Muay Thai Becomes Legal in Ontario, Canada
By Mike LNg
I have some good news and more good news. Though, its taken until a decade past the 21st century Ontario has finally been granted the legal right to fight full rules Muay Thai. For a long time now it appeared Calgary would enjoy a virtual monopoly on the ring sport in the nation of Canada. That appears to at long last be at an end.
Much like the United States of America, Ontario’s decision to in effect legalize MMA will give umbrella coverage to full rules Muay Thai. How did this decision come to be?
The Minister of Consumer Services, Sophia Aggelonitis was quoted as saying ” the province has come around on the issue after seeing the benefits that MMA could bring to Ontario.”
“Our government has been monitoring MMA for some time. We know that the sport has evolved and that Ontarians want to see it here,” Aggelonitis said in a statement released Saturday.
“My goal is to make sure we have the tools to keep the competitors safe, and provide an economic boost to communities that want to host MMA events”.
This will mean a lot to the burgeoning Muay Thai community in Ontario that includes Phady’s, Siam No.1, Iron Tiger and many other gyms. Though it’s early and highly speculative to say at this juncture, I suspect Vancouver B.C. could be next and Calgary will no longer be alone in having full rules Muay Thai (albeit in Calgary it requires elbow pads).
I had a feeling something was afoot in Ontario with their first announced amateur Muay Thai card in 2 years. Despite some in-fighting and a struggle to hold it back via Calgary’s Robin Finley, Ontario has gotten the greenlight to proceed with rules allowing Muay Thai. This is very good news and hopefully more good news will come in the days and months down the road for Ontario and all of Canada.
The Science of 8 Limbs 
As a member of the Ontario Muay Thai community I wish I could say that this is official but… those in charge of licensing professional combative sports in Ontario have a very long history of corruption and an obvious agenda agains ring sports. They will not likely allow Muay Thai to slide in as a subset of MMA without a good fight and lengthy evaluation process.
Interestingly, they have already began using the UFC as an excuse to decline licensing Pro Boxing events until next year… promoters have been dismissed with a simple “we’re too busy, come back next year” despite the fact that the promoter had already booked a venue and secured sponsorship.
Further, its not going to be an easy task for the average Joe promoter to hold a card together. There will be heavy financial deposits and very stringent medical requirements that will scare away most promoters, except maybe the UFC who may be able to fork out enough money up-front and hold a few events per year. It is a system that is perhaps designed to fail. It is also not uncommon for fighters applying for a pro license in Ontario to be ordered MRI’s and CAT scans…. lengthy and expensive medical assessments in order to further burden the athletes and promoters
Pro boxing and kick-boxing is already legal here. However you will hardly find more than a small handful of events in Ontario each year, where as in Quebec alone there will be upwards of 60 Pro boxing events annually.
These will be challenges that need to be addressed.
As for Amateur Muay Thai, it is great to see that some brave souls have done their legal homework (others even spent considerable time in court) in order to uncover the truth of the legality of holding Amateur Muay Thai events so long as certain liability and safety measures are in check. A new association was formed that went beyond these minimum criteria and went ahead with events without a single hitch. However, there is a bill (C-31) before parialment at the moment which includes a new definition of Section 83 of Canada’s criminal code dealing with “Prize Fighting”. You can find it here:
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Docid=3906483&file=4
The government has finally decided to ammend this ancient law which was previously used by the Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion as well as the Athletic Commissioner’s Office as an excuse to consider Muay Thai and MMA as illegal, even at the Amateur level. The recent Amateur Muay Thai events have obviously proven that they are wrong and that this law does not deem Amateur MT as “Prize Fighting” and therefore illegal, so long as it is managed safely. But now its being re-written so that all events must either be sanctioned by the government designated “Provincial Sports Organization” or be licensed through “Permission from your Province” (yet to be determined who this will be in Ontario). Lets just hope and pray that this authority will not be handed to the same crooks in the Ministry of Health Promotion or the Athletics Commissioner’s Office, otherwise pretty much everyone in the Province is screwed once again.
Concerning CMTC-A in Calgary, they have certainly been playing an active role in dividing the Ontario Muay Thai community and are using their designation from IFMA as Canada’s official “National Sport Federation” for Muay Thai to intimidate everyone who participates in any event that it not sanctioned by them. They threaten black listing the athletes and coaches from both their events as well as from IFMA! They’ve been filling everyone’s ears with this Olympic Dream non-sense and posing as the “savior of muay thai in Ontario”. These are the same people who refused to recognize the previous Muay Thai Association in Ontario which was stripped of its “Provincial SPorts Organization” status from the government as a result. Now they want to come here and set up a new PSO that will be remotely managed by them???
Well as fortune would have it, some serious corruption at the hands of CMTC-A and IFMA has very recently been uncovered and I’m pretty sure that it will become public knowledge in the days to come 🙂
Good stuff. I may use some of this as a followup.
When and where will the CMTC-A corruption info be available?
IF Canada and Ontario organizations work anything like USA ones it’ll become a matter of public record released by the requisite government commission and then of course the press. Though maybe not necessarily in that order.
All indications are that the Ontario government/commission are supportive of CMTC-A and are actually working with them. Just wondering who is uncovering this ‘corruption’?
Not the impression I get. More than some of the indications are that there is much strife internal and external to Ontario and CMTC-A. And yes I’ve seen much of the documentation covering that very topic by the principals involved.
Ken Hayashi will never allow MMA in Ontario as long as he is the OAC. Fucking asshole.
I would like more on the matter as well. Please post when it is available. I have dealth with Robin several times, and fought several times in CMTC-A events (living in Ontario). And have always been treated fairly, was under the impression they conducted business and themselves very well. To hear they are holding Ontario back to gain a monopoly doesn’t sound too far fetched, but of course would like as much info on the subject as I can get. So any more information would be great.
Thanks for the post.