The opening ceremony of the International Bar Association would normally be a cause for celebration, as well as plenty of self-congratulation about the importance of lawyers to the world.

But fate dealt the IBA a bad hand as delegates flocked to a Toronto still in mourning from the night before.

Late on Saturday, the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team had agonisingly lost their deciding World Series match against the LA Dodgers in extra time. Twenty-four hours later, local news was still leading with pictures of crying children in Blue Jays jerseys and interviews with psychologists about how to deal with the grief of defeat.

To put into context for English readers, it was like turning up the night after that Gareth Southgate penalty in Euro 96 and hoping for a party.

While the atmosphere in town on Saturday was electric, by the time the IBA kicked off it was funereal.

Not that it stopped the Canadian hosts from being impeccably mannered hosts. Jaime Carey, a Chilean lawyer and IBA president, told the opening ceremony he had heard more apologies in the last few hours than he had in the last month back home. Soon, the Toronto natives would be apologising for apologising too much, Carey quipped. He sensibly avoided mentioning the baseball.

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