Injury time: Hosting the World Cup will put huge pressure on our hospitals Artwork

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Closer Look - Insightful, credible, unfiltered conversations that matter

Injury time: Hosting the World Cup will put huge pressure on our hospitals

January 21, 2026 • Village Media Inc.

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The beautiful game could have some ugly consequences for Canadian hospitals.

As Canada prepares to co-host the World Cup — with 13 matches set for Toronto and Vancouver — a new editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal warns about the potential risks to our already-strained healthcare system.

A mass casualty event or a disease outbreak would inflict huge pressure on local hospitals, “which are already at capacity or stretched,” the editorial reads.

“Canada is increasingly vulnerable to events that may result in a surge in health care utilization, including climate emergencies, mass gathering events, infectious disease outbreaks, and global defence escalations,” the editorial concludes. “A coherent, feasible, actionable, and national plan is urgently needed to increase hospital beds and train the required personnel such that quality of care can be maintained.”

Joining us on tonight’s episode of Closer Look is the author of the editorial: Dr. Catherine Varner, an emergency room physician in Toronto and deputy editor of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

You can read the full editorial HERE.

Hosted by Village Media’s Michael Friscolanti and Scott Sexsmith, and produced by Derek Turner, Closer Look is a new daily podcast that goes way beyond the headlines with insightful, in-depth conversations featuring our reporters and editors, leading experts, key stakeholders and big newsmakers.

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