Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos announces the lifting of #COVID19 border measures, including vaccination & testing requirements for all travellers & mandatory use of ArriveCan app. Mask requirements on trains & planes will also be lifted. The changes take effect Oct 1.#cdnpolipic.twitter.com/pT8Garg9Ed
The news has been leaked for a few days but is now official: Getting into Canada will be a lot easier as a travel destination when the month changes to October.
The ArriveCAN app will be optional when the change is made.
This had been a great concern especially for border cities whose officials were concerned because American travelers were much less likely to cross into Canada, especially for cross border shopping. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made things easier for Canadians to shop within the U.S. on quick cross border trips but not the other way around.
Travelers won't have to submit public health information through the ArriveCAN app or website or provide proof of vaccination. There are other provisions that will be dropped.
The restrictions led to actions such as the service of the Windsor Tunnel Bus to be suspended. You have an international border, the busiest crossing between the countries. Greyhound went to Windsor before the pandemic but now Greyhound doesn't go to Canada (outside of Toronto and Vancouver from the United States). You couldn't cross on foot on the Ambassador Bridge or the tunnel.
We hope the Tunnel Bus and other suspended service will return shortly after the government's announcement this morning.
For those who criticise us for not being critical enough of the prime minister, well, you should read our border crossings coverage. We appreciate the overall diligence of the Trudeau Government on COVID-19 during the height of the pandemic. We do feel the government has carried on good policies far too long.
This change affects the sports world in that unvaccinated athletes can travel to Canada as of October 1. The Toronto Blue Jays had to deal with that in terms of visiting MLB players and in the acquisition of the previously unvaccinated Whit Merrifield from Kansas City. The Blue Jays host Boston on October 1-2. The team might not play any home playoff games in the opening round, depending on the playoff seeding.
This is more relevant to the NHL teams that won't have to worry about unvaccinated players playing in Canada.
Ideally, people would be vaccinated in coming to Canada. The issue was that the good intentions produced a policy that made traveling to Canada not worth the hassle.
The obvious time to make the change would be heading into a travel summer. Hopefully, people can make travel plans to Canada in the beautiful fall and for those who enjoy winter. Our look at where to visit Canada in 2023 is going to be a lot brighter.
There's a saying in Atlantic Canada that if you're not of this place then you're from away, but if you come to this place, come to stay.@TSNScianitti takes a closer look at the CFL's Touchdown Atlantic tradition, and what makes this CFL event and Atlantic Canada so unique. pic.twitter.com/zukf1Nljmt
Wolfville was not Halifax; the CFL finally played a regular season game in Nova Scotia with Touchdown Atlantic 2022. The wind off the Atlantic Ocean played havoc with some of the kicks, not unlike the wind at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton.
The streets of Wolfville and Halifax were filled (mostly) with the green of the Saskatchewan Roughriders fans who made the trip. There were a number in double blue, rooting for the Toronto Argonauts.
The Argos, a seafaring team based on the nickname, were victorious 30-24 at Raymond Field in Wolfville, home of Acadia University. Sure the cliche is true: everyone involved were winners on Saturday.
Brett Lauther's family and friends represented 180 of the 10,000 fans. Lauther is from nearby Truro, Nova Scotia and played university football at St. Mary's Stadium in Halifax (where the 2020 Touchdown Atlantic was scheduled).
This is one of the selling arguments to having a presence in Atlantic Canada. Players from the region making the CFL and either playing for the Atlantic Schooners or coming as a visiting player. The TSN crew interviewed Acadia University head coach Jeff Cummins, a former CFL player.
We know the NHL uses this as a theory for keeping a particular team in a city where the maximum capacity next season will be 5,000 because of Auston Matthews. The theory in Atlantic Canada and the CFL is a lot stronger.
Lauther made 3 of 4 field goal attempts for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
The seafood is amazing on the East Coast. TSN used part of the halftime to talk seafood. The Bar Down segment was a bit baffling. 3 Saskatchewan players looked at pictures of seafood. Their reaction was mostly negative based on pictures, especially the player in the centre who wasn't into seafood.
The seafood is way better than what was portrayed in that segment. We needed to see them eat Atlantic Canada seafood.
