OTTAWA

Etienne Boulay didn’t let his small stature stop him.

“Being a physical player defined me,” said the former CFL safety, most recently with the Toronto Argonauts.

A Grey Cup champion with the Montreal Alouettes in 2009 and ’10, the 5-foot-9, 187-pound Boulay estimates he suffered more than 100 head blows during his CFL career. One of them — a hit to the head during a game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2011 — should have ended his career. But he returned to the game. His last season was 2012.

Before becoming enlightened on the risks of concussions, Boulay lied about his symptoms and self-medicated with pain killers to try to get rid of the headaches and nausea.

“It led to an addiction,” Boulay said in the Rideau Hall ballroom on Tuesday during an emotional panel discussion as part of the Governor General’s Conference on Concussions in Sport. “I’m still fighting it.”

In the summer of 2014, Boulay was in such a dark place he attempted suicide. He was hooked on cocaine and alcohol and didn’t see a way out. Today he does, but it’s been a long road.

Long-time CFL analyst Matt Dunigan could relate to Boulay’s story.

Dunigan, who brought a linebacker’s mentality to the quarterback position, suffered 12 diagnosed concussions during his celebrated CFL career. It wasn’t until he suffered a couple of massive head blows in a game in Hamilton in 1996 that he reached his “epiphany.”

“When I was down on one knee on the field ... I felt the iron shield split wide open and I was vulnerable for the first time as a football player,” Dunigan said. “I knew right then and there my football career was over.

“It was 20 years ago,” said Dunigan, breaking down in tears on the stage. “I’ve been dealing with it every since ... and my family has, too.”

Dunigan encouraged players to raise their hand and admit they’re hurt.

Dunigan once stopped his son, Dolan, from playing football after a serious concussion, but after several years returned to enjoy one healthy, fulfilling season of Division I football with Louisiana Tech.

Eric Lindros, the third professional panellist, was more interested in taking the story forward than discussing his concussion history with the Philadelphia Flyers. Lindros, recently inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, called for a national concussion policy.

“Let’s have one blanketed — we are Canada — protocol. And it crosses east to west,” Lindros said. “Let’s keep it simple — as strong and accurate as possible.”

Lindros advocates grassroots concussion education beginning with children in school.

“Pro sport is not the place to start,” Lindros said.

Professional athletes hardly have the market cornered on concussions. Retired Paralympic skier Karolina Wisniewska used skiing to help her overcome childhood cerebral palsy, then suffered multiple concussions while ski racing. The four-time Paralympic medallist expressed the important point that concussion victims are the last ones capable of making sound judgment about a head injury.

“People say to me, ‘But you’ve had so many (concussions),’ ” Wisniewska said. “The more you have them, the less you know.”

Wisniewska was joined on the amateur-sports panel by gold medal trampolinist Rosie MacLennan, decorated Ottawa speedskater Kristina Groves, and Olympic cyclist Tara Whitten.

All have had concussion experience. Whitten is distinguished by having also studied the brain as a PhD student in neuroscience.

MacLennan told a remarkable story of suffering through such traumatic symptoms just three weeks prior to the Olympic qualifier, she wasn’t sure she would be able to defend her Olympic title. The implied pressure to return to action was immense: “The country was counting on me.”

MacLennan did heal in time and won back-to-back gold medals for the first time in trampoline history.

In an afternoon session, a medical panel led by renowned concussion expert Dr. Charles Tator of the Toronto Western Hospital discussed the treatment and diagnosis of concussions.

Wielding his best fastball was keynote speaker Ken Dryden, the former Montreal Canadiens goaltender and Leafs president. Dryden called into question the very existence of professional sport if we don’t get the concussion question right.

Athletes are bigger, faster, stronger and the collisions mightier.

“Compared to twenty years ago, all of our sports have become extreme sports,” said Dryden, referring to the CTE from brain trauma as sport’s “smoking gun.”

Dryden pointed the gun squarely at professional sports leagues that still deny a direct link between brain damage and collisions in sport. As we look back today on slavery and women’s rights, so, too, will we look back on concussions in sport, he said.

“We can’t get the big ones wrong,” Dryden said. “It is time for the decision-makers to catch up with the scientists. More importantly, it is time for the decision-makers to catch up with the life impact on their sport on players.”

Games have changed their cultures and rules in the past, Dryden said, and can again.

“Who are the decision-makers?” Dryden said, rhetorically. “What is stopping you?”

This forum is expected to lead to a national strategy on concussions. Governor-General David Johnston said “we can do better” on concussion issues and metaphorically called for us to be like Wayne Gretzky — “skate where the puck is going.”

BIG E WANTS BIG CHANGES

Eric Lindros can relate to Clarke MacArthur of the Ottawa Senators.

Like MacArthur, Lindros suffered serious concussion issues in the middle of his NHL career. Once a titan with the Philadelphia Flyers, Lindros was forced to end his career prematurely due to concussion issues.

MacArthur, the veteran Senators winger, is trying to come back from multiple concussions, most recently one suffered during a training-camp scrimmage.

“That was really upsetting,” Lindros said. “I hear he’s a really popular guy around here.”

As for the planned comeback by MacArthur, Lindros wasn’t about to express an opinion on it.

“He’s clearly been through this before,” Lindros said. “There are some great doctors in Ottawa, and if he feels he’s ready to go, I wish him well.”

MacArthur hasn’t played an NHL game since last February. He hopes to return to the Senators lineup sometime in January.

Lindros wants concussion education to start long before the NHL.

“What we can control is the classrooms, growing up saying, ‘I’ve got to be careful, not just for myself, but for my classmates, my teammates,’ ” Lindros said.

“It has to be something that just comes to mind, the way we once talked about swimming lessons or life-saving. It has to be second nature. The culture will change.”

wscanlan@postmedia.com

@HockeyScanner