EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a new Village Media website devoted exclusively to covering provincial politics at Queen’s Park.
A panel that'll advise the Ford government on reshaping how sports like boxing and mixed martial arts are run in Ontario is coming together, quietly gaining its first members.
Others, including the chair that'll lead it, are also teed up to join soon.
The Ontario Combative Sport Advisory Council will help guide the Progressive Conservative government's changes to how combat sports operate in the province. The government's hope is that the council will help them make combat sports safer and make Ontario "a more attractive business environment and destination to host combative sport events."
A pair of recent cabinet orders coming from Tourism, Culture and Sport Minister Neil Lumsden's ministry finalized the appointment of the advisory council's first two members: Muzammal Nawaz and Shari Carruthers.
Nawaz is president of the Canadian arm of the World Association of Kickboxing Organizations. He's also earned black belts in two kinds of martial arts, Japanese Karate and Chinese Kenpo, was a Canadian kickboxing champion, and was part of Canada's silver medal-winning taekwondo team at the 1988 World Championship, according to WAKO Canada's website. He's also a self-employed leadership consultant.
Carruthers is chief operating officer for Burlington Training Centre and BTC Fight Promotions, which hosts professional MMA fights. She's also an accountant for Zeton Inc., a multi-faceted technology and manufacturing company.
Nawaz and Carruthers are both based in Burlington, not far from Lumsden's riding of Hamilton East—Stoney Creek. Both have been appointed to the maximum three-year-length terms that members of the government's advisory council are eligible for, lasting until June 22, 2026. The government could chose to reappoint them for additional terms of up to three years if it chooses.
Ford’s cabinet has also indicated in filings in the legislature that it intends to appoint three others: Ned Kuruc, Jennifer Huggins and Dr. Mark Boutros. The government hasn't yet published cabinet orders making their appointments official.
Kuruc, who is based in Hamilton, is set to chair the advisory group. He's previously been involved in running several different combat sports organizations. He's currently a mortgage agent and owner of an ATM-service business and a cannabis retailer.
Kuruc ran for the Conservative Party of Canada in the riding that overlaps Lumsden's in the 2021 federal election, finishing second by about 4,500 votes to Chad Collins, who was elected MP for the Liberals.
"I can not wait to be a candidate under your leadership," Kuruc said on Instagram in September 2022 in the caption of a post with current CPC Leader Pierre Poilievre.
Huggins is set to become vice-chair of the Ontario Combative Sport Advisory Council. She's the owner and president of the Kingsway Boxing Club in Toronto, and the executive director of the Fight To End Cancer, which raises money to support cancer research done by the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation. Huggins has also been a referee and judge for Boxing Ontario, Boxing Canada, the International Boxing Association, and the International Olympic Committee.
Boutros is set to become a council member, like Nawaz and Carruthers are. Boutros, of Richmond Hill, practises as a family physician at the Adelaide Health Clinic in Toronto. He's also a ringside combat sport physician for Boxing Ontario and the Ontario Athletics Commission, which he's also chief medical adviser for. He's previously taught children's judo as well.
All roles on the advisory council are part-time. For their work, members will be paid at a per-diem rate of $200. Vice-chairs will be paid per diems of $250, while the council's chair will be paid a $350 per diem.
The Ontario Combative Sport Advisory Council can have up to seven members.
Ford's PCs' effort to reshape how combat sports run in Ontario date back to early in their first mandate. The Ford government's 2019 budget bill contained the Combative Sports Act that'll replace the two-and-a-half decade old law that's the framework for fighting contests in boxing, MMA, and more.
Four years since its passage, most of the Combative Sports Act hasn't been enacted. The section setting up the advisory council was enacted in March of this year.
"Establishing the advisory council is an important milestone on the path to full implementation of the Combative Sports Act," a spokesperson for Lumsden said in an email on Monday.
"The Combative Sports Act, once fully proclaimed and implemented, will improve athlete safety in both professional and amateur combative sports settings by providing clear guidelines to safely compete in combative sports such as boxing, kicking-boxing, mixed martial arts and more."
As the Combative Sports Act was going through its passage, then-sport minister and noted-MMA enthusiast Michael Tibollo said the new act would bring Ontario's regulation of boxing, MMA, and more into line with international standards.
Changes were meant to "allow us to bring to Ontario the things that a lot of people are interested in and either have to go to Vegas or to another jurisdiction to see," said Tibollo, adding that, "I think we can capture some of that money we're losing and keep it in the province."
The budget that brought into law the Combative Sports Act was the first produced by the Ford government. It drew broad criticism for ranging reasons: its surprisingly high deficit, cuts made to health care, education and some social services, and its concentration on alcohol laws.
Ford shuffled his cabinet weeks after the PCs passed their 2019 budget, moving Tibollo to the mental health and addictions portfolio.
