Tuesday November 25, 2025 | OTTAWA, ON [Updated 2:30 pm PT]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Today NDP MP Gord Johns (Courtenay-Alberni) renewed his call today for a comprehensive national strategy on brain injuries.
Johns first introduced legislation during Brain Injury Awareness Month in June 2025 — urging the federal government to take what he calls long-overdue action to support the more than 1.6 million Canadians living with the effects of a brain injury.
The proposed national strategy is put forward through Bill C-206.
Bill C-206 focuses on prevention, better training and support for health care professionals, and improved coordination across sectors to address related issues including problematic substance use and homelessness.
“Brain injury is a silent driver of many of Canada’s biggest social issues — from homelessness to addictions to intimate partner violence, yet we still have no coordinated national response,” says Michelle McDonald, CEO of Brain Injury Canada.
“Brain injury is not just a health issue it is a human rights issue,” says Janelle Breese Biagioni, Executive Director of the BC Brain Injury Association.
As first published earlier today (pre-event):
Today NDP MP Gord Johns (Courtenay-Alberni) will address media about creating a national strategy on brain injuries.
Also at the press conference will be Michelle McDonald, CEO of Brain Injury Canada and Janelle Breese Biagioni, Executive Director of the BC Brain Injury Association and Community Lead for the National Strategy.
They will be calling on the federal government to implement a national strategy on brain injuries in Canada.
First brought forward:
This issue was first brought to the House of Commons by former NDP MP Alistair MacGregor in 2022 (then of Cowichan-Malahat-Langford) who eventually received unanimous support in the House for the bill in June 2024 during the 44th parliament but died on the Order Paper ahead of the 2025 federal election.
Biagioni was instrumental in bringing forward the brain injury issue to then-MP Alistair MacGregor, back in 2018 and continued to inform on the issue. This year, Biagioni received a King Charles III Coronation Medal for her work in this area.
A modern health and societal challenge:
Sadly, brain injuries are becoming far more common in today’s modern society from things like vehicle and bicycle crashes, physical violence (including intimate partner violence), and the use of drugs, as well as from medical conditions such as strokes.
Brain injuries can impact people’s behaviour which presents challenges for their functionality and interaction with their families, caregivers and others.
People who have irreparable brain injury may need continual care, sometimes in long-term care facilities.
===== RELATED:
- MacGregor’s brain injury Bill C-277 passed unanimously (June 23, 2024)
- Bill C-277 gives brain injury a higher profile (May 1, 2024)
- Alistair MacGregor reintroduces national strategy brain injury bill (June 2, 2022)
- Video – MP MacGregor Introduces Bill C-277 in House of Commons (2022)
- Bill C-277 – full text (2022)
NEWS SECTIONS: FEDERAL NDP | 45th PARLIAMENT OF CANADA | BRAIN INJURY | AWARDS & MEDALS
===== OTHER LINKS: Brain Injury Canada | BC Brain Injury Association