I believe this was not the best decision to make, I can understand handling recipients' financials and some other logistics through WMF. But clearly visas should have been handled by some entity in Canada. We ran into some problems in 2008 (limited number as Egypt is a touristic country in the first place), but the library of Alexandria was of a great help to issue letters of invitation.
Sometimes it's not even up to the organizing committee. I was invited to Taiwan, 2007 and couldn't go due to the diplomatic ties complications. 
Overall, I don't mind having wikimanias in Canada and the US but I hope that the visa application process for attendees would be given high priority during bidding time.

Cheers,
Mido

On Fri, Jun 23, 2017 at 17:20, Jean-Philippe Béland <jpbeland@wikimedia.ca> wrote:
As per WMF directions, Wikimedia Canada was not involved in anything in relations to visas. The WMF is taking care of that themselves. They did not ask us to write anything to embassies.

I am sorry that Canada has strict rules on visa requirements for a lot of countries.

Jean-Philippe Béland
Vice President, Wikimedia Canada
User:Amqui


On Thu, Jun 22, 2017 at 11:03 PM, Ranjith S <ranjith.sajeev@gmail.com> wrote:
My visa is also got rejected. So I am not coming to Canada this year. I think Canada is a bad place for Wikimania due to their strict rules. And thinking that is not a tourist friendly country. 

On 23-Jun-2017 12:52 AM, "Jayanta Nath" <jayantanth@gmail.com> wrote:
I think Wikimedia Canada not send any intimation to their Embassy of respective countries.

Jayanta Nath

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Jean-Philippe Béland

Wikimedia CanadaVice-président — Wikimédia Canada, chapitre national soutenant Wikipédia
Vice president — Wikimedia Canada, national chapter supporting Wikipedia
535 avenue Viger Est, Montréal (Québec)  H2L 2P3,jpbeland@wikimedia.ca
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Mido