Our happy holidays message also applies retroactively to Hanukkah, which ran from November 28-December 6.
A new season of Letterkenny is a wonderful way to end 2021, a year with a few setbacks. This is one Christmas gift Canadians will get on Christmas Day as Season 10 of Letterkenny will be on Crave. Those on the U.S. side with Hulu have to wait until Boxing Day.
This follows the release pattern we saw in 2020.
There will be 7 episodes in Season 10 (Episode 7 comes out in March). We know they shot Seasons 10 and 11 this summer.
Season 9 of Letterkenny was a highlight of the holiday season in 2020.
Shoresy is a spinoff of Letterkenny coming to Crave in the next few months. Fans of the show know Shoresy is an unseen character voice by Jared Keeso, star and creator of Letterkenny. Shoresy will move to Sudbury to work with a struggling minor league hockey team.
We have some doubts since Shoresy wasn't that interesting of a character and we presume the gag is that we still won't see him. Maybe that will change. We don't know if Hulu will pick up the show, though that should be a no-brainer. Hulu is carrying NHL games through its sibling streaming service ESPN+.
I am eager to hit the ground running and start meeting Canadians from all walks of life across this incredible country. Until I get to your neighborhood, you can learn a little bit more about me and my priorities as U.S. Ambassador here. pic.twitter.com/VPXT85fKfW
— United States Ambassador to Canada (@USAmbCanada) December 7, 2021
David L. Cohen has been serving as the U.S Ambassador to Canada since December 1. That news was as quiet as a church mouse. Cohen took over for Arnold A. Chacón, who was the third and final interim pick since the long ago departure of Kelly Knight Craft. Craft left officially on August 23, 2019 but in terms of work didn't do much when she was around.
You could almost, almost feel sorry for Cohen. Between electric vehicles, Five Eyes, pandemic, border crossing problems, China, CUSMA/USMCA and countless other issues, Cohen will be busy.
We really hope Cohen will be effective in his job. We had little faith in David Jacobson and Bruce Heyman, but they turned out to be good picks. They didn't have the incoming troubles that Cohen has in front of him. Bonne chance!!
Canada election 2021: The pressure of the final week of the campaign
Manitoba offers respite for those suffering under Bill 21 in Quebec
Fatemeh Anvari recently became the face of the ongoing concerns over Bill 21 in Quebec. The law prohibits certain people in positions of authority to wear religious symbols while on the job in the province.
Bill 21 has been the law since June 2019 while the case works its way to the Canadian Supreme Court. Anvari accepted a position teaching a Grade 3 class at Chelsea Elementary School. Chelsea is just north of Gatineau, a very short distance from Ottawa, the national capital. She wore a hijab in class and was removed from that classroom in accordance with Bill 21.
The law is clearly a violation of Canadian law. The Quebec government invoked the notwithstanding clause.
Justin Trudeau (prime minister, Liberals) and Erin O'Toole (opposition leader, Conservatives) have dipped a few more toes into the pool of weighing in on Bill 21, which became law in June 2019. Both major parties have had to balance the need for votes in Quebec with responding to the law. We know justice moves slow in Canada but the Supreme Court should have had to render a decision long before now.
Quebec teacher removed from classroom over hijab (Front Burner CBC Radio)
Parents are upset after Quebec teacher removed for wearing hijab (The Current with Matt Galloway CBC Radio)
With respect to Fatemeh Anvari, hundreds if not thousands of people have been directly affected by Bill 21. In the English language media at least, the plights of those people have been ignored. People who couldn't apply or move up in their positions are more difficult to write about. They exist, despite being ignored by the English language media in Canada.
Anvari was teaching in English, which is relevant because the Quebec Superior Court struck down part of the law this spring, making an exception for English language education. However, that exception hasn't been allowed to go ahead since the Quebec government is appealing that decision.
The law applies to orthodox Jewish men and Sikh men but is really targeted at the hijabs and niqabs of Muslim women in Canada. The argument, as such, is that Quebec is a secular state and that visible religious symbols violate that principle. This is a backlash for how the Catholic Church dominated Quebec society until the 1960s. The people who are most likely to support the law are also most likely not to run into the people directly affected by the laws.
