Canada visa denial for Russian athletes at 2026 World Junior Championship, Digi Mart USA News (Canada): The Canadian government has informed Hockey Canada and the IIHF that it will not issue visas for Russians to play in the upcoming World Junior Championship, according to TSN’s Gord Miller. Russians who currently hold visas to play for teams in Canada are also ineligible, even under a neutral flag, Miller reported.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said last week that Russian and Belarusian athletes could not compete in Canada representing their countries while the war continues. The government’s Nov. 3 statement allowed individual athletes to compete as neutrals but did not clarify whether that provision could extend to a Russian team at the men’s under-20 tournament, which opens Dec. 26 in Edmonton and Red Deer.
Canada’s Secretary of State for Sport, Adam Van Koeverden, clarified Monday that the neutral athlete designation used for Russians at other events applied to individuals, not teams. His comments followed a Sunday statement from Norway’s hockey federation that the IIHF had informed it Russia would be added to the world juniors in Edmonton and Red Deer next month at Norway’s expense.
“This is a really quickly evolving situation with Norway,” Van Koeverden said from a sports summit in Ottawa. He said he had spoken with sport ministers from Finland, Sweden, Norway and Germany, and hoped to meet with the minister from Czechia this week.
“The Prime Minister was extremely clear that sport will not be used for propaganda on Canadian soil, and the notion that there might be accommodations is one that the Prime Minister was extraordinarily clear about,” he said.
Van Koeverden said the government would continue working with Hockey Canada and noted that the IIHF’s previous position was aligned with Canada’s. “We want to continue to ensure that great Canadian hockey, great international hockey is seen here on Canadian soil,” he said.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled last month that the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) must reinstate Russia in international hockey. Russia and Belarus had been barred from international hockey competition in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
