To: All professional competitors

We have received a copy of the email sent to many professional competitors and others by Dominic and Delphine on January 31 and would like to provide an explanation of the action taken.

First, the email states that competitors were not informed six months in advance of the 2007 Canadian Closed Championship (CCC) to be held on February 23, 2007 in Quebec. That is absolutely correct. Since it is CDDSC policy to advertise the CCC well in advance so that competitors can make arrangements to participate, why did this not happen this year?

The 2006 CCC was originally scheduled for February 2006. Unfortunately the organizer had difficulties with the hotel and was unable to hold the event.

We approached another organizer, Andy Wong, who said he would hold it in June. We contacted all the competitors to see if this was an acceptable date. Dominic and Delphine were the only competitors who had any objection to the date stating there was insufficient notice. Because of the objections of Dominic and Delphine alone, we postponed holding the event until November.

It is our policy to hold the CCC early in the year so that the Canadian Champions for the year would be the couple to represent Canada at the Worlds held in the same year. This policy was brought into effect some time ago at the request of the competitors.

This remains our policy and it is the procedure we are continuing to follow in 2007.

By holding the CCC in November, it gave competitors the opportunity to become the Canadian Professional Champions for 2006. We think it is an honour to hold the title of Canadian Professional Champion and we did not want to deny competitors the opportunity to compete for the title.

The competition in February 2007 will crown the Canadian Professional Champions for 2007. The 2007 Canadian Champions will be the couples to represent Canada at International events in 2007. This is the procedure we have followed and it will carry on in future years. There is no reason to change events in 2007 because we did not hold the 2006 championship at the proper date.

We are taking steps to ensure the current situation does not arise again and I am sure all competitors will be pleased to hear that we intend to set the same date each year for the CCC (the fourth weekend in February). Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in this matter.

CDDSC Board of Directors