Arbitrator awards former CFL player Bruce $25,000 - BERITAJA

Former CFL subordinate Arland Bruce III was awarded $25,000 successful damages by an arbitrator earlier this period aft suffering a concussion successful a 2012 game.

The magnitude is importantly little than the $310,000 Bruce had been seeking.

In a May 6 decision, arbitrator Allen Ponak ruled some the B.C. Lions and Montreal Alouettes committed 3 breaches of the corporate statement related to concussion management.

However, Ponak said that nary erstwhile arbitration cases nether a corporate bargaining statement were cited “in which harm awards for information violations person been anyplace adjacent to the amounts being sought.”

Bruce revenge a grievance alleging the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Lions, Alouettes and CFL grounded to supply capable aesculapian attraction before, during, and aft his concussion, violating the corporate statement betwixt the convention and the CFL Players’ Association (CFLPA).

Bruce, a erstwhile wide receiver, besides claimed he suffered imperishable beingness and cognitive encephalon harm arsenic a result. He received the concussion during a crippled successful 2012 while a personnel of the Lions.

Ponak ruled location were 2 statement violations by the Lions about clearing Bruce to play successful 2012 without pre-season aesculapian followup, and past Bruce’s return to crippled play without a physician’s aesculapian clearance.

He besides recovered 1 usurpation by the Alouettes about their nonaccomplishment to clasp a encephalon wounded appraisal for Bruce, that it claims to person administered.

In March 2018, the Supreme Court of Canada decided against proceeding Bruce’s concussion suit against the CFL and erstwhile commissioner Mark Cohon. It came aft 2 B.C. courts, the Supreme Court of British Columbia and B.C. Court of Appeal dismissed the suit, saying the Supreme Court antecedently ruled unionized labor must usage labour arbitration and not the courts to resoluteness disputes arising from their corporate agreement.

Bruce’s lawyers had based on the CFL’s corporate statement was different because athletes individually negotiated their pay, and it had nary semipermanent disablement security plan, but players were besides excluded from occupational wellness and information regulations and ineligible for workers’ compensation.

Bruce played 12 CFL seasons pinch the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (2001—02), Toronto Argonauts (2004—09), Hamilton Tiger-Cats (2009-11), B.C. (2011—12) and Montreal (2013). The two-time Grey Cup champion and three-time CFL all-star besides spent clip successful the NFL pinch the Kansas City Chiefs (2000) and San Francisco 49ers (2003).

This study by BERITAJA was first published May 20, 2026.