A new documentary argues that a change in Canada’s immigration policy over 50 years ago fueled the country’s current boom in NBA players.
“Inbound”, a short film about the way in which Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s multicultural policy in the early 1970s brought an influx of immigrants to Canada, whose children and grandchildren are now becoming professional basketball players created in Toronto last week. After a limited commitment in cineplex theaters across the country, it is now available to be broadcast online via TSN, Crave and the NBA application.
The family of Chris Boucher de Montréal, a rescue attacker for the Raptors of Toronto, is in the right place in “Inbound”. He said that the documentary thesis reflected his lived experience.
“My family was definitively part of the immigration program and this definitively shows the opportunity he offered us,” said Boucher, whose mother Mary Macvane emigrated from Sainte-Lucie to Montreal.
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“Obviously, it feels good. This is not something that I can talk about a lot. It was a long trip to get to where we are right now. »»
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Canada is second behind the United States by producing NBA players, with 22 on the lists at the start of the current season. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of Hamilton and his cousin Nickeil Alexander-Walker from Toronto, RJ Barrett de Mississauga, Ontario, Zach Edey de Toronto, as well as Luguentz Dort and Benédict Mathurin, both from Montreal, are some of the NBA stars whose families are presented in the film.
“Looking at each of the players, it was a blatant reality that there is this great experience, ethnicity and the journey to become or have their opportunity to be born in Canada,” said executive producer Mark Starkey. “When it started to show up regularly in their stories, while we are starting to search the stories of these players, we just thought:” My God, there is a beautiful foundation here to celebrate. “”
“Inbound” has been shown in a double functionality with “We the North: from prehistoric to history”, another documentary on the 30th anniversary of Raptors history, in 43 theaters across Canada last weekend.
Starkey said on Wednesday that the response he had obtained after this limited commitment was extremely positive.
“It was the goal, to celebrate a story that was really a little indicated, and I think we’re hitting this brand,” he said. “We are here to shine a light, a very, very brilliant light, on what it means to be a Canadian professional basketball player, but also to be part of the basketball community, because it is simply booming.”
This Canadian press report was published for the first time on February 27, 2025.
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press