Missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls is a topic I know mostly from listening to CBC News. The lack of interest from police forces is rather appalling.
Through Black Spruce is a film adaptation of Joseph Boyden's novel of the same name.
Annie Bird and Susanna Bird are identical twins, Cree women from Moosonee, Ontario. Susanna is a model who took off to Toronto with her abusive boyfriend Gus. Annie is a homebody who feels more comfortable hunting than posing.
Susanna turns up missing. Her mother gets a lawyer in Toronto who doesn't do much to find Susanna. Annie gets invited by a local friend to go to Toronto on vacation, Annie is reluctant to go but ends up staying behind to look for her sister.
As the search goes on, Annie takes on the persona of Susanna, whom we only see in 2-dimensional pictures. The transformation reminded me of re was a bit of Jack Nicholson's identity transformation in The Passenger (1975) from Michelangelo Antonioni. Tanaya Beatty succeeds with the heavy responsibility in playing the sisters.
The other subplot involves their Uncle Will (Brandon Oakes). Marius thinks Will is a snitch of their local drug dealing. Marius and his gang think Will knows where Susanna is hiding. The irony is that so many Indigenous females are truly missing but somehow this is the lone exception. Who said drug dealers were smart.
At one point, Will escapes to a nearby island. That tale could have been a film on its own and feels like a necessary escape from the big city of Toronto and the big village of Moosonee.
Don McKellar takes long chunks in the middle of the film to explore each storyline and then uses smaller chunks toward the end of the film. The segments seem pretty long in the middle to where you might forget about the other story. His veteran director experience builds up a proper level of momentum that matches the tone in the film. McKellar makes a cameo in the film.
Tantoo Cardinal and Graham Greene have small poignant roles. The cast also includes Parveen Kaur and Roseanne Supernault.
Through Black Spruce showcases the dual identities of living as an Indigenous person within their own society and living in the white people society. Annie and Susanna are obvious but Uncle Will also wrestles with these different worlds. The 2018 film offers us a complex portrayal of these divided lives in an engaging fashion.
Through Black Spruce received Canadian Screen Awards nominations for Best Actor (Oakes) and won for Best Original Score for Alaska B.
video credit: YouTube/D Films photo credit: Through Black Spruce film
"Our advice and our direction was that if there was a positive case that arose, that we would do what we do with all cases that we have here – that we would investigate and there needed to be a contingency in case there were other people that were identified as ill," B.C. chief medical officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said. "It might mean suspension of part of a series for a period of time until that could be done."
Toronto and Edmonton on the Canadian side are still in the hunt along with Las Vegas, Chicago, and Los Angeles. 4 American markets were the first cuts earlier in the process: Pittsburgh, Dallas, Columbus, and Minneapolis/St. Paul. We originally predicted Edmonton and Las Vegas. As we've learned in the Vancouver situation, we would like Canada to get the NHL hub cities but we also want the people of Canada to be safe.
Now that Canadian cities have the green light from the federal government, Canadian NHL teams can train on Canadian soil.
The low COVID-19 rates and the even lower Canadian dollar give Canada an advantage.
It’s the obvious choice to bring the @NHL to #Edmonton.
We look forward to welcoming the league and players here to Alberta to take in the beautiful province we have to offer. pic.twitter.com/kp0iN86vCP
Alberta premier Jason Kenney, already known for propaganda with the Canadian Energy Centre, introduced a video for families of NHL players coming to Edmonton. The video is lovely and full of real places in Alberta, none of which is anywhere near Edmonton. These places are near Calgary, but Calgary has the oldest arena in the NHL not the newest arena.
Edmonton would be a great choice for a NHL hub city, but not for the reasons Kenney unveiled.
The Ottawa Senators went into the NHL draft with a rather good chance at the #1 pick, given that the Sens controlled the #2 best odds (its own pick) and #3 best odds (via San Jose). The Senators fell to the #3 pick (via San Jose) and #5 pick (Ottawa) while a playoff team will get the #1 pick.
Canadian Alexis LaFreniere is the consensus #1 pick. Last season, LaFreniere had 35 goals and 77 assists in 52 games for Rimouski in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
Though the 8 playoff losing teams in the opening round get an equal chance, you have to wonder if that pick ends up with a prominent American team (Pittsburgh, Chicago). Theoretically, every Canadian team but Ottawa is eligible if they lose in the qualifying round. Perhaps the lottery was sincere, but the league doesn't have a good reputation. Pittsburgh magically ended up with Sidney Crosby after a NHL lockout. We aren't saying the NHL cheated: we are saying if the league cheated, this is exactly the scenario that would have happened.
