Dabrowski, Routlife into WTA doubles final with win over Melichar-Martinez, Perez

Inter Milan winger Tajon Buchanan, recovered from a broken leg suffered in training at this summer’s Copa America, is back in Jesse Marsch’s Canada squad for the CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinal against Suriname.

The 25-year-old from Brampton, Ont., underwent surgery July 3 to repair a fractured tibia in Texas.

Canada, ranked 35th in the world, plays No. 136 Suriname on Nov. 15 in Paramaribo. The second leg of the aggregate series is four days later at Toronto’s BMO Field.

There is also a return for veteran winger Junior Hoilett, who last played for Canada in June in a 4-0 loss to the Netherlands in Marsch’s debut at the Canadian helm. The 34-year-old from Brampton, now with Scotland’s Hibernian, has 15 goals in 63 senior appearances for Canada.

Midfielder Ismael Kone, recovered from an ankle injury sustained on club duty with France’s Marseille, also returns. He missed Canada’s last three matches since the fourth-place Copa America loss to Uruguay in July.

But Canada will be without centre back Derek Cornelius, who exited Marseille’s win Sunday over Nantes on a stretcher after suffering an apparent rib injury.

The Canadian men will prepare for Suriname next week at a camp in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

“We are looking forward to getting the group together again with the mindset that there is a trophy on the line,” Marsch said in a statement. “We want to end 2024 the right way with two excellent performances against a competitive Suriname squad and continue building on our tremendous growth this past summer.”

The quarterfinal winners advance to the Nations League Finals at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., with the two semifinals scheduled for March 20 and the final and third-place playoff March 23, and qualify for the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Thirteen of the 23 players on the Canadian roster are 25 or younger, with 19-year-old defender Jamie Knight-Lebel, currently playing for England’s Crewe Alexandra on loan from Bristol City, the youngest.

Bayern Munich star Alphonso Davies captains the side with Stephen Eustaquio, Jonathan Osorio, Richie Laryea, Alistair Johnston and Kamal Miller adding veteran support.

Jonathan David, Cyle Larin and Theo Bair are joined in attack by Minnesota United’s Tani Oluwaseyi.

Niko Sigur, a 21-year-old midfielder with Croatia’s Hadjuk Split, continues in the squad after making his debut in the September friendly against Mexico.

Suriname made it to the Nations League quarterfinals by finishing second to Costa Rica in Group A of the Nations League, ahead of No. 104 Guatemala, No. 161 Guyana and unranked Martinique and Guadeloupe.

“A good team,” Osorio said of Suriname. “These games are always tricky and they’re not easy at all … Suriname is a (former) Dutch colony and they’ll have Dutch players playing at high levels.”

“They won’t be someone we overlook at all,” added the Toronto FC captain, who has 81 Canada caps to his credit.

Located on the northeast coast of South America between Guyana and French Guiana, Suriname was granted independence in 1975 by the Netherlands.

Canada has faced Suriname twice before, both in World Cup qualifying play, winning 4-0 in suburban Chicago in June 2021 and 2-1 in Mexico City in October 1977.

The Canadian men, along with Mexico, the United States and Panama, received a bye into the final eight of the CONCACAF Nations League.

Canada, No. 2 in the CONCACAF rankings, drew Suriname as the best-placed runner-up from League A play.

Canada lost to Jamaica in last year’s Nations League quarterfinal, ousted on the away-goals rule after the series ended in a 4-4 draw. The Canadians lost 2-0 to the U.S. in the final of the 2022-23 tournament and finished fifth in 2019-20.

Canada defeated Panama 2-1 last time out, in an Oct. 15 friendly in Toronto.

Goalkeepers Maxime Crepeau and Jonathan Sirois, defenders Joel Waterman, Laryea and Miller and Osorio took part in a pre-camp this week in Toronto for North America-based players.

Canada Roster

Goalkeepers: Maxime Crepeau, Portland Timbers (MLS); Jonathan Sirois, CF Montreal (MLS); Dayne St. Clair, Minnesota United FC (MLS).

Defenders: Moise Bombito, OGC Nice (France); Alphonso Davies, Bayern Munich (Germany); Richie Laryea, Toronto FC (MLS); Alistair Johnston, Celtic (Scotland); Jamie Knight-Lebel. Crewe Alexandra, on loan from Bristol City (England); Kamal Miller, Portland Timbers (MLS); Joel Waterman, CF Montreal (MLS).

