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

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. 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.