If the NHL does not resume playing this season, the bottom 8 teams based on points percentage would be in a lottery for the top pick. Montréal and Winnipeg are the only Canadian teams in this category.
The 2020 NHL draft lottery was originally supposed to be in Montréal.
Vinsanity has come to an end of his NBA career. Vince Carter finally retired as a NBA player after 22 seasons.
Carter was drafted by Golden State but instantly traded to Toronto for Antawn Jamison in the 1998 NBA draft. He was known as a dunk master and earned the nickname Air Canada. Carter led the Raptors to the team's first-ever playoff appearance in 2000 and first playoff series win in 2001.
Carter won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award. He later was traded to New Jersey in late 2004. Carter was an All-Star every season when he was with the Raptors.
Carter won the Slam Dunk Contest in 2000. The win included a 360° windmill.
Carter is the first NBA player to appear in 4 different decades in 22 seasons, also a league record. He also played for New Jersey, Orlando, Phoenix, Dallas, Memphis, Sacramento, and Atlanta.
Vince Carter became a reason for Raptors fans to get excited and made a huge impact on the history and viability of the Toronto Raptors franchise.
The Toronto Raptors have never retired a number. Carter was loved while in Toronto, booed heavily after he was traded, and eventually loved again. #15 in the rafters would look really nice.
We are still waiting to hear about sports on Canadian soil.
The Toronto Blue Jays are heading back to Toronto. The Blue Jays want to train and play their regular-season games in Toronto. The team has a good chance of training at Rogers Centre. The team would stay in the hotel at Rogers Centre and quarantine in that fashion similar to what the NHL might do in Canada.
The team had been in Dunedin with Florida recording extremely high COVID-19 case numbers lately. Sahlen Field in Buffalo, home of their Triple A team, could enter the mix if the Jays can't play regular season games in Toronto.
The Canadian MLS teams will play in a tournament in Orlando. Then, Toronto FC, Montréal Impact, and the Vancouver Whitecaps would have trouble playing games in their home parks or country. The NBA Toronto Raptors are playing in Orlando.
The CFL had prided itself in modern times for not having a regular season game lost to a strike or lockout. The pandemic has postponed the start of the 2020 CFL season. We aren't even sure of a season at this point.
The CFL might play in September or not at all. James Wilder Jr., who signed with Montréal, couldn't wait any longer and took a job. DaVaris Daniels, who signed with Toronto, has given CFL Commissioner Randy Ambroisie until Friday to announce plans for a 2020 CFL season.
The other leagues have plans that may or may not happen. The CFL has said "September" but otherwise has been vague.
TSN added a new show called CFL2020 running Fridays at 7:30 pm Eastern before the CFL Encore Fridays. For unknown reasons, ESPN+ hasn't picked up CFL programming via TSN during the pandemic.
Rogers Sportsnet did imply there would be more broadcasting changes after the Chris Cuthbert acquisition. We don't want to report a name without an official announcement but there is apparently a new free agent formerly with Rogers with NHL and CFL television experience.
Speaking of Rogers, Rogers Sportsnet One has debuted a new interview series Top of Her Game with Tara Slone. This is a show that is long overdue and Slone is an ideal host. Profiling women in sports needs to be a part of the current sports landscape.
The news release notes some of the early guests: Stephanie McMahon and Charlotte Flair of the WWE; NHL executive vice-president Kim Davis; Waneek Horn-Miller, the first Mohawk woman to compete in the Summer Olympics; Mathea Olin, Canada’s first Pan Am Games surfing medallist; and Chantal Petitclerc, Canada’s most decorated Paralympian.
The series runs on Sundays at 6:30 pm Eastern on Sportsnet One and is also available on Sportsnet Now.
Pride is celebrated in late June in the United States, yet is often spread out in different weeks in Canada. I noticed this first-hand in St. John's when the Pride celebration was in late July.
Pride among the LGBTQiA+ can't be as loud and proud as normal during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. We definitely recommend adding a few Canadian films and television to your Pride celebration in 2020.
Giant Little Ones
The question of who is gay or not gay is often ambiguous in high school. This film deals with several characters and points of view.
Better Than Chocolate
This is one of my favourite Canadian films. Lesbians and censorship are in the spotlight in this 1999 film. Judy, a trans character excellently played by Peter Outerbridge, is such a cool character.
