Inside Curling Canada’s push to become more inclusive

When it comes to sporting history in Canada, it’s hard to beat curling. It dates back to 1807, long before Confederation, when Scottish immigrants organized the first club in Montreal.

Much has changed in the country and the sport over more than two centuries, but one thing has not: Walk into a curling club and it’s bound to be filled with predominantly white faces.

Curling Canada knows that leaving so much of an increasingly diverse population untapped is not the way to sustain community clubs or grow in the future, and it’s been trying new ways to achieve inclusion goals.

There are challenges, including how the sport is governed and funded, long-standing curling traditions and, in areas such as Toronto, a shortage of ice that gives clubs little impetus to change. But if it finds