Keeping Up Appearances

The refusal to sanction MMA in Vancouver is less about safety than it is about optics

Since late September, mixed martial arts have been effectively banned in Vancouver – banned the good Canadian way, that is. At a meeting on Sept. 20, 2007, the Vancouver City Council (VCC) met to discuss a report on MMA regulation in Vancouver, and rather than nix the sport outright, the VCC simply withdrew the ability of the Vancouver Athletic Commission (VAC) to regulate it. The effect is the same, though: since that time, MMA events have not only been forbidden in Vancouver, but have effectively been shut down in most of the province. In the last three months, little has changed, and MMA fans are beginning to wonder if the issue will ever be revisited, and if it is not, MMA fans want to know why. It would be easy to dismiss the banning of MMA in Vancouver as the result of bureaucratic nonsense, something that will eventually work itself out as the gears of the machine slowly grind along. However, there are too many inconsistencies and contradictions in the statements from the VCC to believe that there is isn’t far more to this conflict.

Prior to that fateful Council meeting in September, the five-member Athletic Commission regulated all MMA events in Vancouver, and several smaller shows by organizations like King of the Cage had proven very successful. Then, spurred by an internal report on MMA, the VCC withdrew sanctioning authority from the Athletic Commission. Every statement from the VCC has cited the potential safety of fighters as the primary reason for the decision, complicated by the belief that regulating MMA is simply an unreasonably large task for a five-person volunteer committee. It is worth noting that this decision followed on the heels of the controversial British Medical Association report that claimed that MMA should be banned worldwide, and stopped just short of blaming mixed martial artists for the death of Princess Diana. This report undoubtedly played a role in the decision to stop sanctioning MMA events, but the question is, did the controversial statements in the British report influence the actual VCC decision, or did it simply provide the required rhetoric for a public statement?

Consider that the Athletic Commission itself had been involved in regulating MMA events for a number of years. The VAC Annual Report for 2005-2006 discusses not only the experience that the VAC has had in regulating these events, but also the additional training that was provided to the Athletic Commission’s medical advisor (both the one that retired in 2004, and her successor) on head trauma and sports. Consider also that the VAC issued a letter to Attorney-General Wally Opal, requesting a provincial body be established to regulate MMA in British Columbia; a request that was made not because the VAC was unable to ensure fighter safety, but because they did not have the manpower to prevent “bootleg” MMA fighting. Neither Opal nor any other member of the provincial government ever responded to this request, but the request is telling on two levels. First, it shows that the VAC felt eminently capable of ensuring the safety of any fighter at any legally-run MMA event; second, it shows that MMA is an issue that the province would rather avoid altogether. Given these facts, it is mystifying why the VCC would demand that MMA be regulated by a provincial body, and why fighter safety was given as the reason.

The report that at least partially informed the decision of the VCC is also a fairly suspect document. Aside from repeatedly referring to “ultimate fighting and mixed martial arts” as two separate but similar sports, a mistake that should have been avoided by even a minimum level of research, this report mirrored the British report in claiming that MMA is more dangerous that boxing or wrestling. On the day that the VCC decision to stop regulation of MMA events was handed down, the medical advisor to the Athletic Commission, Dr. Brache, had a different take. While he admits a relatively recent introduction to MMA, he has also clearly studied both the nature of the rules and the physiological effects of the sport, an education certainly aided by a forward-thinking Athletic Commission. His statements were clear that MMA was safer than boxing due to the nature of the rules (multiple ways to stop a fight, the nature of blows to the head in boxing, and a number of others), and that MMA is “safer than people think”. Nevermind, though; the City Council knows better. Or at least, the City Council knows that it has something to gain from passing the buck to the province.

It is also important to realize what arguments were not made here. In the battles around MMA regulation in Ontario, the head of the Ontario Athletic Commission has stated that MMA violates section 83 of the Canadian Criminal Code. For the non-lawyers (that’s most of us), s.83 bans all prize fighting, other than boxing adhering to a strict set of rules or prize fighting sanctioned by a provincial body. The legal issue was never raised in Vancouver, because the Athletic Commission actually IS the body sanctioned by the province to regulate “prize fighting” in the Vancouver area, which they have been doing successfully for boxing, kickboxing, and other combat sports since 1945. Essentially, after over six decades of successful “prize fighting” regulation, the Vancouver Athletic Commission forgot how to do its job, and required help from the province - despite the fact that they are an extension of the province in this regard. This is why the VCC was almost certainly passing the buck with their decision: according to law and precedent, the VAC was doing just fine.

So what is the motivation? Why is the Vancouver City Council spinning MMA events off into limbo? Well, one suggestion that carries a lot of weight is a sort of upper-crust snobbery. An article by Shelley Fralic in the Vancouver Sun asserts just that: that MMA is too “monster truck” for the genteel residents of Yaletown (that’s the rich condo district of Vancouver, for those from east of the Rockies). This “snobbery” perspective is certainly supported by the fact that MMA apparel - namely t-shirts by Affliction and Warrior Wear - has actually been banned from the posh Granville club district. The reason behind this move is especially absurd: somehow the powers that be have linked these shirts to Vancouver’s growing gang problem. Now, this is not to say that gang members might not enjoy Affliction shirts as much as anyone else, but in general it would seem that MMA clothing is less a sign of gang membership and more a sign of bad taste in wardrobe (I say this as someone who owns a whole drawer full of MMA shirts and wears them frequently). But simple snobbery does not quite explain some of the other events surrounding this curious situation.

Consider that, following the VCC decision, MMA events across the province were shelved; not for legal reasons, but largely because of financial backers pulling out without reason. Consider also that the provincial government has yet to respond to either the Athletic Commission request from several years ago or the VCC ruling of over three months ago. Consider that even prior to the VCC decision, there seemed to be a concerted effort by the City Council to undermine the Athletic Commission, mainly through rejecting standard MMA waivers in favour of five- or six-page long documents that no lawyer could read, and no fighter would sign. Finally, consider that in the report on which the VCC based its decision, other options were presented – including charging a fifty cent tax on tickets to MMA events to cover insurance costs – that would have allowed MMA events to continue in Vancouver, but that these were dismissed out of hand. What we have here seems to be an attempt to go beyond simply looking down a well-to-do nose at a sport with strong grassroots support. Rather, this casting out of MMA extends beyond the sport itself to an entire sub-culture of people. Which people? Well, for argument’s sake, why not anyone who is not painfully polite, loves curling, and is willing to work day and night to improve the image of Vancouver - and British Columbia in general - for the hordes of tourists expected both before and after the Olympics in 2010?

As frustrating as it is to see it happen, MMA is simply the latest casualty in what is quickly becoming an aggressive “cultural revolution” on the west coast. Entranced by the dancing dollar signs of tourism, the bureaucratic, political and business elites of British Columbia have decided that there is an acceptable profile for BC citizens. MMA does not fit that profile, any more than the homeless, political activists, or indigenous peoples (not including bastardized inuksuks or sasquatches – those make great toys for the kids) do. Regardless of the growing popularity, mainstream acceptance, and proven safety record of mixed martial arts, the sport and those who enjoy watching and practicing it, are just not welcome in Vancouver because someone has decided that that’s not what British Columbians ought to be. Not now, certainly not until after the Olympics, and depending on whether or not Vancouverites - and British Columbians in general - get motivated to take action, maybe not ever.

Author Bio: Adam is a displaced Hamiltonian now living on the west coast. He works as a research analyst and trains Jiu Jitsu and MMA at ZUMA in Victoria, BC.