And to your last point- there have been international sports happening without issue, there have been national sports happening in countries with a high number of cases that still require travel, etc. The ISU is 100% working with Federations to make this happen, and while I can't say what they are officially communicating to Canada, I don't see how Skate Canada would be left out but other countries would be part of these talks. They aren't going to run a competition, just like all these other sports and events happening, unless they feel they have the regulations and safety precautions in place.We really cannot know what the fall will be like. We can hope, based on vaccination projections, that it will be better. But if it’s not, then you’re getting into questions about whether the Winter Olympics will happen, which makes the whole thing somewhat moot.
Figure skating is at least in an easier position than summer sports in that participants are overwhelmingly from rich countries in North America, Europe and East Asia that are on the leading edge of vaccination.
The ISU has to make decisions based on whether it’s safe now, and it should be applying the same standards that lead to the cancellation of most of the rest of the season already. Health and safety is particularly important when large numbers of the competitors are children.
And 'we cannot know what the fall will be like' - that's my point about not making this the Olympic qualifier, though. If all nations ultimately agree to to the conditions put out by the ISU and send their skaters to Worlds, there will still be people coming right back here to say that the Feds were pushed into a corner and did something they didn't want to do. We saw it already with the P/C withdrawal and this supposed 'Well now everyone is going to withdraw' 'Now France is going to push to have Worlds canceled' 'Now this definitely can't be the qualifier'.
As things change quickly (and you can see in Canada how fast things shifted in the wrong direction), things being in terrible shape in September doesn't mean they will be equally bad in February. But the longer the ISU holds off for 'better conditions' like the poster earlier who said international travel would be safe with the vaccines in just two countries, then the more they are risking being in a much bigger predicament for the Olympics.