Wolfville is normally a town of 4,000 people. There were 10,886 fans plus the TSN personnel and other relevant people. That is a lot to ask on a place without that kind of infrastructure. Credit to Wolfville for rising to the occasion.
McLeod Bethel-Thomson played for Toronto in Moncton in 2019. Boris Bede played for the Alouettes in 2019 and the Argos in 2022 for Touchdown Atlantic. Brandon Banks signed with Hamilton in 2013 after the Touchdown Atlantic visit to Moncton.
We noted Brett Lauther's local roots earlier in this story. Toronto linebacker Hénoc Muamba played his second Touchdown Atlantic, having played for Montréal in 2019 in Moncton. Muamba played for St. Francis Xavier University in nearby Antigonish, Nova Scotia.
.@ESPNPR@ESPN WTF? Show the @CFL game from @TSN. Huge game in terms of the league and you won't show us the feed. We literally pay your salary. Give us what you promised.
We hate to mention the major blemish on the U.S. streaming side. ESPN+ picked a horrible time to be asleep at the wheel. The U.S. fans lost the pageantry and the first 2:01 of the game.
Who knows how many American viewers left because the game wasn't on their screen.
ESPN made things even worse by refusing (at press time) to carry the rebroadcast of the game. Every other CFL game is available, except for Touchdown Atlantic 2022.
TSN lost its own feed and missed the first Toronto Argonauts touchdown live.
As for the actual game itself, Toronto linebacker Wynton McManis picked a great time for a Pick 6, returning an interception from Cody Fajardo to give the Argos a 30-24 win. Saskatchewan had won 8 straight over Toronto dating back to 2016.
McLeod Bethel-Thompson went 26 for 37 for 276 yards with 2 TDs and an interception. Fajardo was 24 for 34 for 284 yards with 2 touchdowns and 3 interceptions.
Andrew Harris passed TSN panelist Milt Stegall and is now 4th all-time in yards from scrimmage. Stegall finished with 15,209 yards.
Harris had 39 yards rushing, 25 yards receiving for 64 yards for the day. He only needed 46 to pass Stegall.
The veteran running back is still short of 10,000 rushing yards. When Harris reaches that mark, he will be the first Canadian and the 6th CFL player to hit that mark.
Rod Smith and Glen Suitor called the game on TSN with Matthew Scianitti on the sidelines and in the crowd.
The panel made the trip with Kate Beirness, Davis Sanchez, and Milt Stegall there on Friday and Saturday. Matt Dunigan made the trip from Winnipeg on Friday to be there on Saturday in Wolfville.
Stegall talked about how this was his first trip to Atlantic Canada. Sanchez says he thinks Stegall would be someone from Atlantic Canada if he were Canadian.
We know the idea of building a stadium in Halifax to house a team got sidelined during the pandemic. We know the decades-long uphill battle this has been. Let's hope Touchdown Atlantic is a CFL game every year until the Atlantic Schooners start playing for real.
The idea of Touchdown Atlantic has been to spark interest in a potential expansion franchise in the Atlantic Schooners. The team would be based in Halifax, the largest city in the region or possibly a split with Halifax and Moncton in New Brunswick.
The first CFL game in Atlantic Canada was on June 11, 2005, a preseason game with Hamilton and Toronto that finished in a 16-16 tie. That game was played at Huskies Stadium at St. Mary's University just south of downtown Halifax. The game drew 11,148 with expanded seating.
The CFL scheduled a 2006 preseason game on June 3 for that same stadium. That game was cancelled since the Ottawa Renegades, the host team against Montreal, folded.
When the concept returned in 2010, the CFL focused on the regular season in Moncton since the city has an established stadium. Moncton Stadium, now known as Croix-Bleue Medavie Stadium, hosted regular season games in 2010, 2011, 2013, and 2019. The attendance was around 20,000 for the first 2 games, falling to about 15,000 in 2013 and 10,000 in 2019.
The CFL finally figured out that putting a game in Nova Scotia was a smart move. The league scheduled a game at Huskies Stadium in 2020. Oops.
— Acadia Athletics (@AcadiaAthletics) July 5, 2022
The league shifted the 2022 version to Raymond Field in Wolfville, 90 km north of Halifax.
