or any boxing contest held with the permission or under the authority of an athletic board or commission or similar body established by or under the authority of the legislature of a province for the control of sport within the province, shall be deemed not to be a prize fight.
Current Activities Underway:
- Mr. Steve Pritchard, Sport Services Manager of the Alberta
Government confirmed that the Federal Government is rewriting Section
83 to state that all martial arts are illegal. The Alberta government
made a proposal for changes to Section 83 but Mr. Pritchard was not
able to offer more information.
- Mr. Brian Ozorio of the Ministry of Tourism and Recreation of the
Ontario Provincial Government confirmed that he forwarded
recommendations to the Honourable Irwin Cotler that exemptions be
increased to include karate, judo, kickboxing and muay thai when
redrafting Section 83 in August 2005.
- Calgary MP Lee Richardson will present a Petition from the CALGARY
AMATEUR KICKBOXING & MUAY THAI ASSOCIATION (CAKMTA) on September 27,
2005 at the House of Commons.
- CAKMTA will continue to circulate their Muay Thai and Kickboxing
Petition but they also encourage all clubs, competitors, coaches,
promoters, etc. to pass a similar petition along to any and all clubs
and gyms as this legislation will affect all martial arts in Canada.
- The initial Petition from CAKMTA addressed Kickboxing and Muay Thai
only, as they did not feel it was appropriate for them to speak for
all other martial art disciplines.
With CAKMTA's awareness, I have
modified their Petition so that it now includes all martial arts.
Alternatively you could create one for your discipline only.
- A copy of the revised Petition (covering all martial arts) is
available as a download from the HOME page of www.MixedMartialArtsExpo.com.
Moving Forward:
We have no idea how the legislation will be rewritten, but we must act immediately to ensure that the voice of the martial arts community across Canada is heard loud and clear BEFORE Section 83 is rewritten inappropriately, for once passed by Parliament it will be almost impossible to change.
If you are in ANY WAY involved in, or in support of, martial arts in
Canada, it is extremely important that you take the following action now:
- Download a copy of the petition from www.MixedMartialArtsExpo.com.
Make and distribute as many copies as you need.
- Assertively pursue the acquisition of as many signatures as possible
- martial art students, family, friends, neighbours, co-workers. Give them additional blank copies to distribute as well.
- Mail as many completed petition forms as possible to your Federal MP before August 15th, 2005.
- Note these Petition Rules:
o The petition must contain a minimum of 25 valid signatures, each
with the address of the petitioner.
o Each petitioner must sign (not print) his or her own name directly
on the petition and must not sign for anyone else.
o The petitioner's address must be written directly on the petition
and not pasted or reproduced.
o The petitioner may give his or her full home address or simply the
city and province.
o Aliens not resident in Canada cannot petition the House of Commons
of Canada.
You can use this link to locate your MP:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/people/house/PostalCode.asp?lang=E&source=sm