Lost and Delirious
This Lea Pool film explores experimentation at a girls' school. The cast includes a young Jessica Paré along with American actors Piper Perabo and Mischa Barton.
Weirdos
Alice wants sex with Kit but Kit is interested in a boy they meet while hitchhiking. Not Andy Warhol talks only to Kit.
Breakfast with Scot
I was in Windsor in November 2007 and saw this film was playing. I had read about this film playing at TIFF. The main memory was that the Toronto Maple Leafs allowed the film to use its logo even though the former player on the team was gay. Marriage equality had been law in Canada since 2005. Canada had a booming tourism business of people coming to Canada to get married and then go back to the United States.
This film does play the gay relationship and potential issues as perhaps too cute for some audiences.
Other Canadian films that explore these themes include Mambo Italiano; When Night is Falling; Grown Up Movie Star; À tout prendre; Closet Monster; Genesis; and Vic and Flo Saw a Bear.
Thom Fitzgerald and Xavier Dolan are filmmakers in the LGBTQiA+ section of proverbial video stores. Fitzgerald is known for The Hanging Garden; Cloudburst; The Event; and Splinters. Dolan has covered this world in I Killed My Mother; Les Amours Imaginaires | Heartbeats; Laurence Anyways; Tom at the Farm; It's Only the End of the World; The Death & Life of John F. Donovan; and Matthias & Maxime. Every film except Mommy.
Pride is very applicable to Canadian television. You might have heard of a tiny show called Schitt's Creek. Wynonna Earp, Lost Girl, Orphan Black, Bomb Girls, and Workin' Moms are among many Canadian series that fit right into LGBTQiA+ themes. The Web series Carmilla is another good example.
Dan Levy created a world where homophobia didn't exist. Even Chris Elliott's mayor character Roland Schitt is cool with the LGBTQiA+ world. Love is love. Hoping your 2020 Pride is as celebratory as possible.
We didn't expect the announcement as soon as yesterday, but there will be no 2020 Windsor International Film Festival.
The 2019 Windsor International Film Festival was the 15th anniversary of the film festival with 10 days of celebration. The WIFF Alley that led from the Capitol Theatre to the Chrysler Theatre was a wondrous sight, reminding us of why we love film.
From the 800+ crowd who saw Parasite on a Saturday night to the 1 (me) crowd who saw We Are Gold late on a Tuesday night, the amazing celebration of film has only grown stronger over the years in Windsor.
I had wondered about the prospect of a virtual festival, something the Toronto International Film Festival is still contemplating for 2020. I have had this fear that a limited Windsor festival would be geo-exclusive to Ontario. If that had happened, I would have gladly supported what the festival was doing, even if that meant I would not be allowed into the festival.
I have attended in part or all of this film festival since 2007 when I accidentally discovered there was a festival. Breakfast with Scot was that film.
"Was this a difficult decision? Yes. But, it was also in many ways an easy decision. WIFF is about bringing people together through film. WIFF is about watching and discussing the best Canadian and International films, seeing old friends in the theatres, making new friends in the lineups and celebrating at the parties all over downtown Windsor. Anything short of this is simply not the WIFF we all want and love." — Vincent Georgie, Executive Director and Chief Programmer for WIFF.
The element that you think you will miss in a film festival is film itself. Being at the Windsor International Film Festival is so much more than seeing film. A few months in a pandemic have brought me lots of Canadian film but this isn't the same.
There were a few trusted voices who said I had to see Honeyland from North Macedonia in the first slot on a Sunday morning. I trusted them and saw the film. An incredible experience.
Absorbing a film becomes difficult when you have a film in the next slot. I recall coming outside after Meditation Park to clear my head and shed a few tears.
The volunteers, the participants, the school kids who weren't supposed to be in Une colonie and had awkward reactions: they are the joy and splendor of being live in a film festival.
#TIFF20 will feature a tighter selection of 50 feature films, and five programs of short films, with the same quality and range you’d expect — from Wavelengths to star-driven Galas, documentaries, international cinema, and Midnight Madness.
The Toronto International Film Festival announced a few details for its limited festival running September 10-19 (a day short of the original September 10-20). We will cover Canadian films as the news gets released later this summer.
TIFF also announced layoffs of 31 employees, who represent 17% of full-time staff.
