Through this report, the Rowan’s Law Advisory Committee recommends a number of Actions on how Ontario should approach the prevention and management of concussions in amateur sport.

Our starting point was the coroner’s jury recommendations, some of which we broadened and adapted to include sports other than rugby. Our recommended Actions are outlined below. Separate from these, we want to call attention to what we believe is the single most important thing that must happen in Ontario, and in Canada, to keep people safe from concussions. The culture around head injuries must change.

There was a time not very long ago when “getting your bell rung” was almost a badge of honour among athletes. It was something to be laughed off and left behind. Clearly, that is less and less the case today. We know much more than we used to about the effects, and dangers, of concussion. But for too many people, concussions are still not openly acknowledged and talked about. They are, in fact, an invisible injury. They are concealed, their effects hidden from coaches, teammates and family. This may particularly be true in the case of competitive, driven athletes who want more than anything else to "get back out there and play."

Rowan Stringer wanted to get back out there and play. It is hard to imagine any 17-year old, with the sense of invincibility that is so common in youth, feeling any differently. What is needed to counter that feeling, and that sense of invincibility, is knowledge and awareness about concussions, and the dangers if they are not managed properly. Concussions are not like sprains and bruises—you can’t “push through” them without risking devastating consequences. This requires a significant culture shift, and a change in the conversations that happen at every school, on every field of play, and in every home.

The Actions we recommend in this report will, we believe, take us a long way towards improving concussion management in Ontario. They will help keep young athletes safer. But they will work best if they are accompanied by a fundamental change in the way we all think about head injuries overall, and concussion in particular. Parents, coaches, players, fans—we all need to work on changing the culture in and around sports, so that sustaining a potential concussion-causing injury is immediately considered to be something serious. An athlete leaving the game or competition for assessment after a hit should be commended, not stigmatized. Until we, as a society, are prepared to change the conversation, we will struggle in our aim to increase the safe participation in sport.