Canada won’t let Russian players enter for ice hockey junior championship

Detailed summary

Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials will be prevented from entering Canada regardless of whether they holding a valid visa.

Canada says it will prevent Russian athletes and officials from entering the country for ice hockey’s World Junior Championship in Alberta, effectively barring their participation weeks before the tournament begins.

Canada’s Secretary of State for Sport Adam van Koeverden said on Wednesday that Ottawa opposes Russian and Belarusian participation in international sport “as long as Russia continues its war of aggression against Ukraine with Belarus’s complicity”.

The minister for immigration, refugees and citizenship “will take measures to individually assess and prevent Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials from entering Canada to compete, regardless of whether they already hold valid visas”, Van Koeverden said.

Hockey Canada has previously said it supports the government’s position.

Late last month, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ordered the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) to admit Russian teams to five upcoming championships, beginning with the World Junior Championship.

The IIHF, which has barred Russia from most international competitions since Moscow’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, said it disagreed with the CAS decision.

The hockey federation’s statement followed announcements from Norway, Denmark, Sweden and the Czech Republic that ⁠⁠their national teams will refuse to play against Russia at next year’s men’s World Championships in Germany.

Latvia and Finland have also said their teams will not play Russia, while the Finnish city of Turku threatened to ⁠⁠drop its hosting duties for the 2028 World Junior Championship.

Belarus’s team will not participate in the championship following a separate decision by the IIHF.

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