My heart is absolutely broken. The Windsor International Film Festival will return in 2021. As difficult as looking forward has been, this film festival and other film festivals will bounce back. You might even be more appreciative of sitting close to people and enjoying a film in a group environment.
photo credit: me logo credit: Windsor International Film Festival Twitter capture: @TIFF_net
Bon fête nationale du Québec: Fête de la Saint-Jean-Baptiste celebrated June 24 in Quebec as well as other Francophone parts of Canada and the United States.
The day is also about the beginning of summer.
We often have a French-language Canadian film for reflection around this time. The current COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has prevented that gathering and other celebrations.
French-language Canadian films are essentially Quebecois films since you rarely see a French-language film from other Francophone communities in Canada.
We haven't reviewed too many French-language Canadian films lately simply because we haven't run across too many of them. We did review The Decline from Netflix but didn't consider that worth watching. The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches | La petite fille qui aimait trop les allumettesis not a casual film. Maybe you can explain to me.
There are plenty of marvelous titles that we saw in the 2019 Windsor International Film Festival. Some (but not all) of the great titles include And The Birds Rained Down, Kuessipan, Slut in a Good Way, and Matthias et Maxime.
Antigone won several major awards at the 2020 Canadian Screen Awards.
Here are some other recent reviews of French-language Canadian films.
We have a running list of French-Canadian films that we would love to see. A couple of titles in particular are August 32nd on Earth from Denis Villeneuve and Emporte-Moi from Lea Pool. The issue has mostly been finding copies with English subtitles. Je ne comprend pas Francaise bien.
We normally have a Canadian film via the summer film series in Chicago to present. No film series due to, well, you know why. Here is some of the latest Canadian film news.
We have critiqued Canadian films that shoot in other countries with non-Canadian actors. We know that will always be a subsection of Canadian films. We applaud those films that use Canadian actors that shoot in Canada.
Marie Clements wrote, directed, and produced Red Snow (2019). The film is about an indigenous Canadian solider who gets captured in Afghanistan. The idea of indigenous in Canada vs. Afghanistan is key to the plot of the film. The extremes of freezing and desert are on full display.
Turns out the entire film was shot in Canada: Red Snow was shot in the Northwest Territories and British Columbia, including Yellowknife, Dettah, Kamloops, Whistler, and Cache Creek.
The category of Canadian films shot in Canada but made to look like somewhere else might only be a few. Those films deserve a salute.
The film has dialogue in Gwich'in, Inuvialuktun, Pashto, and English: Different languages aren't a concern for us.
Red Snow is available on Apple TV.
The idea of different colour bandages isn't a new idea even as Band-Aid announced a new line of bandages that better match the skin tones of black and brown people.
Pat Mills didn't invent the idea when he utilised a dark-colour bandage in the Canadian film Guidance. Mills played a clueless school counselor who comes up with the idea of taking a marker and darkening the regular bandage.
That was a heartwarming moment in a really nice Canadian comedy. You might have seen Don't Talk to Irene, which was Mills' second film.
Mills doesn't always appear on lists of budding Canadian filmmakers. His films centre around high school life and underdogs. Both films are silly and have heart: Canadian English comedies that are thoughtful.
These are the kind of moments you don't see in American films, things that make Canadian films special.
The Cannes Film Festival, scheduled for May 12-23, was thwarted by, well, you know. The 2019 version had a couple of major films from Canada, both of which we saw in Windsor in November.
The 2020 version only had a single title: Nadia, Butterfly from director Pascal Plante.
2020 Cannes films are allowed to debut at other film festivals later this year, perhaps even TIFF.
"It's all positive, it's very humbling," Plante said. "I live in the same world as everybody. We live in crazy times. I cannot be disappointed in the slightest. These are extraordinary circumstances."
The film is about the Olympics experience and what happens when that glory is over. Actual Canadian Olympics champion swimmer Katerine Savard (relay bronze for Canada at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro) makes her acting debut.
Given the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo have been postponed to 2021, timing is good for Olympics participants and filmmakers.
Academy Awards changes don't normally apply too often to Canadian films. If there is a breakthrough Canadian film with limited U.S. releases, there could be a crossover to the Oscars.
The Academy is shifting the rules allowing films that debut on a streaming service without a theatrical run to be eligible for the Oscars in 2021.
All film academy members will now be able to vote in the first round for best international feature film aka best foreign language film. The film academy will condense the two sound categories into a single category. This is highly relevant to Canadians who work in the U.S. film industry.
