The Foire du Nord is back! A WFTDA-sanctioned invitational tournament will be held in beautiful Quebec City, Quebec. A welcoming place with friendly people and delicious food! Come officiate with us <3
THR : Yogi (Hogtown Roller Derby)
THNSO : Matante (Montreal Roller Derby)
co-GTOs : No Bias Tobias (Memphis Roller Derby) and Yvel Saint-Laurent (Independent, Manchester, UK)
Dates: May 22-24, 2026 Location: Venue to be confirmed, but located within Quebec City
Officials Team
In keeping with its values of equity and justice, Roller Derby Québec wishes to support the development and experience of officials who identify as non-binary or female. This will be taken into account when selecting the officials who will receive an invitation to participate.
Deadline
Application will close Friday, January 16 2026.
I cannot attend and did not apply so I have no skin in the game, but it is considered quite impolite to close an application before the deadline. A deadline is a promise to the community that you will keep the application open until then, and this is a broken promise. Another way to put it is, head officials should follow the “rules” they set themselves, and the GTOs should ensure for the applicants’ sake that they do so. Many people may decide not to apply because they know they have time, for many reasons (work, ticket price, etc.), and it is like pulling the rug out from under them to remove it. It also encodes a specific bias towards officials who can plan in advance.
So, I strongly recommend keeping your application open as long as you said you would, and to do the work to sift through those who apply on time with equal weight and care.
(I would also note as a frequent THO that some of the best officials often apply at the last minute.)
I sometimes apply shortly before the deadline, and so I strongly agree. A deadline is a promise, I couldn’t say it better. Pre-selecting before the deadline is unfair. There are many valid reasons for waiting to apply. Ultimately, waiting before applying is a decision that is informed by the deadline. Information can be incorrect, shit happens, but in this case it is willful and has unfixable consequences, so these situations should be avoided.
I don’t think I’m saying much more than what Muffin already said, but I want to express a stronger support than what is conveyed by an emoji/like reaction.
On behalf of Roller Derby Québec, the THOs would like to apologize for having closed the Officiating Application earlier than previously announced. This was done with no intention to promote or favorize applicants who already applied or to harm any other potential applicants and the application was closed early because of the high number of applications received. We recognize how this action looks and understand that it spread out a feeling of a broken promise, for which we are deeply sorry. We would add that this decision was made only between the THR and THNSO and did not include the GTOs.
The Application has been re-opened until January 17, 2026 – since the application was closed for 24h, we have added that extra 24h to the deadline in the spirit of fairness.
The selection process will obviously be done with time, “equal weight and care” as we both do and have always done as THOs.
Once again, we sincerely apologize for our action and hope that this will resolve the issues and that we can move forward. We truly believe in the spirit of teamwork and providing a fair chance to everyone.
We are opened to any questions or comments.
Thank you,
THOs Yogi and Matante
Thank you, Muffin and Wonder Zebra, for your thoughtful responses.
As a group, we have discussed your input and take it as a valuable learning experience. We hope that any official that would like to apply to this tournament does so.