The facilities in Atlantic Canada have been a concern. Huskies Stadium and Raymond Field needed considerable temporary seating to get to 10,000-11,000. The Atlantic Schooners would have been a reality long ago if there was a viable stadium in Halifax.
There are high schools in Texas that have a nice enough stadium that if you put that structure in Halifax along the water, there would be a 10th team in the CFL.
There has been a hesistancy to build a stadium of any kind in Halifax, despite the potential for expanded tourism. The soccer team HFX Wanderers FC of the Canadian Premier League play at Wanderers Grounds on the Halifax Commons. A larger stadium to suit both teams would be highly logical.
Hopefully, that is a great sign for enthusiasm for the CFL in this region.
We don't know much about Wolfville, so we are intrigued. Touchdown Atlantic starts Saturday at 3 pm Atlantic time, 2 pm Eastern, and 11 am in Vancouver. Saskatchewan serves as the "road team" and Toronto is the "home team": the same teams scheduled for the 2020 contest.
TSN will have the game in Canada with ESPN+ taking the TSN feed in the United States. Rod Smith and Glen Suitor are scheduled to call the game from Wolfville.
Traditionally, the prince searches for the person who fits the glass slipper. Cities beg for teams to come their way. If Halifax showed any kind of enthusiasm for a stadium, this would be a done deal. Playing a regular season game in Nova Scotia is a step way over due, and quite frankly, in the wrong location. Small steps indeed.
FIFA announces Toronto and Vancouver as host cities for the 2026 FIFA World Cup™! 🇨🇦🏟
Toronto and Vancouver will join 11 host cities in the USA, and three host cities in Mexico as competition venues for the largest FIFA World Cup™ in history.
FIFA announced the 16 North American cities for the 2026 men's World Cup of football (soccer). Canada was originally supposed to get 3 cities but one of those slots went to the United States. Mexico got 3 locations while the United States received 11 cities.
Toronto and Vancouver were the Canadian cities invited to host games; Edmonton didn't make the cut.
The Canadian cities will host 10 games though we don't know how many will end up in each city. The United States will get 60 games while Mexico also gets 10 games. The consensus is that the U.S. cities will host the significant games in the tournament.
Toronto will be in the East section along with Boston (Foxborough), Philadelphia, Miami, and New York/New Jersey (East Rutherford, NJ).
Vancouver will be in the West section along with Seattle, San Francisco (Santa Clara), Los Angeles (Inglewood), and Guadalajara, Mexico.
The Central section consists of Kansas City, Dallas (Arlington), Atlanta, and Houston in the U.S. as well as Monterrey and Mexico City in Mexico.
Reminder: The Government of Alberta took the unusual step of demanding Edmonton host at least five of Canada's 10 allotted 2026 FIFA World Cup games. It also demanded Edmonton host two round of 32 or round of 16 knockout games.
While Edmonton was the only Canadian city that missed the cut, the U.S. finalists that didn't make the cut were Cincinnati, Denver, Nashville, Orlando, Pasadena (CA), and Washington, D.C./Baltimore.
Montréal showed interest early. The Alberta government put conditions on funding that likely didn't help the Edmonton bid.
Canada defeated Costa Rica 1-0 in a World Cup qualifying game last November in front of 48,806 at Commonwealth Stadium. Don't mistake the selection process for the best places in Canada to host the tournament.
Canada has never hosted a World Cup game on the men's side but did host the 2015 FIFA women's World Cup. That tournament was held in Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montréal, and Moncton, NB.
Montréal and Edmonton hosted the semifinals; Edmonton also hosted the 3rd place game while Vancouver hosted the final game.
You may recall that the 2015 tournament was the first time games were played on artificial surfaces, much to the dismay of the players. This is why BC Place will put in a grass surface.
BMO Field in Toronto will get more seating for FIFA requirements. The 30,000 seat stadium will get bumped up to 45,500, still by far the lowest capacity of any of the 2026 World Cup cities.
The Canadian men will play later this year in Qatar in the 2022 World Cup. This will be the first trip for the men's team since its one and only appearance in 1986.
