Michif is one of the languages of the Métis people of Canada and the United States, who are the descendants of First Nations and fur trade workers of white ancestry. Michif emerged in the early 19th century as a mixed language and adopted a consistent character between about 1820 and 1840.
Samuel Perry Jacks more commonly known as, "Sam Jacks," was a Canadian soldier in World War II, inventor, military and civic recreation director, sports coach, creator of the Canadian sport of ringette for girls and the creator and codifier of the first set of rules for floor hockey in 1936. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1915 and became a Canadian citizen after his parents had immigrated to Canada in 1920. Jacks died from cancer in 1975, at the age of 60.
The Métis are an Indigenous people whose historical homelands includes Canada's three Prairie Provinces, as well as parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, Northwest Ontario and the Northern United States. They have a shared history and culture, deriving from specific mixed European and Indigenous ancestry, which became distinct through ethnogenesis by the mid-18th century, during the early years of the North American fur trade.
Ringette is a girls' non-contact winter team sport played on an ice rink using ice hockey skates, straight sticks with drag-tips, and a blue, rubber, pneumatic ring designed for use on ice surfaces. The sport is among a small number of organized team sports created exclusively for female competitors. Ringette is played on ice hockey rinks with markings which are specific to ringette, and its strategic play bears a closer resemblance to basketball than it does to ice hockey.
Roderick McLeod Flett was a Canadian Métis ice hockey player. He was a member of the three-time Stanley Cup Champion Winnipeg Victorias. He played the point position, now known as left defence. His younger brother Magnus Flett was also a hockey player on the Winnipeg Victorias team.
The National Ringette League (NRL) (French: Ligue Nationale de Ringuette, LNR) is the premier league for the sport of ringette in North America and Canada's national league for elite ringette players aged 18 and up. The NRL is not a women's variant of a more well-known men's league or sport like professional women's ice hockey or bandy; one of ringette's distinctive features is that all of its players are girls and women. As such, the NRL is the continent's first and only winter team sports league whose entire athlete roster is made up of women. The NRL is semi-professional and operates as a showcase league for ringette in North America. The league functions as a committee under Ringette Canada, a non-profit sports organization and Canada's national governing body for ringette.
Judy Diduck is a retired Canadian ringette and ice hockey player. Diduck was born in Edmonton, Alberta, but grew up in Sherwood Park, Alberta. She competed in the first World Ringette Championships in 1990 for Team Alberta who became the first world champions in the sport. In 2005, she was inducted into the Ringette Canada Hall of Fame. Diduck is also a former member of the Canada women's national ice hockey team.
Shirley Firth was a Canadian cross-country skier who competed in four consecutive Winter Olympics in 1972, 1976, 1980 and 1984.
Canada's women's national bandy team is the women's bandy team representing Canada. Historically the squad has been based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The women's national team has competed in the Women's Bandy World Championship and North American Bandy Championship and made its world debut at the 2004 Women's Bandy World Championship. Team Canada has not competed internationally since the 2016 Women's Bandy World Championship.
Yolande Schick, nicknamed Yo Yo, was a Métis-Canadian catcher who played for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. She both batted and threw right-handed.
Lawrence J. Barkwell was a Canadian author, editor, historian and lecturer, best known for his comprehensive writings on the Métis Nation and Culture. He served as senior historian at Manitoba Métis Federation’s Louis Riel Institute from 2006 until his death in September 2019. He was a member of the board of directors of the Friends of Upper Fort Garry. He was Honorary Elder for the St. Norbert Parish la Barrière Métis Council.
The Canada national ringette team is the ringette team representing Canada internationally. Canada has both a senior national team, Team Canada Senior, and a junior national team, Team Canada Junior. Both national teams compete in the World Ringette Championships (WRC) and are overseen by Ringette Canada which is a member of the International Ringette Federation (IRF). Some team members are selected from the National Ringette League. Team Canada and Team Finland have emerged as ringette's major international rivals at both the senior and junior level. Some of Canada's national teams have been inducted into the Ringette Canada Hall of Fame.
The 2002 World Ringette Championships was an international ringette tournament and the 6th (XI) World Ringette Championships. The tournament was organized by the International Ringette Federation (IRF) and was contested in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, between November 25 and November 30, 2002, at the Northlands AgriCom Arena, now called the Edmonton Expo Centre. The final match was broadcast in Canada and followed by over 140,000 televiewers.
The 1990 World Ringette Championship was an international ringette tournament and the first World Ringette Championship in history. Three countries took part: Canada, Finland, and the United States. The tournament was organized by the World Ringette Council, the precursor to the International Ringette Federation (IRF). The event was held in the Canadian city of Gloucester, Ontario from January 29 to February 3, 1990, with eight competing teams at Earl Armstrong Arena.
Ringette in Canada began in 1963 when it was first conceptualized by Sam Jacks of North Bay, Ontario, in West Ferris. The sport of ringette is played in all 10 Canadian provinces and the Northwest Territories and involves an average of over 31,000 registered players every year. Canada is the location of ringette's origin where it is also recognized as a national heritage sport. The sport is governed nationally by Ringette Canada. Canadian provinces and territories have their own individual governing bodies in their respective jurisdictions.
Ringette Canada is the national governing body for the sport of ringette in Canada. It was established in 1974 with June Tiessen as its first President and has its current headquarters in Ottawa, Ontario. It is responsible for the organization and promotion of ringette on a nationwide basis and organizes Canada's semi-professional ringette league, the National Ringette League (NRL) which was established in 2004, with the league functioning as a committee under Ringette Canada.
Keely Brown is a former Canadian national level athlete who played ringette, roller in-line hockey, and ice hockey as a goaltender. She played for the Canadian Senior National Ringette Team and was also a goalie on the Canadian Women's National Inline Hockey team. Brown also played semi-professional ringette in Canada's National Ringette League and in semi-pro women's ice hockey. Brown currently works for the National Hockey League's, Edmonton Oilers as a Senior Legal Counsel, and works for the Oilers Entertainment Group (OEG).
The Ringette Canada Hall of Fame (RCHoF) was established in 1988 by Ringette Canada, Canada's governing body for ringette, to honor notable individuals and groups associated with the sport.
Lyndsay Wheelans is a former Canadian national level ringette athlete and coach who was born in Calgary, Alberta, and raised in Edmonton. She played successfully for the Canadian national ringette team and coached both Team Canada and Team Finland in the World Ringette Championships (WRC). She was Head Coach of Team Canada from 2006 - 2011. For over 25 years, Wheelans has been playing ringette and coaching at both national and international levels, starting in 1988.