The new 93rd Oscars date is April 25, moved back from February 28. Hopefully, the date won't have to be adjusted a second time. We've seen how the Canadian Screen Awards handled an online presentation. Feel comfortable saying the Oscars won't have a host, whether in person or online.
photos credit: Red Snow film; bandaidbrand Instagram; Nadia, Butterfly film video credit: YouTube/Movieclips Indie
With movie theatres being shut down, drive-ins have made a comeback in North America. While we applaud the expansion of ways people can see films, Canadian films may not be part of the equation on either side of the border.
Getting new films into drive-ins isn't likely since studios have shifted to on demand options. The go-to options are classics or family films, neither of which lend themselves to Canadian films.
Canadian horror films are legendary and appropriate for what drive-ins were in a much similar time. The dialogue not so important; blood and guts on a huge screen.
The kind of intellectual, thoughtful Canadian films that we enjoy reviewing doesn't fit the current version of drive-ins. Very popular and very familiar hit the mark.
If the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic lasts for awhile, drive-ins would be smart to think of a broader playlist. For U.S. drive-ins, Canadian films would be new to your audience. Here are some of our favourite Canadian films that would fit in well at the drive-in.
Horror films
Horror films are more obvious choices. Ginger Snaps might be a more intellectual approach to the horror genre but would still represent an excellent drive-in choice. David Cronenberg old-school choices such as Rabid and Shivers would be a most excellent double feature.
Black Christmas and Cannibal Girls would be another old-school duo. From famed directors Bob Clark and Ivan Reitman, respectively, they showcase future stars (then) such as Andrea Martin, who is in both films, Margot Kidder (Black Christmas), and Eugene Levy (Cannibal Girls). Levy's hair in Cannibal Girls is frightening enough.
Ravenous | Les Affamés and Blood Quantum have plenty of zombies but are a bit subdued compared to other zombie films.
waydowntown might not seem like a drive-in classic, but I would love to see that film in that setting. No one is chasing anyone but the drive to stay inside makes the film ideal for a pandemic and create excitement for those watching the film.
Trailer Park Boys: Don't Legalize It might not be their best work but the film offers us a large-size version of their antics.
Black Cop is a film for these times and the chase scenes would do well in a drive-in setting.
Strange Brew and Porky's likely were shown at drive-ins of that era.
The United States has the most drive-in theatres in the world, approximately 300. Canada is second in the world at about 35-40 drive-ins.
We saw in this story that a Quebec drive-in (cine-parcs en Francaise) in St. Eustache, just north of Montréal, showed Menteur | Compulsive Liar. This should be explained in context: Quebecers are more likely to watch Quebec films and that film was 2019's top-grossing Canadian film.
I do remember drive-ins from my childhood and teenage years. Having audio pumped through the FM radio is a lot more fun than having a speaker on your car while letting mosquitoes into your car.
I associate drive-ins with carefree times so doing a drive-in during a pandemic is a much different experience. Even if those films I saw at the drive-in might not have been classics, I remember those films fondly even to this day. Would be nice for people to have those kind of memories about a Canadian film.
photo credit: CTV News; Ginger Snaps film; waydowntown film
The Stanley Cup finals would have been over in a parallel universe. The CFL would have been in week 2. Let's have more Canadian films.
As long as CBC is showing Canadian films on a Saturday night, we will keep previewing them.
Here is the schedule for the second half of June 2020 with slightly later starting times.
June 20
9p Giant Little Ones (2018) 11p Rhymes For Young Ghouls (2013)
June 27
10p The Grizzlies (2018) 12:30a Closet Monster (2015) 2:30a Empire of Dirt (2013)
These selections are more in my wheelhouse. No offence to family friendly films, but these Canadian films have layers and depth. They earn their slightly later than normal starting times.
Giant Little Ones is one of the best Canadian films out in the last couple of years. I recently rewatched the film. Still a wonderful film. Not what you think the film might be.
Jeff Barnaby proved with Blood Quantum that Rhymes For Young Ghouls was not a fluke. Devery Jacobs is absolutely wonderful in the film. There are reasons in the film for the late start. Captivating story told very well.
The June 27 films start late since the CBC will carry Global Goal: Unite for Our Future-The Concert at 8 pm.
The Grizzlies is about an Indigenous youth lacrosse team engaged to deal with youth suicide in the community of Kugluktuk, Nunavut. The typical sports film brings in the nuance of the issues in a remote community under the direction of Miranda de Pencier and writing from Moira Walley-Beckett and Graham Yost.