The World Cup is normally in June/July (the 2022 World Cup moved to the fall due to heat concerns in Qatar). The CFL will have to adjust the schedule as needed.
Adjustments depend on when the stadiums will be used in the World Cup and any adjustments in removing the grass surface in Vancouver. MLS will steer clear as well, but their primary issues are in a number of U.S. cities also taken up by the 2026 World Cup.
The Toronto Argonauts could play home games at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton or an early Touchdown Atlantic game.
BMO Field will also get a name adjustment just like the Winnipeg and Ottawa stadiums had in 2015. FIFA doesn't allow corporate sponsored names.
TSN/CTV and Fox have the 2026 World Cup rights in their respective countries.
That media talks about baby formula shortage w/o knowing whats going on is amazing. Trump's USMCA restricted imports of formula from Canada, so we imported no formula from Canada in 2021, leaving us vulnerable to domestic shock. The shock hit when Abbott plant was contaminated.
The United States has baby formula shortages. Canada makes baby formula and would want to increase its exports to the United States and please a top trading partner.
Too bad the dreaded, horrible, terrible USMCA (CUSMA) made this impossible.
"As part of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), negotiated by President Donald Trump to replace the North America Free Trade Agreement in July 2020, Canada agreed to impose an additional surcharge of $3/kg if the total volume of its global formula exports—not just exports to the U.S.—broke a certain threshold. That threshold is currently set at 40,480 metric tons for the current "dairy year" of August 1 2021 to July 31 2022.
"The new duties seemingly closed off Canada as a source of infant formula. The U.S. imported a grand total of zero tons of baby formula from its nothern (sic) neighbor in 2021, yet has shipped tons of domestic formula into Canada. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S.-manufactured infant formula made up the largest component of U.S. dairy exports to Canada in 2021, accounting for 22% of all northbound dairy trade."
The crybaby toddler who somehow had a lot of power was rather vindictive toward Canada on multiple fronts. We didn't factor in baby formula.
Abbott accounts for nearly half of the domestic production of the U.S. baby formula market. The U.S. makes 98% of its formula domestically.
That is a problem with a February recall of Abbott Nutrition formula contaminated with bacteria from its Sturgis, MI factory. 4 infants became sick with bacterial infections; 2 of them died.
The irony is that United States standards are much more lax than Europe or Canada in terms of the quality of the formula. This isn't a matter of Canada or Europe formula meeting those standards because their formula exceeds the U.S. standards.
The United States lags behind the Western World on maternal elements, such as leave. Improved standards for women might encourage more breastfeeding. As much as we (and our sibling blog, BalanceofFood.com) endorse breastfeeding, there is a reality for baby formula that needs to be addressed.
Canadian milk holds a higher standard on milk, not allowing recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST), an artificial growth hormone allowed in American milk. The anger by the crybaby toddler is over this difference in milk. If this were a baby formula shortage in Canada, importing formula from the United States would be a concern over bringing rBST into Canada.
The party of the crybaby toddler is the party that is trying to take advantage of the political ramifications of the baby formula shortages. As little as we think of Canadian journalism, U.S. journalism is the grand leader of cluelessness. Kurt Eichenwald being a grand exception as noted in the top of the column.
Trade deals can be tricky when all involved parties are acting in free will. The CUSMA/USMCA trade talks were a shambles and the complete opposite of an ethical trade deal process. Innocent people get hurt when a trade deal goes this poorly.
We noted that Americans might drive to Canada to get an abortion. We can't condone, under any circumstances, the illegal importation of any product from Canada into the United States. We can point out that they sell baby formula in Canada.
American mothers who rely on baby formula should be able to access quality products without a monopoly and heavy-handed political tactics.
Twitter capture: @kurteichenwald photo credit: Dairy Farmers of Canada
Canadians can access abortion services, though like most healthcare, getting an abortion is a lot easier if you live in a large Canadian city. The United States, even before the leak of a decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, has been a place where getting an abortion was extremely difficult unless you lived in a large urban setting.
Canadians don't have the draconian laws of their southern neighbours.
Karina Gould, Canada's minister of families, affirmed that Americans can access abortion services in Canada. “If they, people, come here and need access, certainly, you know, that’s a service that would be provided,” Gould told CBC News.
