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Robyn Wishart, a Vancouver lawyer representing Bruce, said if the former player was granted his appeal and won in the Supreme Court of Canada, she would immediately apply for a trial date in B.C. However, it would likely be 2019 or 2020 before such the case would be heard.

“I think there is a lot of pressure on the CFL right now to do something (about concussion-related issues), and it will be interesting to see what their response is … if we are successful,” Wishart said this week.

Wishart is also organizing a concussion-related class-action claim in Ontario for former CFL players between 1952 and 2014. It has been on hold since then because of the legal proceedings involving Bruce.

Wishart said more than 200 former players or their families had signed on to the class action and she was continuing to hear from a handful of other retired CFLers each month.

The class action was filed in May 2015 with former defensive back Korey Banks and running back Eric Allen as representative plaintiffs. Others who have since joined the claim include former all-star linebacker Alondra Johnson, running back Dennis Duncan and the families of former Ottawa Rough Riders Gary Schreider and Rod Woodward, who, like Allen, have died.

After years of denials, the NFL in 2016 and made a $1-billion settlement with former players to cover brain health issues.

The CFL has said it is “continuing to work with the medical and research communities . . . and players to make their health and safety a priority,” but has of yet not acknowledged a definitive connection between football concussions and degenerative brain disease.

Commissioner Randy Ambrosie told CBC this month he needed more time to meet with experts to talk about the issue.

“For a guy that played nine seasons in the league, it couldn’t be any more personal and any more important to anyone to understand what’s happening on this issue,” Ambrosie told the national broadcaster.