On June 5, 2013 the Canadian government passed bill S-209 which updated section 83 of the Criminal Code of Canada. Section 83 deals with prize fighting, and the updates made allowed for recognized martial arts to have tournaments without being in contravention of federal law. The same changes also allowed for the provinces to establish Provincial Sport Organizations (PSOs) to oversee the sanctioing of these tournaments. Ontario did not initialy establish PSOs. Without PSOs section 83 provided for any sport that "... is on the programme of the International Olympic Committee... " to hold legal competitions. Taekwondo, being an Olympic sport, fell under this provision.
In July 2017, the province of Ontario passed Order In Council OC-10872017 which established 11 PSOs, and also specified that any contest held without the sanction of a recognized PSO would be in contravention of section 83 of the Criminal Code of Canada. The PSO for Taekwondo is Taekwondo Ontario.
Since Ki Moo Gwan Martial arts is not a member of Taekwondo Ontario, we are unable to have our tournament sanctioned at this time. To ensure we do not place anyone at risk of being charged under section 83 of the Criminal Code, we will not be holding a tournament this year. We sincerely hope to find a solution to this problem and hope to continue our tradition of fine competition next year.