Canada, ‘heartfelt apologies’ and a spy story that has lit up Olympic football

A drone’s eye view of some other football that looks a bit like a screengrab of Kick Off 2. Photograph: Xinhua/Shutterstock

SORRY SEEMS TO BE THE EASIEST WORD

Canadians are very good at saying sorry. There is perhaps something, deep in the national psyche, of a Britishness there, and maybe also for the need to separate themselves from Americans, who are much more likely to adopt the John Wayne school of thought: “Never apologise, mister, it’s a sign of weakness.” Such is the rate at which Canadians are inclined to apologise that the province of Ontario even introduced the Apology Act in 2009, a law created as a measure to give lawyers a fair chance defending clients who were never guilty but apologised to the aggrieved all the same, stipulating that apologies do not necessarily constitute an admission of guilt.