Perhaps Anvari's story will elicit more sympathy for the horrible law, though that sympathy should have been there front and center before the bill was signed into law.
Quebec will have a provincial election in 2022, on or before October 3. We'll have more on that election in our 2022 Canadian politics preview in a couple of weeks just after the first of the year.
Les Oiseaux Ivres misses the Oscars shortlist cut for Best International Feature Film
TIFF selects Top 10 Canadian films of 2021
CanadianCrossing.com film reviews
CanadianCrossing.com film coverage
You may have missed yesterday's news about the Academy Awards shortlist for the Best International Feature Film. Les Oiseaux Ivres | Drunken Birds is reportedly a good film; the competition was really tough. If you are up to going out to a theatre and a top Canadian film is playing, you should give that a shot. If you do have an in-home option, go for that. To each their own comfort in watching Canadian films.
We know the siren of American films is really loud in the holiday season. Night Raiders (above picture) is supposed to be really good. I saw it the other night from the comfort of my home. Really good. Just saying. The film made the top 21 films of the year from Eli Glasner of CBC. There are a few Canadian films on his list.
NHL the week that was: COVID-19 and Paul Maurice resigns
CanadianCrossing.com NHL coverage
The @NHLPA and @NHL have agreed to postpone cross-border games through Dec. 23.
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) December 19, 2021
A full list of NHL postponements to date can be found here: https://t.co/PfY1NKP3ZR pic.twitter.com/oePGmBLpKo
The World Juniors tournament will take place in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alberta starting on Boxing Day. The tournament runs through January 5. The games will be at Rogers Place in Edmonton and Westerner Park Centrium in Red Deer.
TSN (Canada) and NHL Network (United States) will carry the action. The pattern has been for the U.S. network to produce coverage of U.S. games and take TSN feeds otherwise. Canada is in Group A while the United States is in Group B.
Alberta finally became the last province (with NHL) to introduce a 50% capacity. No eating or drinking either.
We don't really cover this tournament anymore but you should know the basics if you are tuning into the tournament. All of this is subject to change thanks to COVID-19.
The new Omicron COVID-19 variant has taken its toll in real life as well as Canadian sports. We wrote a special story on Saturday with the latest. The Canadian teams have been shut down until December 27. This is subject to change. Be careful in your holiday travels.
.@NFL Announces International Home Marketing Area Teams and Markets
— NFL345 (@NFL345) December 15, 2021
For more information, click here: https://t.co/ooPlFa3XKX pic.twitter.com/NvSU0wBVix
Canada loves the NFL. The NFL love for Canada? Working on it.
The recent announcement of international home marketing area teams and markets was met with a lot of confusion. Minnesota and Seattle would be a natural fit for certain parts of Canada. Buffalo and Detroit, kilometres away from Canada, not so much. New England makes a lot of sense in Atlantic Canada.
The Oakland Raiders preseason game in Winnipeg was not handled well by the NFL in terms of marketing. The Buffalo Bills in Toronto was poorly handled by Rogers and the NFL didn't do much there.
CTV and TSN embrace the NFL in their coverage. Canadians with cable get access to way more NFL games than most U.S. households. A key section of season tickets in Buffalo and Detroit (outside a pandemic) comes from Canadians. The NFL would be wise to appreciate how much Canadians love their sport.
Good luck to Minnesota and Seattle. As for the NFL, you could hire someone such as your humble narrator to teach you about Canada's love for your sport.
CanadianCrossing.com border crossings coverage
Check out our border crossings coverage and dream of a lot more travel in 2022. We also have other categories on the right-hand column in case you want to catch up in a category important to you.
The fine folks at CanadianCrossing.com are taking a holiday break. The CBC winter schedule preview runs a week from now. The NHL month in preview is on January 1. The year to come in travel and politics will run that first full week in January. Breaking news will run as needed. We have a lot of archive material to read over the holidays, including many film reviews.
photo credits: Letterkenny/Bell Media; Night Raiders film
video credit: Letterkenny/Bell Media
Twitter capture: @USAmbCanada; @PR_NHL; @NFL345
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