This may be notable in states such as Michigan that border Ontario.
Matt Galloway talked about abortion in a recent segment on The Current on CBC Radio One. The emphasis was mostly on Saskatchewan, pointing out that access was easier in Regina than even Saskatoon.
The Trudeau Government had recent announcements on already assigned funding: more than $3.5 million in funding for 2 initiatives to improve access to abortion services and reproductive health information.
Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said Action Canada would get $2.1 million over 3 years to improve information and referral services. The funding will also cover travel and accommodation costs for people seeking abortions.
The National Abortion Federation Canada will get $1.4 million over 3 years to help train health care providers to perform abortions and ensure facilities have the capacity to provide the service.
The CBC News report noted the passport concern for Americans traveling to Canada for an abortion. Americans also need to register via the ArriveCAN app and be vaccinated to come to Canada, ideally in a land crossing.
Canada was a destination for same-gender marriages while the United States did this on a piece meal basis. The dreams of marijuana tourism have been thwarted by a delay on edibles and the pandemic. Plus, if you are an American wanting to do marijuana tourism, a flight to California has better weather at the destination and may be cheaper, depending on location.
Abortion tourism won't be marketed but might be a small slice of desperately need tourism money for Canada. As much as any kind of tourism would be helpful, abortion is the type of procedure where you want to be in your own bed after the procedure.
Home is an option for drugs that induce a miscarriage. That can make the process easier on women in Canada, the United States, and around the world.
There are groups of people who will particularly struggle with this not so distant future: poor women; women of colour, especially Indigenous women; and young women.
Women should have the full and complete right to decide when and how they get pregnant and how they deal with the situation should they become pregnant. Full stop.
photo credit: Full Frontal with Samantha Bee/TBS video credit: CBC News
— Canada Border Services Agency (@CanBorder) March 14, 2022
No April Fools here. Starting April 1, fully vaccinated travelers to Canada won't need a pre-arrival COVID-19 test.
The requirement seemed overblown, especially for fullv vaccinated and boosted travelers to come to Canada. Randomized testing upon entry to Canada will continue.
You have to use the ArriveCAN app.
Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Transport Omar Alghabra, and Minister of Tourism Randy Boissonnault announced the updated changes this week.“Unvaccinated and partially vaccinated travelers will continue to be tested with COVID-19 molecular tests on arrival and quarantine for 14 days,” said Duclos in the news conference.
The changes apply to travelers who are full vaccinated. Boosted doesn't seem to be a requirement that we can tell. Boosted is better than being fully vaccinated.
CBC News has a solid Q&A to help you out on nuanced questions.
The irony was that the Canadian government made travel easier for Canadians to shop in the United States and return than for Americans, fully vaccinated and boosted, to travel to Canada. This makes a day trip or even a longer trip to Canada much more viable for U.S. travelers.
Your humble narrator is eager to make a trip to Canada.
Full Release with Samantha Bee, the podcast not the TV show, doesn't mention Canada too often. Full Frontal with Samantha Bee loves its sarcastic Canadian references, mostly because the TV show is about comedy and current events.
Stanley Tucci, who has shown his love for Italy thanks to his CNN series Stanley Tucci: Searching For Italy, was on the podcast with Samantha Bee some time ago (a little slow catching up for your humble narrator).
About 10 minutes into the podcast episode, Bee talked about growing up in Toronto around Italian families though not Italian herself. She loved the liveliness of the dinner table in those homes.
"Toronto's really interesting. I love Toronto. Actually, if I were to move back to North America, that's where I would live. ... It's an amazing city."
Tucci said he thinks Toronto has the highest concentration of Italians outside Italy (4th behind São Paulo, Buenos Aires, and New York City). There are Italian pockets in Toronto: College Street West is the most prominent but certainly one of several areas, including Pelmo Park-Humberlea and Maple Leaf as well as Corso Italia on St. Clair Avenue West.
Tucci mentioned Brothers, a tiny place near where he was staying to make a film about 4 years ago. Brothers Food & Wine did close in 2020 but that team is behind a new place called Restaurant 20 Victoria. Amusingly, the new space is even tinier than the old establishment.
