'A beautiful soul': Funeral held for baby boy killed in wrong-way crash on Highway 401
A funeral was held on Wednesday for a three-month-old boy who died after being involved in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 in Whitby last week.
On soccer's biggest stage, and with a berth in the Olympic quarterfinals hanging in the balance, Janine Beckie wasn't about to let a missed penalty shot bring her down.
The Manchester City striker shrugged off the early missed chance in emphatic fashion on Saturday, scoring twice to lead Canada's women's soccer team to a 2-1 victory over Chile.
The victory all but guarantees the eighth-ranked Canadians, who tied host Japan 1-1 in their opener on Wednesday, a berth in the quarterfinals.
"It's frustrating to miss a penalty to be able to put the team up early on in the game, would have been ideal, but it happens. You can't score if you don't shoot, so I stepped up to take it and I'll continue to step up and take them," Beckie said.
"My job for this team is to score goals. And you know, Nichelle Prince is incredible at putting the ball on a play for me, Ashley Lawrence, Christine (Sinclair), I have players around me that create scoring opportunities for me. So, to be able to reward the team with two goals is great. We came here to win. And so, to be able to help by scoring two goals makes me happy."
The Canadians face Britain on Tuesday at Ibaraki Kashima Stadium to close out Group E action. Britain beat No. 37 Chile 2-0 in their opener.
Beckie scored in the 39th minute at Sapporo Dome, burying a rebound that fell at her feet in the middle of the box after a cross from Prince.
The 26-year-old connected on her second less than two minutes into the second half, taking a through ball from Prince, then deking out Chilean 'keeper Christiane Endler to score into a wide-open net.
Beckie now has five Olympic goals. She scored three at the 2016 Rio Games, where Canada won bronze for the second consecutive Games.
Canadian coach Bev Priestman had expected a tough challenge from the Chileans, who were making their Olympic debut.
"I think it's exactly what I expected the game to be. I've always said that this game was never an easy game," she said. "We made it difficult for ourselves at times. But at the end of the day, we could have had four goals ... so I'm overall happy we came here to get three points. That's exactly what we did."
Beckie's goals made up for her disappointment in the 20th minute, when she clanged a penalty shot off the right post. The penalty was awarded after Sinclair was taken down in the box. The 38-year-old superstar, playing in her 301st career game for Canada, hobbled on her ankle after the incident, but appeared OK minutes later.
Priestman said she assessed Sinclair at halftime, and she was fine to continue.
"We definitely wouldn't have risked her for the rest of the tournament," Priestman said. "At the end, I asked how she was, she said, 'I'm absolutely fine,' so that hopefully fills us with confidence that it won't have a knock-on effect for the rest of the tournament."
Canada appeared to take an early lead on a shot that ricocheted off defender Kadeisha Buchanan and into the net in the sixth minute. The referee waved it off for a hand ball.
Despite their two-goal lead, the Canadians couldn't breathe easy.
Karen Araya made history with Chile's first Olympic women's goal, awarded after Canada's Shelina Zadorsky was whistled for a foul inside the 18-yard box in the 57th minute. Araya launched the ball into the left side of the net, while Canadian 'keeper Kailen Sheridan dived to the opposite corner.
Chile had a chance to tie it in the 72nd minute when a shot from in close banged off the crossbar.
Priestman praised the play of Julia Grosso and Jayde Riviere, who made their Olympic debuts on Saturday, Grosso in the midfield and Riviere on the back line.
"They both came up through the youth system, was really proud of both of those performances," she said.
Their contribution was further evidence of Canada's depth, which Priestman and her team will need in the Olympic tournament, particularly when they leave the comfortable indoor Sapporo Dome.
"I will be calling on the depth I think, for players to go three nights is a big ask. And we're going to go back to the heat now, out of the lovely air-conditioned dome that we're currently in," she said.
Tuesday's game against Britain is key, both for drawing a favourable opponent in the quarterfinals, and helping Canada "massively in terms of belief going into the knockout round," Priestman said.
The teams were able to avoid the sizzling heat in Japan in the indoor stadium in Sapporo, which is about 830 kilometres north of Tokyo. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the match was played in front of no fans in the cavernous 41,000-seat stadium, normally home to baseball's Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters and soccer team Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo. The voices of the coaches and players hollering directions provided the soundtrack.
Sheridan started in net in place of Stephanie Labbe, who suffered a rib joint injury during her heroic performance against Japan. Labbe was injured challenging an attacker inside the penalty area. She was down for several minutes but stayed in the game to stop a Japanese penalty shot. The 24-year-old Sheridan replaced her in the 58th minute.
The Canadian team has 12 members of the teams that won bronze under former coach John Herdman in the previous two Olympics. Canada, under Priestman, has boldly stated their goal for Tokyo is to "change the colour" of the medal.
Eight teams will advance from the 12-country round robin to the knockout stage. The final is set for Aug. 6 at Tokyo's Olympic Stadium.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 24, 2021.
A funeral was held on Wednesday for a three-month-old boy who died after being involved in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 in Whitby last week.
There has been a "sophisticated" cybersecurity breach detected on B.C. government networks, Premier David Eby confirmed Wednesday evening.
Toronto police say a man was taken into custody outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion Wednesday afternoon after he tried to gain access to the residence.
U.S. President Joe Biden said for the first time Wednesday he would halt shipments of American weapons to Israel, which he acknowledged have been used to kill civilians in Gaza, if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of the city of Rafah.
Rookie goalie Arturs Silovs will start in net for the Canucks as Vancouver kicks off a second-round series against the Edmonton Oilers Wednesday night.
One of the Indian nationals accused of murdering British Columbia Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar says in a social media video that he received a Canadian study permit with the help of an Indian immigration consultancy.
Pfizer has agreed to settle more than 10,000 lawsuits about cancer risks related to the now discontinued heartburn drug Zantac, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the deal.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault is defending his comments about a new history museum after he was accused by a prominent First Nations group of trying to erase their history.
Independent U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had a parasite in his brain more than a decade ago, but has fully recovered, his campaign said, after the New York Times reported about the ailment.
The stakes have been set for a bet between Vancouver and Edmonton's mayors on who will win Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
A grieving mother is hosting a helmet drive in the hopes of protecting children on Manitoba First Nations from a similar tragedy that killed her daughter.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
A P.E.I. lighthouse and a New Brunswick river are being honoured in a Canada Post series.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.