Canada confirms Russian players will be barred from upcoming junior hockey championship

The Canadian federal government has announced that Russian hockey players will not be allowed to participate in the world junior championship scheduled for next month in Alberta. This decision applies even to athletes who already possess valid Canadian visas. A statement issued on Wednesday by Adam van Koeverden, the Secretary of State for Sport, confirmed that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada will take specific measures to individually assess and prevent Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials from entering the country to compete.

There are currently Russian players holding valid visas who compete in the Canadian Hockey League. The CHL serves as the umbrella organization for the country's three top major junior hockey leagues. Russian and Belarusian players were previously excluded from the CHL import draft between 2022 and 2024 before being permitted to return. According to the league, Russia led this year's draft with 32 of the 114 players selected.

This latest government statement appears to end the possibility of Russia returning to the world juniors. Last month, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that the International Ice Hockey Federation must reinstate the country in international hockey competitions. Following that ruling, the Norwegian hockey federation stated on Sunday that the IIHF had informed them Russia would be added to the tournament at Norway's expense. Norway had qualified for the event and indicated it still hoped to compete.

As of now, the IIHF has not formally announced any changes to the tournament field. Their website continues to list Norway as one of the 10 participating teams. Several national hockey federations, including those from Finland, Sweden, Czechia, and Norway, have declared that their teams will refuse to play against Russian players.

Russia and Belarus have been banned from international hockey competition since 2022, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine with Belarusian assistance. Prime Minister Mark Carney stated last week that Russian and Belarusian athletes could not compete in Canada while representing their countries as long as the war continues. The government's earlier position allowed individual athletes to compete as neutrals, which had raised questions about whether a Russian team could participate under a neutral designation.

Van Koeverden clarified on Monday that the neutral designation applied to individual athletes rather than entire teams. The government stated that its position would remain unchanged as long as Russia continues its war in Ukraine with the complicity of Belarus. The world junior championship is set to begin on December 26 in Edmonton and Red Deer.