Bee wraps up the talk about Toronto by asking Tucci about whether he loves Kensington Market. Tucci agrees with how great the neighbourhood and the city is for him.
Vancouver gets a lot of love for the weather and outdoor activities. Montréal gets a lot of love for its amazing food and cultural aspects. Toronto doesn't get as much love. Tucci lives in London so maybe he is biased toward Toronto or has done movies in Toronto. Toronto is a great gateway city, especially if you are an American who has never been to Canada.
Despite the food havens that are Vancouver and Montréal, Toronto deserves some travel love for its food and culture options. Toronto is a very cosmopolitan city. Kensington Market is very cool. Travel wherever you want in Canada. Don't dismiss Toronto without a bit of research.
Full Release with Samantha Bee comes out on Tuesdays. Full Frontal with Samantha Bee returns Thursday on TBS and CTV Comedy Channel at 10 pm Eastern.
New year, new excitement about Canadian travel. We had hopes for 2020 and even 2021; there was some cross border travel but not as much as people hoped. Requiring a PCR COVID-19 test made getting into Canada a lot more difficult, even if you were Canadian. We love when Canadians visit the United States; our goals is to get Americans to Canada.
When Americans get a chance to reasonably enjoy Canada, they would need to do some research for finding a bus option within Canada. 2021 marked the final time Greyhound did business in Canada. The obvious exceptions were U.S. buses arriving in the Big 3: Toronto, Montréal, and Vancouver.
Some local bus companies have taken over some routes. Take Toronto-Ottawa as an example. Flying out of Toronto to Porter Airlines to Ottawa requires getting to both airports, waiting. The flight itself is brief and nice. The problem is the cost.
ViaRail gets you conveniently from Union Station to the Via Rail station where you can take the new Confederation Line from Tremblay west to downtown. The bus takes you from Bay and Dundas in Toronto and puts you on Bank Street sort of halfway between downtown and TD Place, home of the Ottawa RedBlacks in the CFL.
When your humble narrator took Greyhound from Toronto to Ottawa and back, I was able to travel overnight to cut down on my lodging bills. This was a few years ago but was able to travel one-way for $20. The trick was paying for Toronto-Montréal, which was further yet cheaper than Toronto-Ottawa.
We wouldn't recommend a specific bus service, especially without trying it out. Schedules may not be as flexible and costs may be higher.
2021 brought a few "well, you can sort of come if, if, and if" scenarios. This was well-suited to those who lived really close to the border. We are happy for them and want others to join in the fun.
With limited travel, we have had some fun with different types of travel articles. Fogo Island in Newfoundland is now a destination thanks to new infrastructure. Sometimes, travel issues are local when someone complained about how difficult getting to see a football game was in Toronto.
Though more Americans can get legal marijuana, there is still an argument for marijuana tourism in Canada. We just haven't had a chance to see this in motion.
For a lot of people in North America, travel between the countries has little to do with vacation but a practicality of having part of your community across an international border.
Alberta is an amazing pretty place whether mountains to the west and flat areas to the east. I might be a bit reluctant to venture to Alberta until the pandemic is truly settled, not just if Alberta premier Jason Kenney says so. The "pro-business" mentality has really screwed small, local businesses. Being more cautious and willing to make unpopular decisions for the better good: that is truly being pro small business.
We have tracked this idea for a few years ago. Where to go. Where do I want to go?
A trip back to Montréal. A first trip to Saskatoon. A chance to see relatively new CFL stadiums in Regina and Hamilton. The Icefield Parkway in Alberta. Cape Breton in Nova Scotia. Gander in Newfoundland. Churchill in Manitoba, though that might be a pipe dream. The interior of British Columbia, a world not Vancouver or Victoria.
I've been to Quebec City but would like to try areas of the city I didn't get to see. Stratford, Ontario as an adult: have been there as a kid. Explore the Acadian part of New Brunswick.
Even as your humble narrator has been to all 10 provinces, there are so many Canadian travel possibilities.
Even if you are able to travel, right now, travel sucks. Not what it used to be or what it should be. Do research. Hope that trip will be what you want that to be. Someday. Please make it soon.
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!!
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
