More international Para sport events this week in Canada

OTTAWA – There’ll be more opportunities for Canadians to watch the best Para sport athletes in the world this week as Montreal hosts the Para canoe World Cup and Toronto hosts an international men’s wheelchair basketball tournament.

From Thursday to Sunday (July 9-12), at Parc Jean-Drapeau in Montreal, Paralympic medallist Brianna Hennessy of Ottawa leads an six-member Canadian team at an ICF World Cup event which will include both Para and able-bodied races.

‘’It’s going to be an incredible event,’’ Hennessy told the Para Sport Nation podcast. ‘’To be able to have family and friends there and with it being at home we’re going to have a pretty good fan base there.

‘’So I think that is the most precious thing. They come see what you work on everyday.  I’m super pumped.’’

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Hennessy, Canada’s first-ever Paralympic medallist in Para canoe, races in the VL2 and KL1 events and is joined on the women’s side by Paralympian Erica Scarff of Mississauga, Ont., in women’s VL3.

‘’This is the 50th anniversary of the 1976 Olympics which were hosted here in Montreal. Canoeing events were on the same basin. I have spent many summers training at the Olympic basin making this race extra exciting for me,’’ Scarff posted on her Instagram page.

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For the men, it’s Paralympian Mathieu St-Pierre of Shawinigan, Que., and former wheelchair racer on the track Ben Brown of Weston, NS., in men’s VL1 and Oliver Sinclair of Halifax and Gabriel Ferron-Bouius of Ottawa in men’s KL3.

Scarff is Canada’s first Para racer at 11:03 a.m. on Thursday for her heat in the women’s VL3 followed by the men’s KL2 and KL3. Hennessy gets into action Saturday morning   at 10:15 a.m. for the VL1 heats.

Full schedule is HERE.

All the action streams live via Planet Canoe’s YouTube channel. 

The same Canadian Para paddlers compete at the Pan Am Championships which follow at the same venue July 13-15.

Toronto Invitational men’s wheelchair basketball tournament starts Saturday

In Toronto, Wheelchair Basketball Canada and the Senior Men’s National Team will host Australia, Italy and the United States at the Toronto Invitational, running July 10–14 at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre.

The five-day exhibition tournament serves as a key tune-up for all four nations ahead of the 2026 IWBF Wheelchair Basketball World Championships, taking place September 9–19 in Ottawa.

Fans can watch all 10 games for free, offering a chance to see some of the world’s best wheelchair basketball athletes in action less than three months before the sport’s premier event.

Competition opens July 10 with the United States facing Italy at 12:30 p.m. EDT, while the championship game is scheduled for July 14 at 2:30 p.m. EDT after a weekend of round-robin play.

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Aurélie Rivard posts second win at Bell Canadian Swimming Trials

Four-time Paralympian Aurélie Rivard, of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que. (Club de Natation Région de Québec), dominated the women’s 400m freestyle in 4:42.75 to capture her second national title in as many days, adding to her triumph in the 100m free on Monday at the Bell Canadian Swimming Trials.

A world champion in the 400m free, the 30-year-old veteran has medalled in the event in each of her four Paralympic Games appearances, including gold at each of the last three.

“With the 400 free, it’s a daily effort,’’ said Rivard, who skipped the 2025 season to focus on finishing her law degree, a goal she achieved this past weekend.  ‘’That event has given me the highest of highs over the years but has also caused me a lot of stress and challenges.  I need to come back to the mindset that this is the race I know best. I’m trying to find my bearings again.”

In other Para swimming multiclass finals, Reid Maxwell of St. Albert, Alta. (CAMO) was crowned champion in the men’s 400m free, Emma Van Dyk of Port Colborne, Ont. (Brock Niagara Aquatics) won the women’s 200m free, and Nicholas Bennett of Parksville, B.C. (HPC–Quebec) captured the men’s 200m free title.

World champion Stefan Daniel is back in action at Para triathlon Series

Two-time Paralympic Games medallist and multiple world champion Stefan Daniel makes his 2026 international debut this Saturday at the Para Triathlon Series stop in Hamburg, Germany.

Daniel, with 34 international victories in 68 career starts including six world titles, renews his rivalries in the men’s PTS5 division with 2024 Paralympic champion Chris Hammer of the U.S.  and two-time Games champion Martin Schulz from Germany.

Also racing for Canada is 2024 Paralympic Games medallist Leanne Taylor of Winnipeg in the women’s wheelchair division. Taylor placed fifth and fourth in her two Para Series races this season after sitting out 2025 on maternity leave.

Live stream the races HERE