“BENCH STRENGTH: JUDGING A CENTURY OF TAX AVOIDANCE IN CANADA” by Kerry Harnish

HACHINOHE, Japan – Ivanie Blondin helped Canada to a team sprint gold medal before picking up an individual bronze Friday as Canada opened the long-track speedskating season with three medals at the ISU Four Continents championships.

Ottawa’s Blondin combined with Carolina Hiller of Prince George, B.C., and Béatrice Lamarche of Quebec City to win the women’s team sprint in a track record time of one minute 27.87 seconds.

Lamarche used the slingshot technique to launch Blondin into the final lap, which helped the trio maintain their speed. While the move worked, Lamarche said it could be improved.

“The slingshot move felt better yesterday in practice, but it was not at high speed. Maybe we looked smooth, but I personally felt weird and rushed throughout the entire process,” Lamarche said. “I’m excited to try it again during the World Cup in China because I think it can be better.”

South Korea was 1.39 seconds off the pace for silver, while Kazakhstan was 2.49 seconds back of the winners to take bronze.

Later, the 34-year-old Blondin took bronze in the women’s 1,500 metres with a time of 1:57.99.

Japan’s Miho Takagi (1:54.86) and China’s Mei Han (1:56.53) took gold and silver, respectively.

“I feel pretty good about my 1,500,” Blondin said. “I was not able to warm down following the team sprint as we went straight to the medal ceremony. By the time that was over I had to put my skin suit on and get back on the ice.”

“I didn’t have the pop that I normally would — but midway through the race I realized things were going well and my legs were actually feeling pretty decent,” she added. “I was happy with the end time.”

Canada reached the podium for a third time as Anders Johnson of Burnaby, B.C., Laurent Dubreuil of Lévis, Que., and Yankun Zhao of Calgary, Alta., finished third in the men’s team sprint.

The United States (1:19.43) and China (1:19.78) finished ahead of Canada, the defending world champion and world record holder in the discipline.

“I think it was a good race for us,” Johnson said. “It was a new setup for our team today and we executed well and skated well. We’re happy with the result and excited to see what comes in the future.”

The championships continue Saturday with Blondin, Dubreuil, Calgary’s Ted-Jan Bloemen, Valérie Maltais of La Baie, Que., and Ottawa’s Isabelle Weidemann looking to add to Canada’s medal total.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 15, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Toronto FC 2, TFC’s reserve side which plays in MLS Next Pro, has started reshaping its 2025 roster with question marks over the future of captain and leading scorer Julian Altobelli, forward Jesús Batiz and goalkeeper Adisa De Rosario among others.

All three are out of contract at the end of 2024, along with midfielders Matthew Catavolo and Charlie Staniland. The club says contract talks are ongoing with “select players out of contract.”

Altobelli, a midfielder, tied for sixth in the league with 11 goals, adding four assists in 23 games with TFC 2 this season.

He scored in the regular-season finale — a 4-1 win at Crown Legacy FC — to become TFC 2’s all-time leading scorer with his 21s career goal. He also became the first player in club history and second in MLS Next Pro to score in nine straight appearances for TFC 2.

Altobelli, who joined the Toronto academy in January 2014, has spent the last four season with TFC 2. The 22-year-old from Woodbridge, Ont., is a former youth international who made six appearances for the Canadian under-17 team in 2019.

Batiz, who had four goals and three assists in 22 games this season, was called up by Honduras for CONCACAF Nations League play.

De Rosario, the son of Canada Soccer Hall of Famer Dwayne De Rosario, played 20 games for TFC 2 this season with two clean sheets.

TFC 2 exercised the contract options on goalkeeper Shafique Wilson and midfielders Markus Cimermancic, Mark Fisher and Costa Iliadis. It declined options on goalkeeper Abraham Rodriguez and defender Kundai Mawoko.

Defender Marko Stojadinovic, midfielders Hassan Ayari, Andrei Dumitru, Lucas Olguin and forward Dékwon Barrow have guaranteed contracts for next season.

Defender Ythallo Rodrigues de Oliveira is returning to São Paulo FC in his native Brazil following the conclusion of the season-long loan.

TFC 2 (10-12-16) finished 12th in the MLS Next Pro Eastern Conference, missing out on the playoffs.

Toronto FC 2 Current Roster

Goalkeepers:Shafique Wilson.

Defenders: Marko Stojadinovic.

Midfielders: Hassan Ayari, Markus Cimermancic, Andrei Dumitru, Mark Fisher, Costa Iliadis, Lucas Olguin.

Forwards:Dékwon Barrow.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 15, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

The abrupt closure of a Norwich, Ont., retirement home is highlighting the need for seniors’ advocacy offices across the country, and more powers for regulators to act in such situations, advocates say.

The Trillium Care Norwich retirement home gave residents two weeks’ notice of its Nov. 11 closure, forcing families to find last-minute accommodations for the 18 people who lived there.

The Retirement Home Regulatory Authority said the closure contravened the Retirement Homes Act, which requires a 120-day notice to residents.

But Raymond Chan, a spokesman for the regulator, said that does not mean it could stop the home from closing its doors.

“Where someone has committed an offense under the Retirement Home Act, the RHRA can and has used a range of enforcement tools to recognize the breach and serve as a deterrence,” Chan said in a statement.

“Those tools include management and compliance orders, administrative monetary penalties (AMPs), licence revocation and the ability to prosecute under the Provincial Offences Act.”

Chan did not say which, if any, enforcement measures might be used in this case. The owner of the retirement home declined to comment on the closure when reached by The Canadian Press earlier this month.

Advocates say the situation highlights the need for more protections for seniors.

Laura Tamblyn Watts, CEO of national seniors’ organization CanAge, said that can start with more advocacy offices across the country, similar to the ones that already scrutinize how older people are cared for in three provinces.

British Columbia has had a seniors’ advocate since 2014, Newfoundland since 2017 and New Brunswick since 2018. Alberta also had a seniors’ advocate until the role was amalgamated with other duties in 2019.

The advocates provide oversight of how seniors are treated in their respective provinces, issuing reports to the government and recommending interventions.

For example, in B.C., the seniors advocate issued a report in June that criticized retirement homes for evicting residents who were unable to keep up with rising costs.

The report called on the provincial government’s Residential Tenancy Branch to provide better support for seniors living in retirement homes, and recognize that the province’s tenancy act applies to both the rent and service portions of their costs.

“We need that independent voice, like a seniors’ advocate, in every province, territory and federally to make sure that we have someone who’s holding up those systemic issues and really making sure in that local area that issues related to seniors are brought forward in a focused way to government and the public,” Tamblyn Watts said.

Another issue that needs to be addressed is the lack of funding for oversight bodies, she said.

“When you’re looking at the question of who’s in control, regulators of retirement homes are often ill-funded and those funding sources often come from the very industry it oversees,” she said.

Seniors for Social Action Ontario, a provincial group advocating for older people, supports the idea of setting up advocacy offices in more regions.

Patricia Spindel, the group’s chairwoman, said the retirement home industry needs to be overhauled and provincial industry regulators are often not enough to protect residents.

She said some other countries use non-profit models for assisted living that function better than Canada’s current systems.

“People should not be the victims of a competitive for-profit system,” Spindel said. “It’s a matter of government priorities and them not listening to the people who are in the situation.”

The office of Raymond Cho, Ontario’s minister for seniors and accessibility, declined to comment on any possible steps the ministry could, or would, take to improve enforcement and oversight of the retirement home industry and referred questions to the Retirement Home Regulatory Authority.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 15, 2024.