The city of Calgary has cancelled public gatherings until June 30 amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“The biggest announcement today is that the city is cancelling all city-organized events and all permits for city events now until the end of June,” Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi said.
The Calgary Stampeders were scheduled to host the Saskatchewan Roughriders for a pre-season game on May 30 and regular season games in Week 1 and Week 2 versus the Montreal Alouettes and B.C. Lions on June 12 and June 18, respectively.
“They will not be permitted to have gatherings of that type. And look, even if before the end of June, we are in a situation where we think we’ve seen the other side of the mountain, even if we’re at a place where the number of cases are coming down, I really don’t think it’s wise to say: ‘Hey everybody, let’s have 17,000, 20,000 or 35,000 people all in one space,” Nenshi said.
“That’s probably just not wise from a public health perspective. Certainly between now and the end of June I cannot imagine that you would see events like that happening.”
The city of Toronto took a similar measure, however, Mayor John Tory didn’t include sporting events.
Commissioner Randy Ambrosie cancelled the CFL combines during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and is planning for contingencies while training camps have been postponed indefinitely.