Midfielders: Ali Ahmed. Vancouver Whitecaps (MLS); Tajon Buchanan, Inter Milan (Italy); Mathieu Choiniere, Grasshopper Zurich (Switzerland); Stephen Eustaquio, FC Porto (Portugal); Junior Hoilett, Hibernian FC (Scotland); Ismael Kone, Olympique Marseille (France); Jonathan Osorio, Toronto FC (MLS); Jacob Shaffelburg, Nashville SC (MLS); Niko Sigur, Hadjuk Split (Croatia).

Forwards: Theo Bair, AJ Auxerre (France); Jonathan David, LOSC Lille (France); Cyle Larin, RCD Mallorca (Spain); Tani Oluwaseyi, Minnesota United (MLS).

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

CALGARY – The Canadian Football League says the Calgary Stampeders will host the 113th Grey Cup in 2026.

CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie says he’s thrilled the game will be returning to Calgary.

It is to be played at McMahon Stadium on Nov. 15, 2026.

It would be the sixth time the city has hosted, with the last in 2019.

This season’s Grey Cup is being played on Nov. 17 in Vancouver.

Winnipeg is set to host the championship in 2025.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

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EDMONTON – Alberta’s finance minister has sacked the chief executive officer and entire board of directors of Alberta Investment Management Corp., the Crown corporation that manages pension and other funds for the province and handles more than $160 billion in assets.

Finance Minister Nate Horner said in a statement Thursday that the changes at AIMCo are due to rising management fees coupled with a consistent failure to meet mandated benchmark returns.

The decision takes effect immediately and Horner will be sole director and chair for AIMCo until a new chair is appointed within 30 days, with a new board established after that.

Horner told reporters that he’s been watching AIMCo closely, and determined changes weren’t going to happen without a “major reset.”

The pension fund manager’s chief executive officer, Evan Siddall, was also fired Thursday, as were three other senior executives, Horner said.

Siddall had been in the role since the summer of 2021.

“Sometimes you just need a clean slate,” Horner said, adding that an interim chief executive will be named in the coming days.

“I’m doing this because … I’m the minister responsible, and costs like this are borne by all its clients, Albertans in general and the pensions that they represent now.”

The province said that from 2019 to 2023, AIMCo’s third-party management fees have increased by 96 per cent, the number of employees increased by 29 per cent, and wage and benefit costs increased by 71 per cent.

These costs all increased, it said, while AIMCo managed a smaller percentage of funds internally.

AIMCo, in its latest annual report, said it had $161 billion of assets under management as of the end of last year, with 600 employees spread across offices in Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, Luxembourg and London, U.K.

It said it handles about $118 billion in investments for public sector pension plans representing thousands of Albertans, including teachers, police officers and municipal workers.

Alberta Teachers’ Association president Jason Schilling said they are monitoring developments and will defend the interests of active and retired teachers as needed.

“The association disapproved of the government-mandated transferring of teacher pension assets to AIMCo in 2020 and we remain concerned about the politicization of pension policy,” said Schilling in a statement.

AIMCo is also responsible for managing the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund, in which Premier Danielle Smith has pledged to stash over $250 billion.

Court Ellingson, the Opposition NDP finance critic, called the move to get rid of the board and chief executive “unprecedented.”

“If they’ve been monitoring this for a while, they had many opportunities to do something that was not so drastic and earth-shattering as today’s move,” Ellingson said, adding he’s concerned about what message is being sent with a politician being the sole director of the corporation, even temporarily.

“In a fund of this size, you have investment decisions that are happening all the time,” Ellingson said. “The people who are on the other side negotiating those deals have just seen an elected, partisan political person being put in charge of these funds.

“That makes them question the deal that they are making. It makes Albertans question the stability of this fund. It makes Albertans question whether or not that fund really is under the thumb of the premier and the finance minister.”

AIMCo, which was established in 2008, has weathered controversy in recent years.

In the spring of 2020, it took a $4-billion loss on the $110 billion it managed.

AIMCo officials at the time said the loss was a result of COVID-19-related market swings, which also led to an ensuing oil price war.

Then-premier Jason Kenney defended the fund managers, saying at the time that the loss was a “fraction” of what was seen elsewhere.

This is also the third board to be fired in its entirety by the UCP government, following Smith’s firing of the Alberta Health Services board in 2022 and the firing of the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity board last year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.