The Canadian men’s curling team has been the unexpected story of the Milano Cortina Olympics, for all the wrong reasons.

The so-called “boop-gate” made headlines across the world after the Canadians had a fiery exchange with the Swedish curling teams after being accused of cheating. That led to a flurry of memes and some undesired media attention.

It didn’t seem to deter the Canadians from standing up for themselves, as they had another testy exchange with the host Italians on Wednesday morning. This time, the argument was focused on the other team committing a rule violation, not the Canadians.

Following a Canadian delivery, Italian skip Joel Retornaz touched a stone, moving it ever so slightly. Team Jacobs caught it right away and brought it up with the Italians, where a brief argument was had.

On replay, it looked like Canada was right.

“I don’t care what he says, he’s 150 feet away” 👀

Team Jacobs calls out Italy’s Retornaz and the rock is removed 🥌

Watch Canada vs. Italy here: https://t.co/CRgNeSY6y1 pic.twitter.com/om2NQPou5P

— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) February 18, 2026

It was eventually agreed upon that the stone was touched by the Italian curler, and it was removed from the game. Though it was a small infraction, the Canadian Olympic team is under incredible scrutiny due to their controversial start to the tournament.

All the drama doesn’t seem to be affecting skip Brad Jacobs and the rest of his team, as Canada cruised to an 8-3 victory over Italy on Wednesday to improve to 7-1 in the tournament. The only team playing better than the Canadians is Switzerland, who sit atop the standings with a perfect 8-0 record.

Canada’s only loss in the tournament was a 9-5 loss to the Swiss last week.

The hope is that Team Jacobs can get their revenge on the Swiss in the coming days. They’ve already booked their spot in the semi-final and are looking to finish strong in their last preliminary game against Norway on Thursday.

Canada hasn’t won a gold medal in men’s curling since Sochi 2014 and is coming off a bronze medal showing at Beijing 2022.