The final films might start past your bedtime but are worth running the PVR to record them. Closet Monster is a quirky coming of age film of a young man haunted by childhood memories. Empire of Dirt is a wonderful film with 3 generations of Indigenous women. Cara Gee (Strange Empire) is so good in this film.
Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne casts his vote for Canada for the temporary seat on the United Nations Security Council.
Ireland and Norway won seats on the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday for 2-year temporary stints. Norway had 130 votes while Ireland had 128 votes, the minimum number needed to win on the first ballot. Canada won 108 votes, 20 short of the two-thirds of the General Assembly to get elected to the council.
The headline isn't so much about who won but who lost. Canada put in a candidacy in 2016, shortly after Justin Trudeau was elected. By contrast, Ireland (2005) and Norway (2007) had long-term thinking on running for the seat.
The prime minister launched the bid in part given the 2010 election for a Security Council seat under then-prime minister Stephen Harper. Germany won 128 votes on the first ballot against Portugal (122) and Canada (114). In the second round, Portugal won 113 votes to 78 for Canada.
Trudeau said getting back on the Security Council was a high priority.
Canada has been on the UN Security Council 6 times: 1948–1949, 1958–1959, 1967–1968, 1977–1978, 1989–1990, and 1999–2000. Only Brazil, Japan, Argentina, Colombia, India, and Pakistan have made more appearances.
The hostility in some circles wasn't a surprise. Those who aren't big fans of the United Nations didn't want Trudeau to try. Others who believe in the UN but felt Canada wasn't progressive enough also criticised the decision to try. There were even some independent reviews critical of Canada's positions on some world issues. Some contemplated the money spent on the effort as wasted. There were even a few that wrote on why Canada should get a seat on the Security Council.
There will be another vote in a decade. We saw that Norway and Ireland had campaigns that lasted well over a decade. Canada showed why the country deserved a seat on the council. That could enhance a future bid to the Security Council. Wanting to make more of a difference on the world stage is something to be applauded, not condemned.
The Toronto Raptors could have repeated as NBA champions. We might find that out later this summer. For the moment, the Toronto Raptors are still the defending NBA champions.
My friend Leroy noted the comparison with the 1992 and 1993 MLB champion Toronto Blue Jays. Thanks to the MLB lockout in 1994, the Blue Jays hung on to that title until a late October night in Atlanta in 1995.
The basketball was incredible throughout that postseason. The 4 bounces by the Kawhi Leonard shot that sank Philadelphia. 3-pointers from Kyle Lowry and Fred Van Vleet. The tough battle in the NBA Finals with a very talented Golden State team.
Even if the NBA does start up next month and crown a champ, there will be no Jurassic Park of fans to celebrate. Jurassic Park multiplied in the 2019 NBA playoffs. Halifax and Regina stepped up. Americans could have come over to participate in Windsor. That would have been fun to watch Americans explain that to the Canadian customs people.
The Toronto Raptors won the NBA championship on June 13. Today is the anniversary of the 2019 Toronto Raptors NBA Championship Parade. Traffic stopped on the Gardiner Expressway to watch the parade. Nathan Phillips Square jammed to the brim. Countless thousands lined up on downtown Toronto streets.
Kawhi Leonard could have stayed in Toronto but left for the hometown Los Angeles Clippers. The load management system hasn't been used since the shutdown in mid-March. The theory is that the Clippers would be tired after battling LeBron James (and former twice teammate Danny Green) and the cross arena Los Angeles Lakers. Toronto would be battle tested having defeated the Milwaukee Bucks in 6 games. Kawhi against his former Toronto teammates for another NBA championship.
On that day in Nathan Phillips Square, Leonard was a proud member of the NBA champion Toronto Raptors. His laugh at the end of his speech still rings through my ears.
There was pure joy on the Toronto streets that day. The nearby shootings and stabbings were the grand exception to the day's festivities.
If the Toronto Raptors win a second consecutive championship — after all, the Toronto Blue Jays pulled off back-to-back titles in 1992 and 1993 — there won't be a parade anytime soon in Toronto. I hope they postpone that parade to when people can celebrate properly. Toronto has struggled with COVID-19. The NHL is considering Toronto as a hub city even though Edmonton and Vancouver have better track records during the pandemic.
Sport events on Canadian soil will be rare in the next few months, unless the CFL has a 2020 season. Remembering the crowds at 2019 might be a reminder of what is to come when the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic loses its intensity.
